Bob Dinneen, RFA President, isn’t the only one to preach a powerful sermon here at the National Ethanol Conference. I was very surprised and pleased to hear Andy Karsner, Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy, U.S. Department of Energy, speak at today’s luncheon. He gave a very passionate speech that you would really enjoy listening to. That’s why I decided to post a link to the full speech below for you. I know it’s a little long but you can listen to as little or as much as you’d like this way.

I think he went to great lengths to talk about the mis-information filtering out to the public about renewable fuel sources. In fact, as so many of you know, it’s hard to believe how much of it is out there. So he addressed those problems head on with good scientific information.

He tells a very moving story about how much he travels for his present position and how that has affected his family and young children. He says that even though it’s difficult, it’s minor compared to what our military men and women are doing to fight the war on terror overseas. He says it’s the least we can do to do our part here at home which includes developing sources of energy that make us more independent of those countries that would do us harm.

Another message that came through loud and clear was his idea that the solutions to our energy needs are something that will be done by not just the government but by private industry and government working together.

You can listen to Andy Karsner’s speech here: [audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/rfa/nec-08-karsner.mp3]