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COOL FuelWhen Americans go to the gas pump to fill up with fuel, do you think they care about its origin? That is the supposed basis for a country-of-origin labeling (COOL) move by Growth Energy, an ethanol promotion group, based in Washington, D.C., but primarily funded by ethanol producers across the Midwest. The goal seems commendable, but the outcome is far from certain. It may give us a parallel to meat labeling, with Big Oil filling the role of meat packers in this scenario. When ethanol came on line, just after 9-11 (2001), there was a short-lived movement toward isolationism. Corn and soybean growers hyped the value of renewable fuels and the mentality remains strong in several Midwestern states. Minnesota and Missouri require blending of 10 percent ethanol in all gasoline, and Iowa, Illinois and Indiana incentivize and promote it. However, once you head toward the coasts, the movement fades quickly. Many consumers will not use a labeled ethanol blend and will pay more for unleaded gasoline. This seems to be a part of the Growth Energy strategy--to say where the oil that produced that gasoline came from in the OPEC world. General Wesley Clark, former supreme commander of NATO, is now co-president and celebrity spokesperson for the ethanol organization. He announced COOL fuel, and said that Americans want to know if they are filling up with Venezuelan gasoline and promoting the regime of Hugo Chavez. He carried the analogy forward to all anti-American governments in the Middle East and Africa who sell us oil to fund action against our way of life. I can buy all of this, and I buy E85 for my truck, but I don't think the American motorist will embrace it any more than they have embraced ethanol in their gas. In fact, we are getting close to enough ethanol production to make every gallon of gasoline a 10 percent blend. As I do the math, that means the refiners and blenders are required by law to put ethanol in literally all their gasoline. Do you see that advertised? The oil industry is a silent and stubborn giant that makes its money by moving a generic product from point of surplus to point of shortage. If that sounds familiar, it is how you merchandize grain or meat or any other commodity worldwide. Once you start preserving identity, you run up the cost, and that usually decreases profits and irritates the stockholders. I look for a subterranean lobbying program by the oil industry that will outflank General Clark and the ethanol producers. Remember the incredible time and effort it took to get COOL for meat passed. Then it took an entire farm bill cycle to get it funded! Finally, it went into effect with tiny lettering "product of USA," and no one seems to care. You have to make your product seem better, rather than make the other product seem worse. That's the way advertising works. Remember the old gasoline commercials that featured Mobil's flying red horse and the Esso "tiger in your tank." That was real advertising--even though both retailers got their gas from the same spigot at the refinery. It is what the seller puts between your ears that really matters. Our hearts may be with ethanol and other American-produced energy, but we will still buy from a "trusted" supplier even if they are a multi-national corporation with no loyalty to anything except their bottom line. I recall asking a family member why they always bought gasoline from Phillips 66. The answer: "They have clean restrooms!" Isn't it amazing what really trips our trigger versus what we state when standing at the pulpit? The real challenge for the ethanol industry is not imported oil but stagnation at current production levels. The oil industry has been required by Congress through the Renewable Fuel Standard to share the market with biofuels, but only at the 10 percent level. That is a barrier Big Oil doesn't want to break, so watch to see if EPA approves advancement to 15 percent ethanol late this year. If not, then the efforts to move to cellulose-based ethanol production will slow or stop because corn has proven to be an efficient and available feedstock for the current level of production. Next time you buy something, think why you are doing so. Realize the power of incumbency and the challenge of changing attitudes. Australian mutton fed to troops in WWII killed the sheep industry in the United States. Gasohol in the 1980s and branded gasoline advertising, for our entire lifetime, keeps people from buying ethanol today. So just put it in there and don't tell anyone. Editor's Note: This is Ken Root's 35th year as an agricultural reporter. He grew up on a small farm in central Oklahoma and started his career as a vocational agriculture teacher. He worked in Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri as a broadcaster and was the original host of AgriTalk. He has also been the executive director of the National AgriChemical Retailers Association in Washington, D.C. and the National Association of Farm Broadcasters in Kansas City. Ken is now the lead farm broadcaster at WHO and WMT Radio based in Des Moines, Iowa. He has been a columnist for HPJ and Midwest Ag Journal for eight years.
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