April 29, 2010
Obama touts ethanol as key to rural economic revival (E & E News)
President Obama embraced ethanol again today, describing the corn-based fuel as the key to reviving depressed rural economies and ushering in a new era of clean energy.
"I may be president these days, but I used to be a senator from Illinois. I didn't just discover the merits of biofuels like ethanol when I first hopped on the campaign bus," Obama said during a speech at a biorefinery in eastern Missouri. "I believe in their potential to contribute to our rural economies and our clean energy economy."
Obama added, "There shouldn't be any doubt that renewable, homegrown fuels are a key part of our strategy for a clean energy future."
The speech at the POET Biorefining facility in Macon, Mo., comes on the second day of the president's swing through the Midwest, a trip he has primarily used to tout his economic and green energy agenda.
The POET facility was the first biofuel facility in Missouri, having started production in 2000. The plant currently produces about 46 million gallons of ethanol per year. Obama spoke in front of about 70 plant employees and 30 White House guests, including a number of local elected officials.
And just as in previous speeches on energy policy, Obama vowed a commitment to a sustained effort on energy development and to ensuring the United States would be a world leader in developing alternative energy.
"For decades, we talked about how our dependence on oil threatened our economy, but our will to act rose and fell with the price at the pump," Obama said. "As we talked, other nations acted, recognizing that the country that leads the clean energy economy will be the country that leads the 21st-century global economy. And they made serious investments to win that race and the jobs that come with it.
"Well, as I've said before,....
