Minnesota Farmers Union

St. Paul (April 17, 2009) - Farmers Union is advocating for the inclusion of a robust and voluntary agriculture offset program in climate change legislation, urging lawmakers to support legislation that addresses the unique role America's agriculture producers can play in combating global climate change.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) just announced that it plans to regulate greenhouse gas emissions on the grounds that these pollutants pose a danger to the public's health and welfare.

"Because agriculture and forestry lands have the potential to sequester nearly 25 percent of all annual greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, it is critical that a flexible offset program, that ensures maximum voluntary participation by the agricultural and forestry communities, is developed," said Roger Johnson, National Farmers Union President.

Washington, D.C. - Today, Growth Energy's CEO, Tom Buis released the following statement regarding recent findings on the impacts of higher blends of ethanol on automotive fuel pumps and sending units released by the State of Minnesota on April 2, 2009:

"The study released by Minnesota State University yesterday adds to the sound body of science that overwhelmingly supports the use of higher blends of ethanol in vehicles on the road today.  The study, which included a 4,000 hour endurance test, found that gasoline with a 20 percent blend of ethanol (E20) had no negative impacts on the endurance, wear and performance of automotive fuel pumps and sending units from a representative variety of vehicle manufacturers, models and part designs. Further, the study found a clear trend that the fuel pumps showed significantly less wear when tested with E20 blends than with gasoline.

"These results demonstrate what we've known for quite some time - increasing the blend of ethanol in our fuel supply from 10 percent to 15 percent will have no adverse impact on a car's performance, maintenance, or emissions.  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency should act expeditiously to increase the arbitrary limit on ethanol blends to up to 15 percent as our waiver requests."

www.mda.state.mn.us/news/publications/renewable/ethanol/e20endurance.pdf