Subject: Fwd: National Journal: Hillary Clinton’s Mend-It-Don’t-End-It Take On The Ethanol Mandate
From: Dan Schwerin <[email-masked]>
To: Ben Kobren <[email-masked]>, Pete Ogden <[email-masked]>, Trevor Houser <[email-masked]>, Jake Sullivan <[email-masked]>, John Podesta <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 28 May 2015 19:13:31 -0400

I'd say we successfully "threaded the needle" yet again!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Kate Waters <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, May 28, 2015 at 6:46 PM
Subject: National Journal: Hillary Clinton’s Mend-It-Don’t-End-It Take On
The Ethanol Mandate
To: Clips <[email-masked]>

*Hillary Clinton’s Mend-It-Don’t-End-It Take On The Ethanol Mandate
<http://www.nationaljournal.com/2016-elections/hillary-clinton-ethanol-mandate-20150528>*
*National Journal // Ben Geman *

Hillary Clinton is suggesting that she supports making changes to the
troubled national ethanol mandate, even as the Democratic White House
frontrunner reassures Iowa voters that she backs turning crops into fuel.

Clinton has an op-ed in The Gazette of Cedar Rapids that broaches the
future of biofuels, a big industry in the state that hosts the first
nominating contest early next year, but steers clear of details.

She writes that the United States should continue supporting and
"improving" the federal Renewable Fuel Standard, arguing that it can
continue being a "powerful tool" to boost development of advanced biofuels
and expand the role of renewables in the nation's fuel mix.

The op-ed arrives as the Environmental Protection Agency, which implements
the RFS, is on the cusp of major decisions about the program. The RFS was
created in a 2005 statute and expanded in a 2007 law that requires 36
billion gallons of ethanol and other biofuels to be included in the
nation's motor fuel mix annually by 2022.

"[W]e also can't ignore significant changes to the energy landscape since
the RFS was expanded in 2007," she writes. "We have to get the RFS back on
track in a way that provides investors with the certainty they need,
protects consumers, improves access to E15, E85, and biodiesel blends, and
effectively drives the development of cellulosic and other advanced
biofuels."

Clinton's GOP opponents also have been positioning themselves on ethanol
ahead of the Iowa caucuses.

Rand Paul, for instance, is trying to stake out pro-ethanol terrain without
supporting the RFS. He's instead pushing legislation that would back
certain environmental requirements that he says are hindering adoption of
higher ethanol levels in gasoline.

EPA is expected to release Friday or Monday the volume of renewable fuel
that must be blended into the nation's fuel supply for 2014, 2015, and
2016. The agency is required to release the volume mandates annually, but
did not finalize its 2014 volumes before the end of the year and is well
past a deadline for 2015.

The release of all three proposals—required by Monday under a court
settlement with oil producers and refiners—would kick-start renewed debate
over the administration's treatment of ethanol, biodiesel and other
renewable fuels.

Environmentalists, in rare harmony with the oil industry, have largely
soured on traditional corn-based ethanol, albeit for different reasons.
Green groups cite analyses showing that it does little to curb carbon
emissions, while the oil industry calls the national ethanol blending
mandate onerous.

There are several hurdles before the RFS. Next-wave biofuels such as
cellulosic ethanol are reaching the market in much lower volumes than
lawmakers envisioned eight years ago.

Meanwhile, infrastructure constraints and other hurdles are slowing the
distribution of gasoline with ethanol levels higher than 10 percent,
creating problems for the oil industry that must absorb growing amounts of
renewable fuels.

Clinton's op-ed notes the role of biofuels in easing reliance on imports,
while focusing heavily on more advanced types of biofuels beyond corn
ethanol that offer the prospect of steep carbon reductions compared to
petroleum.

"Renewable fuels can also play an important role in reducing carbon
emissions and other sources of pollution, not just from cars and trucks on
our interstates, but also from ships and airplanes. Rural innovators are
finding new ways to produce low-carbon biofuels, using feedstocks ranging
from algae to agricultural waste, with a range of applications," she writes.

Other parts of Clinton's op-ed offer support for rural green energy
programs offered through the Agriculture Department, and more broadly cites
the contributions of rural areas to the growth of wind power, which is also
big in Iowa.

"The U.S. Department of Agriculture has a successful history of partnering
with farmers, rural small businesses, and rural co-ops in deploying
renewable energy and energy efficiency solutions. These programs should be
expanded," Clinton writes.

She also takes a shot at her GOP rivals, noting there are candidates for
president who support "wasteful" oil and gas subsidies, "block investments"
investments in green technology, and deny climate science.

Jason Plautz contributed to this article.
-- 
Kate Waters
Iowa Press Assistant, Hillary for America
Cell: 703-447-1087