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Ethanol industry leader dismisses latest RFS attack

An ethanol industry leader is dismissing a study that says the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) has worsened climate change.

“Certain groups continue to try to cherry pick certain numbers to result in something that their bias is already committed to,” says Brian Jennings, CEO of American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE).

The University of Wisconsin study, which was funded by the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), said the conversion of natural habitat to cropland that took place following expansion of the RFS in 2007 has caused large amounts of carbon to be released into the atmosphere.

Jennings says researchers ignored the fact that there are four-million fewer corn acres in the U.S. today compared to 2007.

“We’re not converting wetlands, we’re not converting pastures en masse, and we’re not converting forests, for goodness sake, to produce more corn in this country,” he says. “There may be isolated cases in certain parts of the country, but that is not the norm.”

Jennings says studies such as this “unwittingly” help fossil fuel interests advance their number one goal, which he says is to disable the RFS.

AUDIO: Brian Jennings