Ethanol executive still is fired up about fuel alternative

Sacramento Bee (CA) sacbee.com

By Dale Kasler - dkasler@sacbee.com
Published 12:17 am PDT Sunday, June 8, 2008
Story appeared in MAIN NEWS section, Page A1

So there he was, Neil Koehler, Mr. Ethanol from Sacramento, getting pounded again in front of a national cable TV audience.

In a combative five-minute interview in April on business channel CNBC, anchor Dylan Ratigan blamed Koehler and the rest of the ethanol industry for soaring food prices ("Tortillas are twice what they were in Mexico City! Pasta is twice what it was in Rome!"). He badgered Koehler, interrupted him and mangled his last name (it's "curler").

Koehler calmly held his ground and, in an interview weeks later, insisted these televised beatings are good for ethanol and his company, Sacramento's Pacific Ethanol Inc. The fact that TV's talking heads are picking on ethanol means they're taking it seriously.

"The good news about the bad news is that ethanol is here to stay, and has arrived," Koehler said. "That is why it's obviously getting so much attention."

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