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Press Contact:   Monte Shaw

November 2, 2011                                                                                                                   

515-252-6249

IRFA President Walt Wendland Statement on former Gov. Jon Huntsman Energy Speech

Like Campaign, Huntsman Energy Speech Ignores Iowa

Background:  Presidential candidate and former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman made an energy policy speech yesterday in New Hampshire.

IRFA President Walt Wendland issued the following statement:

“Former Governor Jon Huntsman is a serious man who is not afraid to tackle serious problems.  But his energy plan, just like his campaign, pretends as if Iowa does not exist.  One can’t help but wonder if Huntsman’s renewable fuels blind spot stems from his experience leading his family’s chemical company.  Huntsman Chemical was once a large producer of MTBE, a gasoline component banned by many states after it polluted water supplies.  Much to their dismay, MTBE was replaced in gasoline supplies by clean, renewable ethanol.

“To be fair, Governor Huntsman obviously understands the harm from our ‘heroin-like addiction to foreign oil.’  And at the 50,000-foot level he understands what must be done to end that addiction – ‘break oil’s monopoly as a transportation fuel…create a truly level playing field for competing fuels.’  In fact his call for increased scrutiny of the ‘concentration of [petroleum] distribution ownership’ is a unique and often overlooked hurdle to true fuel choice.

“Yet as one descends into the details of his solutions, there is a blatant lack of renewable solutions.  His speech mentioned 16 solutions to foreign oil, but only geothermal was something other than fossil fuel-related.

Ethanol currently provides nearly 10 percent of America’s gasoline supply.  Further, since the enactment of the renewable fuels standard in 2005, America’s net petroleum imports have fallen 11 percent – from over 60 percent of demand to 49 percent.

“Governor Huntsman apparently isn’t aware that ethanol is playing a major role as we ‘unshackle ourselves from the scourge of foreign oil.’  And ethanol will play a bigger role in the future.  Governor Huntsman would do well to swing by Iowa and see the fields of possibility.”

Walt Wendland is the CEO of Golden Grain Energy near Mason City, Iowa and Homeland Energy Solutions near Lawler, Iowa.  He is currently serving his second term as President of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association.

The Iowa Renewable Fuels Association was formed in 2002 to represent the state’s liquid renewable fuels industry. The trade group fosters the development and growth of the renewable fuels industry in Iowa through education, promotion, legislation and infrastructure development.

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For more information, visit the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association website at:  www.IowaRFA.org