Although he thinks that “Washington is a dysfunctional place right now, in which it is far more easy to stop legislation than to pass legislation,” RFA President and CEO Bob Dinneen remains “pretty optimistic that they (the Senate) will be able to get an energy bill done in December”.
“$96 per barrel of oil is a powerful motivator for congress to act” Mr. Dinneen told Ethanol Statistics in an exclusive interview, “and people are very concerned that congress is not taking definitive action to address that tremendous challenge”. Mr. Dinneen refers to a poll released a few weeks ago showing that 74% of Americans want the United States to utilize greater volumes of renewable fuels like ethanol and biodiesel, and more than 80% want the government to be actively engaged in promoting policies that support that.
“The congress reads those polls and I am reasonably confident, as much as anybody can be confident about legislative action in Washington today, that there will be an energy bill before the end of the year.” adding “I think it will happen sometime in December, and I am very confident that if there’s an energy bill, it will include an accelerated and an expanded Renewable Fuels Standard. One that is largely focussed on cellulose.”
In the interview, Mr. Dinneen provides an outlook to 2008. He talks about the E10 blend wall and the EPA study on higher blends, flex-fuel vehicles and development of infrastructure and upcoming legislation such as the energy bill. Additionally, he explains why consumption of ethanol is lagging behind on production.
The entire interview, titled ‘RFA President Confident About Ethanol in 2008’ can be found
here.