Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
"Renewable Fuels Now," a new ethanol industry group, "plans a splashy ad campaign next week that will appear in popular Capitol Hill publications, including The Hill and Roll Call," reports Lauren Etter. The group, which counts the National Corn Growers Association and the Renewable Fuels Association among its members, has hired the PR firm Manning Selvage & Lee. Its ad campaign comes as Congress debates "whether to increase the so-called Renewable Fuels Standard," which currently "requires oil companies to blend 7.5 billion gallons of renewable fuels into the nation's fuel supply by 2012. Since the number is expected to be reached by next year, the ethanol industry" wants it increased. Ethanol "has come under fire from food companies and livestock groups accusing it of driving up the price of corn. ... Jean Ziegler, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, said that using food crops for biofuels amounts to a 'crime against humanity.'" Oxfam recently "released a study titled 'Bio-fuelling Poverty' that criticized the European Union for mandating that members' transportation fuels be blended with 10% biofuels."
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