President Talks Ethanol in Illinois

DomesticFuel.com
Posted by Cindy Zimmerman – August 18th, 2011

The 11-year-old grandson of a corn farmer and ethanol plant investor got to ask President Obama a question during a town hall meeting at the Wyffels Hybrids corn seed production plant in Atkinson, Illinois on Wednesday.

“My grandpa is a farmer, and he owns part of the local ethanol plant,” young Alex McAvoy said to the POTUS. “I was wondering, what are you going to do to keep the ethanol plant running?”

The president stressed his strong support for biofuels and told Alex that he is interested in diversification. “I will say that the more we see the science, the more we want to find ways to diversify our biofuels so that we’re not just reliant on corn-based ethanol,” said Obama. “Now, we can do more to make corn-based ethanol more efficient than it is, and that’s where the research comes in. And there are some wonderful research facilities in our own University of Illinois system that have done a lot to advance the science on this.”

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