Source: The Hill's E2 Wire Blog
Retired Gen. Wesley Clark makes no apologies for leading a group that applies bare-knuckled advocacy to advance ethanol production.
Clark, the co-chairman for Growth Energy, spoke candidly with The Hill hours before the Environmental Protection Agency announced new rules favorable to the ethanol industry.
A key part of the ruling was a victory for Growth Energy and Clark, and the aggressive lobbying and public relations they’ve employed over the past year.
“You realize that at a certain scale, you have to deal with new forces that you didn’t see before,” he said in an interview Wednesday.
“The ethanol industry really is sort of stepping up to the bar and saying we are no different than any other industry group,” added Clark, who ran for president in 2004.
“We have got to help people understand what the industry needs because it has to be dealt with in certain ways that are conducive to its growth and development, otherwise it won’t develop. It s no different than the oil industry the aviation industry, every one of these industries is the same,” he said.
EPA’s rule concludes that corn-based ethanol generally meets greenhouse gas standards in a 2007 law, stepping back from a draft last year that found otherwise.
Growth Energy waged an aggressive battle alleging that EPA was giving far too much weight to emissions from land-use changes in other countries linked to expanded U.S. ethanol production.
