NASCAR Media Conference

Topics:  NASCAR, Ethanol

Jeff Broin
Wesley Clark
Brian France
Bart Schott
December 2, 2010

BRIAN FRANCE: You know, several years ago NASCAR made a commitment to go green, to be a true environmental leader. And now we're blazing trails and recycling, waste reduction, carbon neutralization and alternative energy. Most recently we announced a transition to a new, greener fuel, Sonoco Green E15, made with American ethanol from corn growers in the nation's heartland.
We're pleased and extremely proud to support American farmers with a high-quality, renewable fuel produced on American soil. Today NASCAR is also proud to announce a major new partnership with American ethanol and the industry of American ethanol, led by the ethanol advocacy group Growth Energy. Growth Energy is a coalition of U.S. ethanol supporters, including farmers and members of the ethanol supply chain.
Many are here with us celebrating Championship Week here in Las Vegas. I hope you get to meet these hard-working, fine people.
NASCAR and American ethanol are ideal partners. NASCAR is a family-owned American sport, and ethanol is produced from harvests of American-owned farms across our heartland. Overall there will be a hundred agriculture entities involved in this major new relationship.
From the garage to the grandstands, these farmers, these small businesses, will be immersed in NASCAR, serving as ambassadors of the sport. The entire NASCAR community will benefit as American ethanol supports drivers, teams, tracks through a broad range of marketing, advertising, at-track hospitality programs and a season-long contingency award called the American Green Flag Restart Award, given to the driver who records the fastest average speeds during the event and finishes on the lead lap.
The significant commitment from the American agriculture shows our sport remains a viable platform for communicating a message and a viable proving ground for the green economy.
Let me just point your attention, if you will, to the video.

(Video Shown.)

BRIAN FRANCE: Kind of proud of that video.
Now I'd like to introduce the CEO of the largest ethanol producer in the U.S., POET, please welcome Jeff Broin.
JEFF BROIN: Thank you, Brian.
We're here today to celebrate a historic partnership between two unique American industries: NASCAR and American ethanol. It is thrilling to be part of this great sport. We at Growth Energy are excited to tell American ethanol's great story to all the drivers, teams and 10s of millions of NASCAR fans.
American ethanol is not only high performance, it is also made by American farmers and American workers, and it cleans our air and reduces our dependence on foreign oil.
This is a great day for NASCAR, the American ethanol industry, and millions of American farmers. Today we are all proud to now be part of the NASCAR family.
Now, let me introduce one of those farmers, Bart Schott, a North Dakota farmer and president of the Corn Growers Association, a valued partner of American ethanol.
BART SCHOTT: Thank you, Jeff. Thank you to Brian France and the rest of the NASCAR nation.
I farm in North Dakota, and I know firsthand what ethanol means to the American farmer. I am an American farmer. American ethanol means a steady market for the rapidly increasing supply of corn that we grow in this country. But American ethanol is more than that. American ethanol is an opportunity drawing on the strength, ingenuity of American farmers to produce our nation's own source of fuel. I know we can do this.
American farmers are the most productive in the world. We can grow twice the grain per acre than in China. We can grow twice the grain that the Brazilians do per acre. This year's corn harvest was the third largest in U.S. history. With precision farming, innovation and technology, American farmers can double our harvest within 30 years.
We embrace the challenge of meeting the demand for food, for livestock, for feed, and for ethanol.
Now, let me introduce retired four-star general and former supreme allied command of NATO, General Wesley Clark, co-chairman of Growth Energy.
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Thank you.
As Bart said, I'm here today as co-chairman of Growth Energy. Now, this partnership will have a tremendous impact. It will be helpful for American ethanol. It will tell a very important story to millions of American race fans every weekend.
The story boils down to this: Our nation has the capacity right now to meet more of our demand for transportation fuel than ever before and meet that demand from domestic sources. I'm talking about turning to the farm fields of the Midwest to secure our nation's energy future.
By investing today in domestic ethanol, we'll be creating jobs for decades. Here in the United States, Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa, all the states that have been so hard hit, we can do that with ethanol. American ethanol creates jobs, it cuts carbon emissions and it strengthens national security.
Today we begin to tell the great American story of ethanol in partnership with another great American story: the story of NASCAR. There's probably nothing more American than NASCAR, and there's no fuel more American than ethanol.
Thank you and God bless America.