WASHINGTON, DC – A confederacy of special interest groups, including Big Food and Big Oil, are buying paid advertising to influence Washington, DC, insiders against ethanol, America’s only domestic, renewable fuel source that has the potential to create 136,000 new jobs.
“Some people’s interest in all this goes as far as the profit they can make from selling a box of corn flakes,” said Tom Buis, CEO of Growth Energy. ”They don’t care to take Hugo Chavez out of the business of selling oil to the U.S., and they don’t care about creating a sustainable, green economy that creates U.S. jobs while cutting carbon emissions. Ethanol does all those things.”
Buis noted that last year, the United States spent nearly $500 billion on imported petroleum. “At a time when everyday Americans are looking for jobs that help them buy groceries, why is Big Food buying ads that will prevent jobs from being created here at home?” Buis said.
The ads, on the Politico newspaper website and possibly elsewhere, attack the Growth Energy initiative to increase the current cap of ethanol blended into gasoline from 10 percent to 15 percent. Earlier news accounts uncovered Big Food’s million-dollar propaganda campaign to blame ethanol for record food prices; however, corn prices plummeted since Big Food’s initial attack on ethanol, while food prices have largely remained the same and food companies reported major profit spikes. General Mills reported a 51 percent profit increase in the third quarter of 2009, for instance, and even saw its own chief financial officer quoted in the press playing down the significance of grain costs to the cereal maker.
“These are the usual critics, rehashing the same old message, and it is not supported by facts. They are peddling fairytales when people are demanding action – people need jobs to feed their families – and all these special interests want to do is mislead policymakers and America’s consumers for their own profits,” Buis said.
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About Growth Energy
Growth Energy is a group committed to the promise of agriculture and growing America’s economy through cleaner, greener energy. Growth Energy members recognize America needs a new ethanol approach. Through smart policy reform and a proactive grassroots campaign, Growth energy promotes reducing greenhouse gas emissions, expanding the use of ethanol in gasoline, decreasing our dependence on foreign oil, and creating American jobs at home. More information can be found at GrowthEnergy.org.