Press Release: Martha's Vineyard Gazette Ad
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Martha’s Vineyard Gazette Advertisement Urges Obama Not to Undermine His Own Accomplishments on Cellulosic Ethanol America Will Lose Investment in Advanced Biofuels With Weakened RFS, Warns Fuels America Coalition The Fuels America coalition is taking its case directly to President Obama today in a full page advertisement in the Martha’s Vineyard Gazette, a weekly newspaper broadly distributed across the island. In an open letter to the President, America’s leading biofuel producers are alerting the President how a proposal by his administration—if it is not fixed—will inadvertently cause investment in advanced biofuels like cellulosic ethanol to shift to China and Brazil, undermining his effort to tackle climate change. The open letter notes the achievement of a major milestone in the President’s clean energy push as commercial scale cellulosic ethanol production becomes a reality this year as four large advanced biorefineries come online in 2014. While this could be just the beginning of an entirely new American industry, private sector investment in the technology has paused due to a proposal by the EPA to fundamentally alter its approach to implementing the Renewable Fuel Standard. If the proposal isn’t changed before it is finalized, the letter warns, that investment will likely shift to China and Brazil, depriving the President of a key accomplishment. A PDF of the ad is available on the Fuels America website. The text of the open letter reads: As you enjoy some rest this week, we wanted to share some important news about advanced biofuels. First, the good news: in no small part due to your efforts to transition America to a clean energy future, we are launching four large, commercialscale cellulosic ethanol plants. Using groundbreaking technology developed by America’s most innovative companies, these four facilities will convert agricultural residue into the lowestcarbon motor fuel in the world. Now, the bad news: the companies and investors looking to deploy the next wave of cellulosic ethanol facilities have put U.S. investment on hold because the EPA is proposing to dramatically change how the Renewable Fuel Standard works. EPA’s proposal doesn’t just cut the amount of renewable fuel in the
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The Fuels America coalition is taking its case directly to President Obama in a full page advertisement in the Martha’s Vineyard Gazette, a weekly newspaper broadly distributed across the island.
Transcript of Press Release: Martha's Vineyard Gazette Ad
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Martha’s Vineyard Gazette Advertisement Urges Obama Not to Undermine His Own Accomplishments on Cellulosic Ethanol
America Will Lose Investment in Advanced Biofuels With Weakened RFS,
Warns Fuels America Coalition The Fuels America coalition is taking its case directly to President Obama today in a full page advertisement in the Martha’s Vineyard Gazette, a weekly newspaper broadly distributed across the island. In an open letter to the President, America’s leading biofuel producers are alerting the President how a proposal by his administration—if it is not fixed—will inadvertently cause investment in advanced biofuels like cellulosic ethanol to shift to China and Brazil, undermining his effort to tackle climate change. The open letter notes the achievement of a major milestone in the President’s clean energy push as commercial scale cellulosic ethanol production becomes a reality this year as four large advanced biorefineries come online in 2014. While this could be just the beginning of an entirely new American industry, private sector investment in the technology has paused due to a proposal by the EPA to fundamentally alter its approach to implementing the Renewable Fuel Standard. If the proposal isn’t changed before it is finalized, the letter warns, that investment will likely shift to China and Brazil, depriving the President of a key accomplishment. A PDF of the ad is available on the Fuels America website. The text of the open letter reads:
As you enjoy some rest this week, we wanted to share some im-‐portant news about advanced biofuels. First, the good news: in no small part due to your efforts to transition America to a clean energy future, we are launching four large, com-‐mercial-‐scale cellulosic ethanol plants. Using groundbreaking tech-‐nology developed by America’s most innovative companies, these four facilities will convert agricultural residue into the lowest-‐carbon motor fuel in the world. Now, the bad news: the companies and investors looking to deploy the next wave of cellulosic ethanol facilities have put U.S. investment on hold because the EPA is proposing to dramatically change how the Renewable Fuel Standard works. EPA’s proposal doesn’t just cut the amount of renewable fuel in the
gasoline supply. It fundamentally changes how the annual targets are calculated. Instead of basing the targets on our industry’s abil-‐ity to produce and deliver fuel, the proposal would allow the targets to be reduced if the oil industry refuses to make renewable fuels available to the consumer. Oil companies largely control retail fu-‐eling infrastructure through a complex maze of contracts with dis-‐tributors that often restrict the sale of alternatives. As designed, the Renewable Fuel Standard attracted U.S. invest-‐ment because it changed this dynamic. If the program moving for-‐ward reflects rather than mitigates the oil industry’s unwillingness to market renewable fuel, the policy will cease to be effective and drive our industry overseas. That’s why just increasing the biofuels volumes this year or next will not solve the problem. The solution must preserve the original structure of the program, incentivizing oil companies to provide fuel choice to the American consumer and support the retail infra-‐structure to sell more renewable fuel. You have always been a strong champion of advanced biofuels and we know it is not your intent to undercut investment. It’s not too late to get the final rule right, so together we can make the United States the leader in producing the cleanest fuels in the world.
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About Fuels America Fuels America is a coalition of organizations committed to protecting America’s Renewable Fuel Standard and promoting the benefits of all types of renewable fuel already growing in America. Fuels America is founded on a simple core principle: Renewable fuel is good for the U.S. economy, for our nation’s energy security and for the environment. Visit us at www.fuelsamerica.org. Contact: Aaron Wells [email protected] 320-‐247-‐7616
