General Wesley Clark, co-chairman of Growth Energy, addressed the National Press Club’s Newsmaker Series today in Washington, DC.
Clark talked about the ethanol industry’s petition to the Environmental Protection Agency for a waiver to allow the use of up to 15 percent ethanol in gasoline. “When you are talking about energy, you’re talking about the fundamentals of national security,” said the retired general and former presidential candidate.
“The EPA regulation (of 10 percent ethanol in gasoline) is a 30 year old regulation and frankly is just outdated,” Clark said. “The ethanol industry has essentially capped out, so this is a necessity for us to move forward.”
“We hope that we will be able to work with the USDA and EPA to get us at least to E12 or E13 for immediate relief, until the waiver can work it’s way through the administrative process,” Clark said.
He referenced a Growth Energy report out earlier this week that found increasing the blend rate to 15 percent would support 136,000 jobs.
Clark says they believe E15 is perfectly acceptable for all vehicles. “We want the EPA to approve up to E15, we’re not saying all gasoline has to be E15,” he said.
Listen to Clark press conference here: [audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/growth-energy/growth-energy-pressclub.mp3]
A broad alliance of ethanol industry groups have joined together to formally petition the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to allow the use of up to 15 percent ethanol in gasoline for motor vehicles, according to the 
In addition to ACE, the alliance includes 
“The American Coalition for Ethanol is pleased to be part of this unified effort to submit scientific data to EPA so they may approve the use of mid-level blends of ethanol, such as E15, in motor vehicles nationwide,” said Brian Jennings, Executive Vice President of ACE. To encourage greater support in Congress for the mid-level blend waiver, ACE and 30 of its grassroots members traveled to Capitol Hill on March 2-3 as part of its “Biofuels Beltway March.” A varied group of ethanol advocates – including ethanol producers, farmers, investors, lenders, engineering and technology firms, agriculture groups, and rural electric cooperatives – met with more than 70 Members of Congress and with Lisa Jackson, Administrator of the EPA, to discuss E15 and other issues.
The 
As part of the NEVC staff, I was pleased to see such an intense interest from every state on ethanol policy. Our group appreciates the support of the National Corn Growers Association and each of our fourteen corn grower state organizations.
According to Reuters, members of the Governors’ Biofuels Coalition said they want the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to issue a waiver to allow the sale of 13 percent ethanol blends. U.S. governors who want to see more ethanol production said they are optimistic regulators will soon boost the allowed blend rate for ethanol in gasoline to 13 percent from 10 percent.
Alternative fuels, such as biodiesel and natural gas, and hybrid electric vehicles could be the keys to cleaning up the world’s ports, polluted by the running of petroleum diesel enginesto onload and offload the goods coming and going through these points of commerce.
The Chicago Farmers, a group that provides educational forums between its members and those allied to agribusiness, will talk energy matters during its next meeting on Monday, March 16th at the University of Northern Illinois-Naperville campus.
According to a 
The 2009 
The annual SAE Challenge began in 2000 and tests the engineering and design capabilities of students from schools across the country. The “challenge” of each competition has been for students to modify a stock snowmobile to meet a series of requirements, including air pollution levels. 
“Today’s meeting is just one step in the ongoing legal process that will ultimately conclude later this year. As we have since these investigations were initiated in June of last year, the NBB will continue to use all legal options at its disposal to defend the interests of the U.S. biodiesel industry.
According to year-end figures released by the Energy Information Administration, American ethanol facilities produced more than 9.2 billion gallons of ethanol in 2008, up from some 6.5 billion gallons in 2007. On average, the U.S. ethanol industry produced 601,000 barrels per day (b/d), compared to 423,000 in 2007.