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                                                              aaron@smoottewes.com                                                              320-­‐247-­‐7616