ETHANOL

[timhyma]

Ethanol firms join forces against critics
By PHILIP BRASHER • [e-mail] • November 11, 2008

Washington, D.C. – Several ethanol companies are getting together to add another voice to the debate over using grain for fuel.

They’ve formed Growth Energy, which planned ads in the New York Times defending the ethanol industry from accusations that biofuel production is driving up food prices.

Jeff Broin, chief executive of Poet LLC and a leader in putting the new group together, said it would be a “fresh, aggressive” voice for the industry. Poet, which operates seven ethanol plants in Iowa, planned to renew its membership in the rival Renewable Fuels Association but at a reduced level. Both RFA and Growth Energy are based in Washington.

Bruce Rastetter, chief executive of Ames-based Hawkeye Energy, said Growth Energy would be a “new voice in the industry that provides some leadership in particular on the food-versus-fuel debate.”

Its ads strike back at a public relations campaign started earlier this year by the Grocery Manufacturers Association aimed at getting the government to roll back incentives for ethanol. GMA has argued that ethanol is one of several factors behind recent food inflation and one of the only ones that government can control.


Other companies involved in Growth Energy include Amaizing Energy of Denison; and Green Plains Renewable Energy of Omaha.

The Glover Park Group, the Washington consulting firm that has been managing the anti-ethanol campaign for GMA and other organizations, called Growth Energy a “splinter group” that “seeks to perpetuate the myth that rising food prices are a result of a food-company conspiracy.”

As for RFA, spokesman Matt Hartwig said it will work wtih Growth Energy as it does other industry groups.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20081111/BUSINESS/81111019/1029/BUSINESS