Greg Ibach, Nebraska Director of Agriculture, and top agriculture officials from nine other Midwestern states sent a letter to President Barack Obama today, encouraging the President to support the move to higher ethanol blends in gasoline. (See this post.)
To view a copy of the letter, click here.
Here are a few lines from the letter (emphasis added):
For more than 30 years, ethanol has had a positive impact on our economy. Clean, affordable, domestically produced ethanol has enhanced America’s economy through job growth, increased domestic production and a larger tax base. In 2007 alone, the ethanol industry created more than 200,000 American jobs that cannot be exported or outsourced, while contributing $47.6 billion to our GDP and generating $4.6 billion in tax revenues.
Ethanol has environmental benefits as well. In addition to being completely biodegradable, ethanol has been shown to dramatically reduce tailpipe emissions. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that 13 trillion tons of greenhouse gases were avoided in 2007 due to the use of biofuels. Researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln recently announced that ethanol produced from corn can reduce GHG emissions by as much as 62 percent relative to gasoline. As we expand cellulosic ethanol production in the coming years, even greater GHG reductions will be realized.
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