Note: This is a release from the Renewable Fuels Association in anticipation of likely remarks made by President Obama in tonight’s State of the Union Address. If you have questions about specific remarks made by the President during the speech, please email or call Matt Hartwig at mhartwig@ethanolrfa.org or 202.680.0309.

(January 27, 2010)  Washington – President Obama tonight made a strong push for job creation with many of these jobs focused in the clean energy sector. The President is absolutely right to place a priority on the potential of renewable energies, like ethanol, to help drive our economic recovery.

As President Obama noted in a May 27, 2009, letter to the Governors’ Biofuel Coalition, “The direct consumer benefit [of domestic biofuels] has been well documented and producing and using more biofuels today means an immediate reduction in oil imports in addition to an immediate increase in domestic employment.”

“America’s ethanol producers stand with the President, ready to provide good paying jobs and economic opportunity in a cleaner and more sustainable manner,” said Renewable Fuels Association President Bob Dinneen. “In just the past 10 years, ethanol production has helped create hundreds of thousands of new jobs for engineers, construction workers, chemists, accountants, maintenance supervisors, and countless others. With new technologies on the precipice of commercialization, this industry is once again poised to bring unparalleled economic opportunity to small, rural communities all across the nation.”

As the economy began to recover late in 2009, so too did the ethanol industry. In Janesville, Minnesota, for example, a formerly shuttered VeraSun Energy plant reopened as Guardian Energy. This new 120-million gallon a year ethanol plant is now not only the town’s largest employer, second only to the school district in the county, but also one of the biggest property taxpayers in the county.

At a soon to be opened ethanol facility in North Carolina, nearly 900 applications were received to fill the more than 40 jobs available.

These jobs, a recent industry survey tells us, are good paying with more than 75% of employees making $50,000 a year.  In addition, 99% of employees report receiving health care benefits from their employers.

To ensure the economic potential of biofuels and ethanol in particular are realized, Congress and the Obama Administration should take the following steps:

• Finalize the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS)in a manner that uses the best available science and provides for the kind of market security next generation biofuel technologies need to thrive.
• Extend the tax incentives for the use of ethanol from all feedstocks and extend the offsetting secondary tariff on ethanol imports.
• Approve E15 (15% ethanol/85% gasoline) and other higher level blends for use in all gasoline vehicles, regardless of model year.
• Partner with industry to expand ethanol blending and dispensing infrastructure, including the installation of blender pumps.
• Mandate an increasing percentage of all new vehicles sold in the U.S. be flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs) capable of using ethanol blends up to 85% (E85).