ACE Leadership Addresses Virtual Conference Attendees, Issues Update to Pre-Recorded Content
Posted on 09/16/2020
Sioux Falls, SD (September 16, 2020) – American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) Board President Duane Kristensen representing Chief Ethanol Fuels kicks off the organization’s 33rd annual ethanol conference being held virtually this afternoon from 1:30 to 5 p.m. Central followed by remarks from ACE CEO Brian Jennings, which highlight the tenacity the ethanol industry has demonstrated to get back on its feet after navigating the year’s unimaginable challenges and encourage ethanol advocates to join ACE in rising up and going on offense to develop new clean fuel markets to increase ethanol demand. Following recent ethanol announcements, ACE is issuing an update, available here, to Jennings’ pre-recorded remarks and noting which conference sessions were recorded ahead of the developments.
Jennings’ conference remarks were updated to note President Trump’s tweet about removing infrastructure barriers to E15 over the weekend and EPA’s Monday announcement which alludes to the Agency updating E15 labels. The updates also reflect EPA’s denial of 54 of the pending “gap-year” small refinery exemption requests. In his remarks, Jennings noted while this is indeed welcome news, it’s not a major victory as it’s what the law and court precedent require of EPA and does nothing to remedy the fact that more than 4 billion gallons have been eroded from previous SREs. This abuse of the RFS is one of the reasons ACE has been proactive about new clean fuel policy.
“At the federal level, it is a matter of when, not if, Congress takes up sweeping climate legislation which will impact our industry and agriculture,” Jennings stated. “That’s why ACE has been going on offense to make a persuasive case that increasing the use of ethanol should be part of the climate solution, and consequently, there is a growing drumbeat in Congress for a new national Low Carbon Fuel Standard on top of the RFS to spur new ethanol demand.”
Jennings remarks close by introducing a keynote address from U.S. Department of Agriculture Deputy Secretary Steve Censky, whose comments were also pre-recorded. Kristensen’s opening remarks and the panel “Producer Perspectives” were recorded ahead of this afternoon’s virtual conference as well, but the producer panelists will be available during the streaming of the discussion to answer questions from the audience live.
Beyond a special pre-recorded awards video, all other conference content is airing live, including the retailer roundtable featuring Casey’s General Stores and Pump & Pantry, as well as the Global Head of Energy Analysis for OPIS, Tom Kloza’s, presentation “Fuel Marketing in the Time of Corona: A Look at Drastic and Not-So-Drastic Changes to Downstream Markets in the Next 15 Months.” Recordings of the content will be available for those who register for a limited time following the event. Click here for a digital edition of the conference agenda.
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