Long time AgWired fans know that we worked very closely with the former Ethanol Promotion and Information Council. The organization has now been remade into Growth Energy with a completely different mission as it goes through a major transition. Today a Co-Chairman was announced and retired General Wesley Clark embraced his new role as a leader in the growth of renewable energy. Cindy was on a conference call and reported on our Domestic Fuel site:

Clark was named co-chairman of Growth Energy during a Thursday morning press conference in Washington DC. “Every gallon of ethanol that we put in our fuel system today is a gallon of imported gasoline that we avoid,” Clark said. “This country is importing 15 billion gallons of gasoline, refined product, a year. We don’t need to do that.”

Clark talked about some of the challenges facing the ethanol industry, such as the indirect land use issue. He said that the land use issue is being based on the GREET (Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Transportation) model, which he says is based on outdated assumptions about the ethanol industry and agriculture. “I think if you look at the fundamental issues you can see that our best environmentalists are the American farmers and what they have done is pretty remarkable in terms of strengthening the environment, protecting the land and being able to bring in crops more efficiently.” He thinks that when the model is updated it will show a much more favorable picture relating to land use.

Listen to some of General Clark’s comments from this morning’s press conference here:wesley-clark.MP3