Several thousand ethanol industry representatives were urged Tuesday to fight back against the attacks on ethanol in two ways.
“One, would be to take pen to paper and write your own op-ed to your local paper and let them know what ethanol means to your company and your local community and begin to fight back,” said Renewable Fuels Association president Bob Dinneen during the opening general session of the 2008 International Fuel Ethanol Workshop.
The second thing Dinneen urged the industry to do was to comment on the request to the Environmental Protection Agency by Texas Governor Rick Perry to waive 50 percent of the Renewable Fuels Standard.
“The comment period on that waiver request ends next Monday and I would ask each one of you to file a comment,” Dinneen said. He directed them to the RFA website, www.ethanolrfa.org, to find out how to file a comment to EPA.
Dinneen gave a rousing pep talk to the industry, urging them to persevere. “This is going to be a difficult summer, but we’re going to get through it, and we are going to come out of this a stronger industry.”
“You are the strength of this industry, you are the reason we will get through it, but we have to come together, we have to use our strength, we have to write op-eds, we have to comment to EPA, we have to let our members of Congress know that vilifying America’s farmers and America’s only domestic renewable fuel doesn’t make sense,” Dinneen said passionately.
After his address, Dinneen was presented with a special award by BBI International president Mike Bryan for 20 years of unwavering service to the ethanol industry.
Listen to Dinneen’s address to the 2008 FEW here:
[audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/rfa/few08-dinneen-2.mp3]