The State of Clean Energy Address

Wednesday night, millions of people watched President Barack Obama give the annual State of the Union Address and he touched on some great topics: jobs, education, economy, climate change, health care, the war on terror and clean, renewable energy.

Many of those issues could benefit from something already available and ready to expand…United States Ethanol. A clean-burning, home-grown fuel that is ready to replace our addiction to foreign oil.

“We need to put more Americans to work building clean energy systems,” said Obama.

A move from E 10 to E 15 (which may be decided on sometime in June of 2010) alone would create 136,000 new jobs according to a University of North Dakota Study. Adding additional infrastructure like the proposed ethanol pipeline from South Dakota to New Jersey would create 80,000 temporary jobs and 1,100 full-time positions.

Wednesday afternoon, before President Obama’s speech, Renewable Fuels Association CEO, Bob Dinneen, said, “America’s ethanol producers stand with the President, ready to provide good paying jobs and economic opportunity in a cleaner and more sustainable manner. “In just the past 10 years, ethanol production has helped create hundreds of thousands of new jobs for engineers, construction workers, chemists, accountants, maintenance supervisors, and countless others. With new technologies on the precipice of commercialization, this industry is once again poised to bring unparalleled economic opportunity to small, rural communities all across the nation.”

Obama went on to say, “No area is more ripe for investments than energy…”

Currently, Magellan and other partners are waiting on investments that would allow them to build a pipeline transporting ethanol from South Dakota to New Jersey. This additional infrastructure would allow an increase in production, not only in South Dakota, but all along the pipeline and expand the usage of clean energy from the Midwest to the East Coast. Other needed infrastructure investments for biofuels include additional ethanol blender pumps providing multiple blends of ethanol and non-ethanol fuel giving the consumer a choice when filling his or her tank.

Among the topics, Obama expressed his interest in making incentives for the users of clean energy.

“…To create more of these clean energy jobs, we need more production, more efficiencies and more incentives…”

Those incentives must include renewing VEETEC, sometimes referred to as the “blender’s credit,” a tax credit of 45 cents for every gallon of pure ethanol blended in the United States. This economically encourages more gas stations to sell clean-burning fuel that benefits our environment and is made right here in the United States.

“The nation that leads the clean energy economy will be the country that leads the global clean economy and America must be that nation,” said President Obama. “I will not accept second place.”