12-05-12 ACE says EIA’s energy outlook misreads purpose of RFS...

Sioux Falls, SD (December 5, 2012) – The American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) today cautioned those who would cite the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) “reference case” energy outlook for 2013 in an attempt to undermine the Renewable Fuels Standard.

“Doing so would only prove their lack of understanding of EIA’s report and, more importantly, show their ignorance of the purpose of the RFS,” said ACE Executive Vice President Brian Jennings. “Congress designed the RFS as a flexible and forward-looking policy to serve as a catalyst for biofuel use, and by design, the RFS is built to help break through the blend wall,”

“EIA, on the other hand, makes its projections based on market conditions and known technology. Ten years ago, the EIA Outlook said we could only make 3.4 billion gallons of ethanol in the U.S. by 2020. Congress deemed that unacceptable, and passed the RFS to encourage alternatives to oil, and they were right. The RFS works. Our industry produced almost four times that much ethanol two years ago – ten years ahead of schedule.”

“EIA also appears to recognize that current market conditions include an artificial limitation on ethanol use, known as the blend wall, which is a creation of Big Oil and their supporters in Congress. The oil industry is spending their time and tens of millions of dollars trying to repeal the RFS through frivolous lawsuits and anti-competitive Congressional action, rather than working with retailers and ethanol producers to break down that wall by blending newly-approved E15 and other ethanol-blended fuels. It’s a little bit like a five-year-old trying to get his parents to say he doesn’t have to eat his vegetables by whining and refusing to even try them. We can’t allow oil companies to overturn a policy that’s good for all of us simply by refusing to follow their rules.”

“Despite Big Oil’s war on the RFS, it continues to be the most successful renewable fuel policy ever enacted by Congress. It has reduced oil imports and saved consumers money at the pump. Thanks to EPA’s recent approval of grain sorghum as an advanced biofuel feedstock under the RFS, we now have an American-made source of advanced ethanol/biofuel which can help fulfill the RFS,” said Jennings.

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The American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) is the grassroots voice of the U.S. ethanol industry, a national advocacy association for the ethanol industry with nearly 1,500 members nationwide, including farmers, ethanol producers, commodity organizations, businesses supplying goods and services to the ethanol industry, rural electric cooperatives, and individuals supportive of increased production and use of ethanol. For more information about ethanol or ACE, visit www.ethanol.org or call (605) 334-3381.