Widening splits among the three major lobbying groups in the ethanol industry seem to be torpedoing a unified front regarding the treatment of ethanol as a fuel in pending climate change legislation in Congress. Growth energy, an ethanol lobby formed last year by ethanol plant builder Jeff Broin and retired General Wesley Clark, believes the National Corn Growers Association and Renewable Fuels, the third big ethanol lobby, are soft on ethanol fuel development because RFA is dominated by Archer Daniels Midland, a major livestock feed processor.
Tom Buis, Washington, D.C. lobbyist for Growth Energy, says flatly: "When we have excess grain, like we do, and idled corn ethanol plants, like we do, and we have an increasingly expensive reliance on foreign oil, there's an easy solution to all of this - ethanol." Growth Energy is known for advertising countering the argument that using corn based ethanol for motor fuel increases food prices, and for lobbying hard against USEPA's plans to consider jungle deforestation in evaluating the impact ethanol as fuel has on climate change in awarding carbon emission reduction credits under proposed cap and trade legislation.
Tom Buis, Washington, D.C. lobbyist for Growth Energy, says flatly: "When we have excess grain, like we do, and idled corn ethanol plants, like we do, and we have an increasingly expensive reliance on foreign oil, there's an easy solution to all of this - ethanol." Growth Energy is known for advertising countering the argument that using corn based ethanol for motor fuel increases food prices, and for lobbying hard against USEPA's plans to consider jungle deforestation in evaluating the impact ethanol as fuel has on climate change in awarding carbon emission reduction credits under proposed cap and trade legislation.
