In just a few hours, we should start getting the results of the Super Tuesday primaries and caucuses, as voters in 24 states go to the polls to decide who will be the Democratic and Republican standard bearers for the November 2008 general election.
This morning at the opening session of the 2008 National Biodiesel Conference and Expo in Orlando, Fla., Gene Gebolys, the chairman of the NBB’s Regulatory Committee opened that meeting reminding the audience how important the day is to the future of the biodiesel industry.
“The direction that this country will take depends on what happens today. Our industry is at a crossroads. We need to be successful now more than any other time in our industry’s history,” Gebolys told the crowd.
Hear Gebolys’ comments here:[audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/nbb/nbb-08-gebolys.mp3]
He was joined on stage by Manning Feraci, the NBB’s director of governmental affairs, and Lisa Ryan with the NBB’s political action committee.
Feraci said it is the “big three” in Washington that will determine biodiesel’s future in this country: the renewal of the federal tax incentive that keeps biodiesel competitive with petroleum, the CCC Bioenergy program, and the new Renewable Fuels Standard that will target biodiesel production at 500 million gallons a year in 2009 and a billion gallons a year by 2012.
Listen to Feraci and Gebolys discuss the big three: [audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/nbb/nbb-08-ferachi.mp3]
Ryan stressed the importance of going all out to be successful politically this year. “We cannot have a half-baked effort going forward if we really want this to be successful.”
Listen to Ryan’s comments here: [audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/nbb/nbb-08-ryan.mp3]
All three stressed the importance of working as a team to get Washington to give the biodiesel industry what it needs to be viable.