Fuels America Coalition Formed

WASHINGTON D.C. -- A consortium of groups including Growth Energy announced today they are joining forces to create the Fuels America coalition. The goal of the coalition is to defend America's Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and the "economic, employment, domestic renewable energy and national security benefits the RFS provides."

Fuels America is strongly opposed to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) consideration of a request to "waive" the RFS. As CSNews Online reported last month, the EPA is considering suspending the RFS ethanol mandate, which requires refiners to blend ethanol into gasoline, because of devastating drought conditions throughout the Midwest this year.

Currently, the RFS requires that 13.2 billion gallons of fuel be made from corn this year. However, waiving or suspending the RFS would "have serious consequences for America's rural communities, renewable technology innovators and energy independence," Fuels America stated in a news release.

"Growth Energy is excited to be a part of this diverse coalition and I am pleased to see so many shareholders and producers work together in defense of the RFS," said Tom Buis, CEO of Growth Energy. "The RFS has been the most successful energy policy enacted in the last 40 years, but it is doing more than helping us reduce our dependence on foreign oil. It is creating jobs here at home that cannot be outsourced and revitalizing rural communities across the heartland, all while improving the quality of our air, the environment and providing consumers savings at the pump."

Other members of the coalition includes 25x25, Abengoa Bioenergy, ACORE, Advanced Ethanol Council, American Coalition for Ethanol, American Security Project, Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), DuPont, National Association of Wheat Growers, National Corn Growers Association, National Farmers Union, National Sorghum Producers, Novozymes, POET and the Renewable Fuels Association.

"More than 400,000 American jobs are supported by renewable transportation fuel, and America leads the world in renewable fuel innovation," said former Congressman Jim Greenwood (R-Pa.), President and CEO of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO). "That is why Fuels America's diverse membership has come together to reset the national conversation on renewable fuel, protect the progress that has been made and ensure that America's Renewable Fuel Standard continues its success."

Growth Energy represents the producers and supporters of ethanol.

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