Randy Uhrmacher's Speech at Albion Ethanol Ribbon Cutting
Hello – Thank you for having me here today.
It is always a pleasure to be at the ribbon cutting ceremony of a facility that has brought millions of dollars in construction and many jobs to a rural community like Albion. Without the ethanol industry this kind of investment simply wouldn’t be happening here and in many rural areas across Nebraska and the country – and I’d like to thank VeraSun for making this one possible.
As a corn grower, I became frustrated over the last year as I saw my input costs – for things like fertilizer, chemicals and diesel – go up in price considerably. In some cases, my input costs have doubled in the last year or so.
Being involved in a hog and cattle operation, I have seen our input costs go up, for everything from feed to trucking to animal health products. It seems like a never-ending cycle of escalating prices for just about everything. I can understand the frustration of all livestock producers who are also facing increased input costs.
But we need to be careful in where we place that frustration. In the grand scheme of things, ethanol is part of the answer and scaling back the Renewable Fuels Standard or wishing we could go back in time will not solve the problem.
Now more than ever we need renewable fuels like corn ethanol. Every week we hit new oil price records, gasoline and diesel fuel costs go up and we all pay along every step of the food chain. Yes, there is no doubt that high oil prices impact corn production, meat and milk production, food processing, packaging, transportation, storage, delivery and so on. Then we all pay again when we go to the grocery store – at the gas station on the way there and in the store itself in terms of higher food costs.
Although some companies and organizations are trying to blame corn ethanol for these increases, the simple truth is ethanol is actually helping. You see, a dollar increase in the price of gas has triple the impact on food prices as does a dollar increase in the price of corn.
This incredible impact of high oil and energy prices on food has been shown in many studies – from those at Texas A&M, Iowa State, the University of Wisconsin, the Federal Reserve Bank and Merrell Lynch to name a few. All agree that energy costs are the main source of higher food prices because energy adds to the cost of everything from processing to transportation.
Even food companies recognize this. But because they, too, feel helpless in the face of skyrocketing oil prices, and have launched a campaign to discredit ethanol. To them, ethanol is low-hanging fruit – the easier target. What they are missing in their attacks on corn ethanol, though, is that ethanol plants like the one here in Albion are part of the solution!
Ethanol is helping lower fuel costs. It’s saving all of us billions – yes billions – of dollars annually at the pump. And since prices at the pump have an impact on prices in the grocery isle, it’s saving us there, too.
It is because of the corn ethanol industry that you no longer hear the reason for high gas prices is a lack of oil refining capacity. It was just a couple of years ago that a lack of refining capacity was being blamed for high gas prices. But in the last few years, dozens of refineries have been built. They are pumping out billions of gallons of fuel and helping meet this country’s need for energy. Yes, I’m talking about corn refineries and corn ethanol.
Thanks to corn ethanol there is no lack of refining capacity today. But now we’re facing high oil prices. And since oil makes up 70 percent of the cost of gasoline, we’re all stuck. That’s why ethanol plants like this are so critical to our future. They are helping us to kick the expensive oil habit that is sending billions of dollars out of this country every day.
That’s why abandoning corn ethanol, the pioneer of renewable fuels, will get us nowhere. We’d only have more of the same. With even higher gas prices. Higher food prices. And an even greater dependence on imported oil. You see, the alternative to high-priced oil shouldn’t be more oil. It should be something that is cleaner burning. It should be renewable. It should be home grown. And it should be paving the way for the future of all biofuels.
Corn ethanol meets all of these criteria and more.
And the best part? It’s available today.
Thank you.
