President Tells Governors He Supports Corn Ethanol

In a letter to the Governors Biofuels Coalition this week, President Barack Obama stressed his support for corn-based ethanol as the foundation for the next generation of biofuels.

“My administration is committed to moving as quickly as possible to commercialize an array of emerging cellulosic technologies so that tomorrow’s biofuels will be produced from sustainable biomass feedstocks and waste materials rather than corn,” Obama said in the letter. “But this transition will be successful only if the first-generation biofuels industry remains viable in the near term.”

Obama was responding to a letter sent to him by the coalition in February asking him to take steps to support biofuels and reduce our dependency on foreign oil. Those steps include establishing a task force to address biofuels’ greenhouse gas emissions and increase the blend percentage of ethanol in gasoline to at least 13 percent. Obama noted in his response that the letter from the governors was “helpful” in the development of his Presidential Biofuels Directive issued earlier this month.