Imperial Valley News

Sacramento, California - On the last day of the Green Jobs Waiver public comment period, Growth Energy joined with tens of thousands of Americans in submitting formal comments to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in favor of increasing the amount of ethanol that can be blended with gasoline to 15 percent. 

Included in this analysis is an ongoing Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) study conducted on more than 400 conventional vehicles that used 100,000 gallons of mid-level ethanol blends and were driven 1.5 million miles.  It found there were no significant issues and reduced tailpipe emissions.  The submission also supports the industry’s effort to create jobs here at home, make our nation more energy independent, improve the environment, and move to more homegrown renewable fuels.

“Tens of thousands of Americans spoke loud and clear in favor of increasing the amount of ethanol in our fuel supply to 15 percent.  I commend them for standing up for a domestic fuel that helps create jobs and makes our nation more energy independent,” said Tom Buis, Growth Energy CEO.  “While many will continue to say more testing is necessary, our waiver request contains the testing and data to support EPA granting the E15 waiver.  More testing is just another politically-motivatedbarrier to prevent this nation from reducing its addiction to foreign oil.” 

“Forty years ago, America put a man on the moon because of our can-do attitude.  As a result, our country is more secure, more prosperous and more technologically advanced.  America needs to regain that can-do attitude and move forward in a determined fashion towards energy independence and the significant economic impact and job growth this will create.  I urge EPA to act quickly to provide relief to the American farmer and the American consumer.”

Already the ethanol industry has helped create and support half a million jobs across the country.  Increasing the blend to 15 percent will create and support more than 136,000 new green-collar jobs.

California’s energy policy calls for replacing 20 percent of the state’s petroleum fuel with alternative fuels, including ethanol, by 2020. Today, more than 1 billion gallons of ethanol are blended into California’s fuel supply. Of those, more than 700 million gallons come from out of state producers, many of them Growth Energy members, displacing nearly 17 million barrels of crude oil, dramatically reducing California’s carbon emissions and greenhouse gases.

Growth Energy submitted the waiver request on March 6, 2009, on behalf of its members and an additional 54 ethanol producers.  Over the course of the 90 day public comment period, groups and individuals submitted more than 20,000 comments in support of the waiver.  EPA has until December 2009 to rule on the waiver.