The Renewable Fuels Association has a few things to say to serial ethanol critic Andrew Sullivan (of The Atlantic) in response to today’s Daily Dish column, “Captive to Corn“:
“In his continuing diatribe against American farmers and ethanol producers, Andrew Sullivan chose to highlight the views of an international consultant who has worked closely with Brazil. This consultant criticizes Senator Charles Grassley’s decision to delay consideration of a nominee to be Ambassador to Brazil who advocates eliminating a secondary tariff on imported ethanol. Without the tariff, US taxpayers would end up helping to subsidize the Brazilian ethanol industry.
“Senator Grassley is absolutely right when he explains that the tariff on a portion of imported ethanol (a great deal of ethanol is imported without any tariff) offsets the tax benefit provided to all blenders of ethanol. And this is President Obama’s policy as he stated in a letter to Senator Grassley yesterday, “The Obama Administration is committed to developing our domestic biofuels industry in order to reduce US dependence on oil imports and increase our use of renewable energy sources. There has been no change of policy with respect to the U.S. import surcharge of $0.54 a gallon on ethanol. The Administration has no plans to seek changes to the import surcharge.”
“Sullivan’s source, David Rothkopf, attacks the secondary tariff on ethanol by making the outrageous and totally unsupported claim that “There is not a single credible analyst of biofuels [...] who thinks that corn ethanol makes a hint of sense.”
“Well, in fact there are numerous credible analysts, academicians, and economists who think corn ethanol makes a whole lot of sense – from reducing US dependence on foreign oil, to helping keep the price of gasoline down for consumers to expanding economic opportunity in America’s heartland to providing a platform for the development and production of ethanol from wood chips, switch grass, municipal solid waste and other feedstocks.
“Finally, David Rothkopf and his online host Andrew Sullivan somehow believe (quite wrongly) that ethanol is only produced in Iowa when in fact it is produced in 25 states including New York, California, Texas and Louisiana to name a few not located in the Midwest.
“Some day, it might be of interest to hear why Sullivan, Rothkopf and others seem to think increasing reliance on oil imports is better than producing a cleaner burning, domestic renewable fuel like ethanol.”