Posted on: April 16, 2013 in DDGS, E15, Ethanol, Food

Bob Dinneen, President and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association, penned the following letter in response to a recent Palm Beach Post ethanol editorial.

Some say “where there is smoke, there is not always fire.”  When reading Frank Cerabino’s April 15^th editorial, one might say “where there is opinion, there is not always fact.”

Cerabino tries to fuel the flames against ethanol by stoking a fight with small engines, but the reality is small engines have adapted over time to the current 10 percent ethanol fuel mix and will do so again for the new 15 percent blend.  The process takes time as can currently be seen through the collection of varying recommendations from equipment owner’s manuals from over the years.  It should be noted that all gasoline is designed for its primary intended use, the automobile. In fact, the standard industry specification for gasoline is titled Standard Specification for Automotive Spark Ignition Engine Fuel. Little consideration is given to the needs of small engine manufacturers and thus they find themselves designing around whatever fuels are made for automotive use. 

The real issue is whether Florida drivers should be deprived a cost-saving, renewable fuel choice at the pump.  Ethanol is credited with helping reduce our national dependence on foreign oil to 41 percent in 2012 — the lowest since 1995. Without ethanol, oil import dependence would have been 48 percent.  Ethanol reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 40 to 50 percent when compared directly to gasoline.  Ethanol is the cleanest, most affordable source of octane — key to high quality race car performance — available on the market today.  The fuel alternative the Palm Beach Post appears to encourage is expensive, environmentally damaging, often sourced from hostile foreign countries petroleum with toxic and carcinogenic additives.  As the gas station owners quoted by Mr. Cerabino prove, customers when given the choice don’t want pay more for pure gas with no ethanol.  “I have about three people that use it in their cars.”  “So, it is usually just landscapers and boat owners who buy the ethanol-free gas.”  Should Florida drivers really be held hostage to the whims of weed trimmers and chainsaws?

Another fact missing from the editorial is the fact that a co-product of ethanol production is a high quality, high protein, highly in demand livestock feed known as distillers grains.  Plain and simple, ethanol production uses industrial field corn, a grain that must be chemically altered in order for humans to digest. Ethanol does not use sweet corn, a vegetable that is consumed by humans.  One third of every bushel of corn processed returns to the market as animal feed and another third produces CO2 which beverage companies use to make drinks bubbly or dry ice frequently used to transport organs for lifesaving transplants.  Last year, the ethanol industry generated 37 million metric tons of livestock feed — enough to produce seven quarter-pound hamburger patties for every person on the planet. 

The readers of the Palm Beach Post deserve the facts and they deserve a money-saving, environment-friendly, domestically-made fuel choice.  They also deserve the economic opportunities that come with being a state that takes pride and leadership in its energy future.  Again, are weed trimmers and chainsaws, Big Oil and tired myths, really worth risking the 400 construction jobs and 60 full time jobs that the new INEOS Bio cellulosic ethanol plant in Vero Beach is creating? 

Sincerely,

Bob Dinneen

President and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association

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