So I am known as a very vocal ethanol advocate. This is nothing that I can, nor want to, deny. As part of this advocacy work, I regularly comment on newspaper and opinion articles that both support, and attack, ethanol.
On Friday, I commented on a story found on a statewide Michigan newspaper called Mlive. You can find the article here. I wrote a response to Nicki Polan, the author of the opinion article, who is the executive director for the Michigan Boating Industries Association. Scroll down if you would like to read my comment. In response to what I stated, I read a comment that admittedly got to me. Again, I can not, nor do I want to, deny this.
The comment reads, as follows:
People are on to your corn/ethanol lobby misinformation, Aaron.
You and the other corn/ethanol lobby shills are going to 'up your game'- everyone from the restaurant owners to environmentalists to food security advocates to boat owners are done with your lobby's worn out attempts to 'baffle them with bullspit'
End of quote.
When you join a fight this contentious, over something as controversial to some as ethanol, stuff like this is bound to be said. Internet trolls will come out against what you are saying and do so repeatedly.
What I don't understand here is that on the interwebs, ethanol activists like myself can be automatically grouped into "shills"... whereas the folks who do the same advocacy for oil don't, at least as much. Not every issue solely has folks who are paid to do and say what they do.
It calls into question why I do what I do. To be blunt, it's because I give a darn. I give a darn about climate change, economic security, those who work for a living, lower fuel prices, the virtual glut in the market created as a result of the radically explosive growth in fracking and Canadian tar sands development, etcetera, etcetera. Whatever you say about my views, and the bias I may now appear to have, no one, and I repeat, no one, is feeding words into my mouth. I joined this fight on my own, and without any connections to anyone anywhere in the ethanol industry.
I drove 1,600 miles all the way to Washington, DC (round trip) to testify in front of the Environmental Protection Agency in regards to proposed volume reductions in the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) back in December. I did this on my own time, and my own money. Admittedly, the two free hotel nights from the dad certainly helped. However, no one reimbursed me for my trip, nor did I request for assistance. I actually quit my job at Rite Aid the week prior to the hearing, which was my primary source of income. Because I did not find out about this hearing until the week before, I was unable to give the traditional one month notice of a request for time off. Even though I had others who were willing to shift their schedules around or fill in for me while I was gone, and even though it was only two days I was requesting off, I still had my boss bluntly say "no" when I asked for the time off. With lawn mowing season long since having ended, and with snow yet to fall, I did not have any additional income coming in until later that month. I've talked to numerous folks at the pump about ethanol, and I've done a lot of work for the ethanol industry on my own behalf.
Full disclosure, I am now employed by Carbon Green BioEnergy, a company that owns the ethanol plant I work at in Lake Odessa, Michigan, and manages two others. I have been employed there since December. Continuing with full disclosure, I am compensated for some of the advocacy work I do (by a different employer). Yes, I was incorrect in stating that I am not paid for this on the Mlive article. However, this has only been a recent source of income. I have been a staunch ethanol supporter since late 2012 after I bought my first car. This work that I am now being paid to do, is not completely replacing work I did on my own time, and is to no extent any different than the work I was doing before. Nothing has changed in that regard. Yes, because I clean pipes and floors in an ethanol plant, and am paid by another ethanol company to do activist work, I no longer have the appearance of total nonbias in my views, opinions, statements, or actions. But let me make it absolutely clear: my views, opinions, statements, and actions, have not changed since I began advocating for ethanol in 2012. They will not change in the future, either.
Intelligence is the ability to hold two very different ideas or beliefs, and still be able to function. And it's hard for me to say that I have not rejected the arguments that I am combating through this advocacy work. But this is where doing your research and actually going out and talking to people come into play. Actions speak louder than words. However my bias may happen to appear, I am going into a career with ethanol because it's what I'm good at and it is where my passion is. The only "influence" I have is a father who uses E85 in his state vehicle and mentions it from time to time. I have no agricultural background aside from the folks who I've met in Ohio, Michigan, and Iowa, and I have no prior background in ethanol before my activist career began in 2012. I did not get any of this work with the industry until after I made myself known. That's what you call self-made.
The difference between the folks on the side of the debate that I argue for, and the folks on the side who are vocal against ethanol, is that the ethanol industry does not spend all of its time attacking the oil industry. Yes, obviously there is some of that going on. But the true factor that sets ethanol and the folks who represent and/or advocate for it apart from those who argue against it, is that we spend time educating the public about our product. Yes, talking down the competitor's product is a practice that virtually anyone in the advertising business has participated in - to which the ethanol industry can not take exception. But after a while of someone simply saying "oil is bad for the environment", and "oil has contributed to wars" (both of which are true), you are no longer doing your product a favor. A large part of why I jumped into this debate is because I believe that it isn't good enough to just complain about the problem. You have to do something about it. The United States was not built on this sense of morality (or lack thereof), but rather by those who realized that actions speak louder than words. It's only right that we combat climate change and economic security amongst a myriad of other issues with that mindset. I will elaborate on why I believe in ethanol specifically to combat these growing concerns in later posts.
With the explosive growth of fracking and development in Canadian tar sands, the long-standing argument that so much of our oil is imported from overseas is beginning to weaken. But that does not eliminate the fact that some of it does still come from overseas; nor does it discredit the fact that, forgive my cynicism here, gasoline prices will jump on even the smallest hint of tension in the middle east. With Michigan being known for gasoline price hikes from 20 cents to as much as 50 cents in a matter of hours, you don't have to tell us twice about how easily gasoline prices are affected by middle east tension.
I am not fed words, and am not told what to say and what not to say. Whether it is believed or not, my views, opinions, words, and actions are mine and mine alone. I do not take pride in simply repeating what someone else says. That's not what a leader does. It's not what I do.
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