ETHANOL ACROSS AMERICA s a unique grassroots education campaign of the Clean Fuels Foundation. It is a partnership between industry and government leaders that are committed to advancing the production and use of renewable transportation fuels that can reduce oil imports, emissions and stimulate the economy.  The goal is to sustain a comprehensive education and outreach program to help consumers learn more about how crude oil imports and use impact their lives and the benefits of developing and using alternative fuels.

Information and knowledge will increase consumer confidence necessary to sustain renewable fuel/biofuel/ethanol production and use, thereby paving the way for the growth in domestic fuels that will help our economy, protect our environment, create jobs, and reduce America’s dangerous dependence on foreign oil.

The Ethanol Across American education campaign receives support from its board of advisors, and other leaders that actively support the development of alternative fuel fuels. The Ethanol Across America education campaign also works cooperatively with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Energy, and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.  Its bipartisan Congressional Board of Advisors is co-chaired by Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN, Ranking member of the Foreign Relations committee, and the Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry committee) and Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE, Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry, and Armed Services committees).  The Co-Chairs of the Board of Advisors are joined by their colleagues Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD, Energy & Natural Resources committee), and Congressmen Lee Terry (R-NE, Energy & Commerce committee), Jay Inslee (D-WA, Energy & Commerce and Natural Resources committee), and William Delahunt (D-MA, Foreign Affairs committee).

WHAT WE DO

With encouragement from voters the federal government has played a key role in developing programs that have supported the goals of the majority of Americans. The space program, Manhattan Project, building interstate highway systems, education about smoking and drug use, medicine and disease research, and seatbelt and drunken driving education campaigns are all similar examples to the U.S. fuel ethanol program and what the Ethanol Across American education campaign is trying to accomplish. Laws have been passed to help develop and accelerate the development of alternative fuels like fuel ethanol. While many other alternative fuels and vehicles are in the development stage and will eventually help our country, ethanol is currently the only commercial scale alternative fuel that is within reach of the average American and is making a difference in supplies and gasoline prices today. The Clean Fuels Foundation and the Ethanol Across America education campaign do not lobby to change laws, it is a program to educate people about laws that have already been passed by Congress and signed by the president.

Eight years later, fuel ethanol is made from corn in the Midwest. Soon, forestry wastes in the northeast, switchgrass and rice straw in California, sugar cane in Louisiana, Hawaii, and Florida, and garbage from everyone will all help America wean its addiction from oil. These new and emerging cellulose production technologies, some under construction today, will build new potential for producing our own fuel – but we still need to use less.

New automotive technologies such as hybrids, electric plug ins, smaller more efficient cars are all helping America use less gasoline everyday – but we still need to try and find ways to replace it. Today, there are seven million Flexible Fuel Vehicles on the road that can use any combination of gasoline or alcohol, and another million are going to come out of showrooms this year.  Learn more about how we support the development of these vehicles and the use of higher blends of ethanol at www.flexiblefuelvehicleclub.org

It is going to take everything we have to help reduce our oil imports and help our economy.  The likely first step is to continue developing what is working with the least disruption to the refueling system, consumer willingness for change and the technology and feedstocks we have available today.

If we succeed today.  Tomorrow will look even brighter.

WHY DO WHAT WE DO?

Why renewable transportation fuels like ethanol? Because it works.  Ethanol provides energy, environmental and economic security for all Americans

Energy Security

Did you know that every time our country processes a bushel of corn into ethanol, ethanol plants produce food and fuel for America? In many states where ethanol plants are located, they already produce enough motor fuel to help meet the majority of their own fuel needs. The #2 yellow feed corn remains in the food chain as animal feed, since only the starch content has been converted. Why corn now? Year after year corn is a renewable resource, as are a host of agricultural products and wastes. And the more ethanol we produce, the more we can begin to reverse the tide of imported oil that is approaching 70% and threatens the very security of this nation. Despite the propaganda you may have read or heard, ethanol has a positive energy balance and also produces a strategically important commodity from our natural recourses like agricultural products and natural gas.

