RFA President: America's Energy Future At Crossroads

Washington, DC--Serving as the chairman of the “Cellulosic Ethanol Summit” being held Oct. 16 and 17 in Washington, DC, Renewable Fuels Association President Bob Dinneen issued the following statement:

“Ethanol, and America’s energy future, is at a crossroads.

"Either we will continue on a path toward greater energy diversity and security by expanding the current Renewable Fuel Standard to motivate investment in new cellulosic ethanol technologies, or we will succumb to the nattering nabobs of negativity who are seizing upon every unfounded fear to thwart the worldwide movement toward biofuels, leaving us evermore dependent upon petroleum and its environmental and economic consequences.

“Some here might think the choice is obvious.

"It is not.

"Well-funded opponents are engaged in a coordinated effort to protect the status quo.

“Some might think this is just about food vs. fuel, and the wildly exaggerated claims that grain-derived ethanol is driving up consumer food prices.

"It is not.

"There are groups amassing to slow the drive toward cellulose as well, full of misinformation and distortions about land use, deforestation, water use and infrastructure costs of cellulosic ethanol.

“The insidious campaign being waged today has very little to do with the feedstock for ethanol, and a great deal to do with the loss of petroleum market share that will occur if we are successful.

"To our opponents, there is no good ethanol or bad ethanol; there is only ethanol, and it’s all bad.

"Within the ethanol industry, we must not draw meaningless distinctions between feedstocks either; we must propagate the message that all ethanol is good; it’s all better than petroleum... ."

Grainnet.com, Oct. 17, 2007