FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
GOVERNORS SEBELIUS AND HEINEMAN TO LEAD GOVERNORS’ ETHANOL COALITION IN 2006
TOPEKA, KS, January 9, 2006 –/WORLD-WIRE/– Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius and Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman became the new chair and vice chair, respectively, of the 32-member Governors’ Ethanol Coalition. Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty’s term as chair of the organization concluded at the end of December.
“The nation’s investment in ethanol is delivering results, and we are on track to replace five percent of the nation’s transportation fuel with domestically produced ethanol and biodiesel by 2012. That is a tremendous achievement,” Governor Sebelius said. She said that her colleagues remain “very concerned that the combination of increasing global competition for oil supplies and the massive transfer of our wealth to unstable oil producing nations is unsustainable and dangerous for the nation and our states.”
Governor Sebelius said the Coalition will continue to promote expansion of ethanol production from a wider range of feedstocks, including cellulosic sources, and will work with Congress to provide adequate funding for the federal government’s biofuels research, development, and demonstration authorized in the recently passed Energy Policy Act of 2005.
Governor Sebelius and Governor Heineman agree on the potential for the future of the biofuels market. “Increasing production of biofuels can deliver real fuel diversity for the nation. Recent disruptions of the nation’s oil and natural gas supplies have proven that the diversification of supply and distribution are the building blocks of energy security,” Governor Heineman said.
In a letter issued today, the two governors asked the Secretaries of Agriculture and Energy to participate in a study that would examine how best to achieve an expansion of the nation’s biofuels industry.
The Coalition’s letter is online at: http://www.ethanol-gec.org/governors_RFS_expansion_lttr.pdf
CONTACTS:
KS: Nicole Corcoran
785-296-3232
NE: Larry Pearce
402-471-3362
Aaron Sanderford
402-471-1967