Economic Security

In the small towns and rural communities where ethanol plants are being built, we have seen the benefits first hand — new jobs at good wages. Business and personal taxes flow back to the very communities where you may live, helping to provide good schools, better services, and keeping our young people from having to leave their home towns.

Environmental Security

In addition to energy security and economic development benefits, ethanol is a clean burning fuel that can have a significant impact on air quality. Ethanol has in large part helped eliminate carbon monoxide emissions throughout urban areas in the United States. America's car companies are producing millions of vehicles capable of operating on 85% volume ethanol blends that can dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The use of cellulosic biomass as a feedstock for ethanol production creates even more CO2 reductions, and research programs at the U.S. Departments of Energy and Agriculture could bring the costs of converting those materials into ethanol to competitive levels in the near future.

Why? Ask yourself why not?

WHEN IS IT HAPPENING?

Now. The United States uses more energy than any nation on earth. Half of that energy used is just for transportation and 98% of that energy is from oil. Most of our oil is imported, putting Americans at risk of supply disruptions and spiraling prices while costing the economy billions of dollars.

US dependence on imported oil is at an all time high and government forecasts expect it to soon reach 70%. As we become more and more dependent on volatile foreign countries for our energy we get nothing in return, creating a mounting trade deficit built on the hard earned dollars of US workers. Many Americans no longer believe this trend is irreversible and importing oil from places like the Middle East is just the way it used to be.  We can slow that flow of foreign oil with a truly American solution: clean, renewable fuels like ethanol from our abundant agricultural resources like corn, agricultural wastes, trash, new energy crops and waste from forests.  We can, and we are doing something right now!

What are you doing to help?

WHERE IS IT TAKING PLACE?

All across America there are individuals, civic and industry leaders, environmental groups and automobile manufacturers that are reaching a tipping point, a true consensus of common ground by trying to advance the use of clean, domestic and renewable fuels to protect our environment and economy. Ethanol blended gasoline is currently sold in nearly every state and is used as an alternative fuel in numerous state and federal government fleets. But after all that work and success it only represents about 2% of motor fuels used.

The potential for new jobs and to alleviate our pollution and trade problems are tremendous and can impact Americans everywhere – and everyday.

Despite the dramatic growth of the ethanol industry over the past two decades, we are just scratching the surface of our potential in this area.  The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 included provisions to triple the nation’s ethanol production and accelerate the demand for new advanced biofuels and technologies to use cellulosic feedstocks.  At the local, the majority of Americans, which is all we need in a democracy, are concerned about our country, our economy, our environment, and our energy and national security.  Ask your local suppliers if they can support you and their country, and support their community by making these fuels available. Help spread the word to your elected officials, your neighbors, and your children. We can make more clean, renewable energy, right here, in America — if you take action.

The U.S. agriculture industry is America's blessing, but the American farmer is in a constant struggle for not just profitability, but even for survival. Yet American agriculture holds the key to future success while meeting a wide range of public policy goals through the production of fuel ethanol and other fuels. And its not just farmers — urban waste, forestry wastes and products, specialty energy crops and many other materials can be converted to ethanol and also to a wide range of biobased products everywhere, all across America.

The U.S. ethanol program is supporting farmers across the country to help them build ethanol plants to meet the challenges facing America in dealing with our dependence on imported oil and our struggling economy. Ethanol Across America is going to help mobilize existing support and bring on new supporters to take control of our energy future by providing objective and peer reviewed information. Through this website you can become informed. You can take action. You can make a difference.

An ambitious program? You bet it is, and good things don't come easy. But with the kinds of benefits ethanol offers, we need to all work together to support ethanol programs and revitalize the economy everywhere and lead the way so we can develop newer technologies to transfer the rest of the world – which is in the same predicament.

Let's continue to put American dollars back into America by reducing oil imports and creating jobs with renewable transportation fuels.

Phone: 301.718.0077  |  Fax: 301-718-0606  |  E-mail: durante@ethanolacrossamerica.net