Corn Growers Call for Ethanol Role

May 14, 2001

In a letter sent to Vice President Dick Cheney, National Corn Growers Association President Lee Klein called on the Bush administration to include ethanol in its comprehensive energy strategy. "We believe that with a concerted effort on the part of the administration, Congress and the private sector, renewable transportation fuels like ethanol can increase supply from about 1-3% of transportation fuels and displace more than 500,000 barrels of crude oil on an energy-content basis by 2011."

He reiterated that thousands of corn growers have invested in ethanol and biodiesel-producing cooperatives, and many more are ready make this investment in their rural communities. Referencing the vice president's comments about prior short-sighted policies, Klein wrote, "If the United States had taken the energy crisis of 1973 seriously, the situation today would be much different.

"One way it would have been different is that a much higher percentage of our transportation fuel would come from renewable resources like corn. The ethanol industry was born of that first energy crisis; we would like to see it come of age during this crisis. But we need your help to make this happen."