US, EU ethanol officials slam OECD study

21 September 2007 00:00  [Source: ICIS news]

WASHINGTON (ICIS news)--US and European ethanol industry leaders on Thursday asked the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to disavow an OECD study that questioned the environmental and energy benefits of ethanol.

 

The US Renewable Fuel Association (RFA) and the European Bioethanol Fuel Association (eBio) charged in a joint statement that the OECD white paper issued last week is one-sided and biased.

 

“We respectfully but urgently request that OECD specifically disavow this report as not reflecting the official policy of the organization,” RFA president Bob Dinneen said in a letter to OECD secretary-general Angel Gurria.  The letter was co-signed by eBio secretary general Rob Vierhout.

 

The paper was prepared for a two-day OECD roundtable discussion held in Paris last week and was published on the organization’s Web site. 

 

The paper said that the multi-national push to increase ethanol production may risk damage to global biodiversity, threatens food shortages and offers questionable energy benefits.  It also suggested that governments should end ethanol subsidies.

 

Dinneen and Vierhout said the 12 September white paper, titled “Biofuels; is the cure worse than the disease?”, contradicts earlier OECD papers that extolled ethanol’s benefits for the environment, energy security and rural development.

 

The industry officials also charged that “the paper contains a number of inaccuracies and omissions that call into question the validity of the findings”.

 

Dinneen said the OECD paper’s contention that corn-based ethanol production has driven grain prices higher and could cause future food shortages overlooks strong global demand for corn for reasons unrelated to ethanol and continuing increases in crop yields.

 

He also charged that the paper ignores the benefits of ethanol over petroleum-based fuels in terms of global warming and erroneously suggests that global energy needs can be met by hydrocarbon fuels indefinitely.  Dinneen also said that in attacking government subsidies for ethanol, the OECD paper overlooked government incentives for oil production.

 

RFA and eBio called on OECD to reaffirm its strong support for biofuels development.

By: Joe Kamalick
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