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Ten Reasons to be Optimistic about Ethanol

Ten Reasons to be Optimistic about Ethanol
Cindy Zimmerman
August 15, 2008

Just back from the 21st
Ethanol Conference and Trade Show, here are some comments I heard that are good
reasons to be optimistic about the future of the ethanol industry.

1. “America
must become energy independent and ethanol is one step in that process.”
Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman

2. “Corn-based
ethanol is going to be around for a long time – it’s the foundation of what we
are doing with ethanol.” Gov. Heineman

3. “By 2030, we’ll have a national average of corn yield of 300 bushels to
the acre, double what we have now. Monsanto stands behind that, Pioneer says the
same thing and so does Syngenta, so it has to be right – it’s the only thing
those three companies agree on.” Rick Tolman, National Corn Growers Association

4. “Our ethanol per
acre is growing so we can produce more ethanol from fewer bushels of corn.” Rick
Tolman

5. “Corn ethanol is
the ‘ugly baby’ with a bright future.” Rick Tolman

6. “Last year the
use of fuel was up, but the use of gasoline was down and for the first time in
30 years, we imported less oil in the United States than we did the previous
year.” Ron Lamberty, ACE

7. “I have never
seen the kind of progress in cellulosic ethanol that we are seeing today, I have
never seen the kind of investment by private industry and academia, there is a
tremendous amount of pressure in the country to move this forward and it is
definitely having the best chance it has ever had.” Jeff Broin, POET

8. “We are the
freedom fighters in this battle – we’re fighting big dollars, big press
machines, but we got faith, we got spirit, we got the truth.” Bob Scott of POET,
ACE president

9. “According to the
independent data, the fuel price benefits to households far outweigh the food
costs associated with biofuels and the EPA came to the only conclusion the facts
would permit – a complete rejection of the Texas request. Not only did the EPA
summarily deny the request, they set a very high threshold, a very strict
precedent for future states to wave the RFS.” Brian Jennings, ACE

10. “We are
underdogs, but we keep going and we keep winning. We have fueled a revolution to
make gasoline the alternative fuel.” Brian Jennings

There’s many more good
reasons - but you get the idea. The ‘ugly baby’ of corn ethanol is growing up
and its better looking cousin cellulosic is well on its way into the world - the
revolution is changing the world and the industry keeps fighting.