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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 29, 2010

President Obama Gets Biodiesel Message in Ottumwa

IRFA Secretary Albin Uses 90 Seconds with the President to Share Urgency of Tax Credit

OTTUMWA, Iowa –During his Iowa visit on April 27, 2010, President Barack Obama heard firsthand of the urgency to reinstate the biodiesel tax credit from Brad Albin, Vice President at Renewable Energy Group and Secretary of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association (IRFA).

Following President Obama’s speech and town hall session at Indian Hills Community College, Albin grabbed the President’s attention. During a 90 second exchange, Albin shared the message of the biodiesel industry’s state of disruption and uncertainty resulting from the lapse of the federal biodiesel blenders tax credit since January 1, 2010.

“I shook his hand and told him that we’re losing jobs as we stand here, which seemed to get his attention,” explained Albin, who had been sitting in the second row. “I told him about plants idling and that more than 90 percent of manufacturing staff at U.S. biodiesel plants have been laid off as a result of the tax credit lapse.”

President Obama acknowledged that his biodiesel tax credit updates are coming through USDA Secretary Vilsack. The President continued to listen as Albin explained that for 20 years Americans have worked to meet the challenge of increasing energy independence, that farmers and families have invested billions, and that now companies are bleeding to death or bankrupt.

Albin further explained that the five month lapse of the tax credit could not have come at a worse time as the Renewable Fuels Standard goes into effect July 1, 2010. 

“We’re going to die without this tax credit,” Albin added even after the President’s assurances.  “The President then responded, ‘We won’t let you die.’”

“Those that know me know I want to make sure my message is clearly understood; so as the President was walking away to shake another hand, I asked him if he could commit to the tax credit being in place by May 31,” Albin said.  May 31, 2010, the start of the Memorial Day recess, is the date Chairman Sander Levin of the House Ways and Means Committee promised as a reinstatement deadline for the biodiesel tax credit during an energy hearing earlier this month.

“The President heard me ask him again about the May 31 date. He turned back to me and said, ‘I’m the President and I promise I’ll do whatever I can,’” Albin recalled of the exchange.  “President Obama then assured me of his commitment to clean energy by saying, ‘Look, I’m on your side, but I’ve got a Congress to deal with.’”

“I believe he now has our urgent message straight from the state where the tax credit lapse is having the most impact—the nation’s top biodiesel state,” Albin said.  “It really was a miracle to be in that right spot at the right moment to be able to get the biodiesel message straight to the President of the United States of America.”

The Iowa Renewable Fuels Association was formed in 2002 to represent the state’s ethanol and biodiesel producers.  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.