National ad highlights ‘environmental consequences’ of ethanol mandate
From Illinois Business Journal news services
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – A national TV ad campaign highlighting the alleged failure of Washington’s ethanol mandate to deliver on its environmental promises is set to begin airing in Illinois.
The national cable and broadcast buy, currently scheduled to run through November, builds on the campaign’s ongoing national educational efforts ahead of EPA’s major scheduled announcement later this month regarding how much ethanol will be forced into the nation’s fuel supply starting in 2016.
In addition to launching today in Illinois, a variation of the ads has also been running in Ohio, Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Indiana, California and Washington, D.C.
The 30-second TV ad is titled, “Inconvenient Facts,” and is sponsored by the American Council for Capital Formation.
“After a decade of the government mandating ever-increasing volumes of corn ethanol blended in the nation’s fuel supply, the results are crystal clear: high volumes of corn ethanol worsen the environment, can cause severe engine damage, and hurt consumers wallets,” said ACCF’s Executive Vice President David Banks. “If President Obama is serious about addressing climate change, then this administration should listen to Al Gore and environmental leaders across the country and repeal the broken corn ethanol mandate before it causes even more harm to the environment and consumers.”
Many Illinoisans are speaking out against what they say are the failed corn ethanol mandates at the core of the federal Renewable Fuel Standard.
“It’s quite reasonable to say that corn ethanol has a number of very serious environmental consequences,” writes Evan DeLucia, director of the Institute for Sustainability, Energy and Environment at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Allen Sanderson, an economist at the University of Chicago, has warned that ethanol “has the effect of raising the cost of food, anywhere from animal food to corn tortillas or anything else,” which can have severe economic consequences for Illinoisans.
Signed into law a decade ago and greatly expanded in 2007, the Renewable Fuel Standard requires increasing volumes of ethanol to be blended into the nation’s fuel supply.
For nearly 30 years, the American Council for Capital Formation has delivered the message to U.S. and international policymakers that a nation’s economic strength and stability depend upon well-though-out economic, regulatory, and environmental policies.
