Brooke Coleman Interview at Biomass 2012

I'm here with Brooke Coleman of the Advanced Ethanol Council. We just got finished a great panel on the future of the Renewable Fuel Standard. Brooke, what would you say were some of the key takeaways from the panel? I think that the RFS is an important piece of legislation. That it is disruptive to the marketplace, and that it's worth preserving. That's not where everybody was, but that seemed to be where the bioenergy folks were. There was some controversy on the panel. People have a lot of different views on this issue, of course. Yeah; there's some opposition in Congress right now to keeping the RFS. They're concerned about some of the difficulties of changing the marketplace, but in general, I think we have a chance of keeping it. What would you say the chances are of keeping it intact with the next Congress? Well, I think it depends on who's president, but I think at this point, it's a challenge to amend the Clean Air Act, always politically. We're going to do a good job of talking about what the RFS has done from a job creation perspective, from a gas prices perspective, and from a national security perspective. So, we're confident that we'll be able to bring the message forward. Great. Were there any surprises on the panel— any perspectives you didn't think you'd hear? Well, it was good to see... I know you guys all work very close together... It was good to see the Union of Concerned Scientists come forward and say that the RFS is the right thing to do, and that we're doing it the right way. It was not surprising that Inhofe's office had some issues; they've been vocal about that, but I think we addressed them. And are you enjoying the conference so far? Conference has been great; I heard it's a record breaker. Record-breaking attendance, yup. Great; we appreciate being invited. Ok! Brooke Coleman, thank you so much, sir. OK, and thank you.