US ethanol must hit back at critics – industry group

16 June 2009 17:34  [Source: ICIS news]

DENVER, Colorado (ICIS news)--The US ethanol industry must launch a new offensive to fight biofuel bashing and rescue the image of the product, an ethanol group said on Tuesday.

"Ethanol has gone from boom to bust… and image is the root of the problem," BBI International CEO Mike Bryan said at the opening of the 25th Fuel Ethanol Workshop & Expo (FEW) in Denver, Colorado.

BBI is the organiser of the FEW.

Bryan said ethanol has been labelled a "scam" and a "hoax" in the US media, which has cited research funded by biofuel foes bent on destroying the image of the product.

He did not identify those parties, but other ethanol industry leaders have consistently blamed the oil and food industries for attacks against renewable fuels.

The real scam is not ethanol, but rather the food-versus-fuel controversy, the land-use and energy efficiency issues, Bryan said.

Those arguments are commonly raised by ethanol critics.

"We have allowed our research and agenda to be set by others," he said.

According to Bryan, investment in ethanol has waned not due to the economy, but rather because the market has lost faith in the sector.

"Financing for the ethanol industry was not available one year before the economy sank," he noted.

Bryan praised the work done by some US ethanol groups to fight off critics, but he said the industry needed to make ethanol bashing a personal business.

"It is time to take back control of our image and industry once for all," he told delegates.

The 2009 FEW ends on Thursday.

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By: William Lemos
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