By Anne C. Mulkern
Two rival trade groups seeking congressional help for the ethanol industry launched advertising yesterday to promote themselves and bash one another. Growth Energy Inc., which represents U.S.-based corn ethanol producers, seeks to maintain supremacy at home, while the Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association, or UNICA, wants to tear down corn ethanol’s benefits in order to grab a larger share of the U.S. market. The campaigns’ same-day launch was coincidental, the groups said. The lobbying efforts likely are eyeing the same legislative target, one analyst said. “Senator Kerry is now saying that they’re going to have an energy bill in the next three weeks,” said Ken Green, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute think tank, referring to the climate bill that Kerry is crafting along with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.). Ethanol groups, Green said, “want to turn up the heat on what’s in this new energy bill and how it treats ethanol.” Click here to read more…