The House Committee on Science, Space and Technology’s Subcommittee on Energy and Environment is holding a hearing today on “Conflicts and Unintended Consequences of Motor Fuel Standards” with a witness list that the ethanol industry claims is biased against biofuels.
“This is the second time this year that this subcommittee has held a hearing on ethanol without bothering to include a witness from the ethanol industry. A hearing whose witness list is comprised overwhelmingly of anti-ethanol critics can hardly be considered fair and balanced,” said Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis.
Since ethanol advocates were excluded from presenting testimony, the Advanced Ethanol Council (AEC) wrote a letter to subcommittee Chair Andy Harris(R-MD) and Ranking Member Brad Miller (D-NC) to re-emphasize the advanced ethanol industry’s commitment to the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and efforts to grow the market for ethanol blended fuels.
AEC Executive Director Brooke Coleman wrote that the industry is concerned that the testifying witnessesmay not be “interested in discussing the true value of the federal RFS.”
“First and foremost, the federal RFS is the single-most effective policy ever enacted to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. It is the cornerstone of a bioenergy economy that emerged in rural America in stark contrast to economic trends in which our country lost incredible wealth to China and OPEC,” Coleman said, noting that advanced ethanol industry is currently engaged in developing commercial advanced ethanol biorefineries in several states from California to Kansas to Mississippi.
“Weakening or walking away from the RFS would greatly impede efforts to develop the next generation of biofuel technologies and further embed America’s dependence on foreign oil,” wrote Coleman.