Officials tell Platts Energy Week TV U.S. government support for ethanol, solar critical to help wean U.S. from hydrocarbon dependence

Washington - April 19, 2010

The U.S. ethanol and solar power industries--two key components of the drive by the United States to wean itself from hydrocarbon dependence--will need continued government subsidies and grants in the coming years if they are to deliver on their promise, officials representing both industries said Sunday on Platts Energy Week. The new weekly half-hour television program, Platts Energy Week, focuses on the discussion and debate of U.S. energy policy.

In separate interviews on the television program, Wesley Clark, the retired U.S. general and co-chairman of ethanol lobbying group Growth Energy, and Rhone Resch, president of the Solar Energy Industries Association, both made appeals for continued government support as part of an effort not only to reduce the country's imports of foreign oil, but also as an engine for jobs growth.

Clark, responding to a question about whether ethanol's success hinges on U.S. government tax credits and a tariff on ethanol imports, said that the domestic ethanol industry is "very important for the American economy, and very important for national security."

The lobby group co-chairman expressed confidence that the U.S. government will continue its policies of tax credits, an import tariff and an expansion of ethanol's blend in gasoline to 15% from the current 10% because, "this is very, very big business for America. Ethanol is 500,000 jobs; it's over $66 billion in 2008."

Going to the so-called E15 blend for gasoline, something the Environmental Protection Agency is expected to rule on in the near future, and continuing incentives such as the 45-cents-per-gallon (/gal) tax credit for blending, will add "at least another 135,000 permanent jobs and maybe a half-million construction jobs, and we'll see a dramatic influx of investment money into the sector," said Clark.

He also pointed out that, "there's lots of government support for just about everything we do in America," including for the oil and gas industries.

Clark shot down suggestions that the U.S. should end its 54 cents/gal tariff on the import of ethanol. The main beneficiary of such a move would be Brazil, with its massive sugar cane-based ethanol industry. But he said there was no reason to allow "subsidized foreign fuel to compete with domestically produced fuel, when that foreign fuel is the beneficiary of improper child labor practices," and a cause of "environmental degradation in Brazil."

Clark, who supported U.S. President Barack Obama when he ran for the White House in 2008, said that both the administration and Congress "have been very friendly to the concept of strengthening American industry and strengthening American jobs."

Rhone Resch of the solar industry group made an appeal similar to Clark's on the impact of continued government support to U.S. workers. Resch said it was "critical" for the solar and wind power industries to see the renewal of the federal government's Treasury grant program, which is due to expire at the end of the year.

He said the program, which filled in for the moribund investment tax credit market, accounted for 270 projects last year and $300 million in investments in the sector, creating some 17,000 new jobs, despite the program taking effect only in September.

"It's critical that if you want to continue to grow the solar industry, the wind industry and others, you need to extend that Treasury grant program," said Resch.

Platts Energy Week host Bill Loveless, long-time chief editor of Platts’ Inside Energy, brings nearly three decades of energy journalism experience to the anchor chair.

Platts Energy Week airs weekly at 8 a.m. Eastern time on Sunday mornings on W*USA TV in Washington, D.C. and is available online at www.plattsenergyweektv.com shortly thereafter. The program follows an interview format featuring guests from the Obama administration, Congress, government agencies, think tanks, the investment community and the energy industry.

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