A Proud 30 Year Legacy of Accomplishments

Thanks to its broad-based membership, CFDC has been an important player in the development of this country’s transportation fuel strategy. Over the past decade, CFDC has:

• Helped defend the numerous attacks by Congress to kill the fuel ethanol tax exemption from 1985 through 2007.
• Supported corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) incentives for dedicated and flexible fuel-powered vehicles as part of the Alternative Motor Fuels Act of 1988, and continues to support alternative fuel vehicle development.
• Been the only ethanol advocacy group that ever had the major automakers as dues-paying members — which lead to positive warranty statements about E10, sustaining FFV credits, and support for ethanol and E85 refueling infrastructure.
• Worked directly with states and local governments seeking to develop pollution-control strategies through clean fuels. CFDC has been an active participant on various state advisory boards and councils in such states as Arizona, California, Colorado, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, Nebraska, and Texas.
• Worked with General Motors, DaimlerChrysler, and Ford to have oxygenated fuels included in reformulated gasoline provisions in the Clean Air Act and to coordinate automaker language recommending the use of these fuels.
• Helped draft and support the oxygenated fuels, reformulated gasoline (RFG), and deposit control additives provisions in the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments and later served on the EPA Regulatory Negotiation (Reg Neg).
• Participated in the oxygenated fuels Blue Ribbon Panel.
• Worked with a broad coalition of industry and government supporters to help pass the Energy Security Act of 2005. The bill includes a provision establishing a renewable fuels standard that would increase the market for ethanol, biodiesel, and other renewable fuels by more than 4 billion gallons over current production.
• Supported the federal government and the automakers with their Flexible Fuel Vehicle (FFV) and E85 refueling efforts.
• Appeared on radio, television and in the print media for 30 years as part of a national education campaign.
• Testified before Congress and federal agencies on a wide range of energy and environmental issues. Continues to create valuable media content that has appeared in everything from the Congressional Record to the New York Times and trade industry publications.
• Sponsored various conferences and workshops at the federal and state level covering ethanol, clean fuels, and automobile issues.
• Is helping to develop the high-level ethanol blend market.
• Testified before Congress, the United Nations and to the smallest community group in the furthest rural areas of our country.
• Been the host, co-sponsor or speaker at over 50 national and international conferences.
• Is often solicited by members of Congress as a trusted advisor.
• Supported the formation of the Governors Ethanol Coalition.
• Executive Director Doug Durante received the Merle Anderson Award from the American Coalition for Ethanol, joining previous recipients which included such distinguished recipients as U.S. Senators Tom Daschle, Bob Dole, and Ben Nelson as well as Congressman Collin Peterson, Governor and U.S.D.A. Secretary Tom Vilsack, and industry leaders like Todd Sneller, Bill Holmberg, and David Hallberg.
• Has worked with the Department of Energy and USDA to support their biofuels programs, and supported the Ethanol Across America Campaign, the Flexible Fuel Vehicle campaign, and has produced numerous white papers, reports, issue briefs, and the Ethanol Minute Radio Show.
• Is working on a national education campaign about the negative health effects from gasoline and specifically the addition of dangerous aromatic octane enhancers Benzene, Toluene,  methylbenzene, Ethylbenzene, and Xylene dimethylbenzene (commonly referred to as BTEX — the most lethal of the family of aromatic compounds) which still represents about half of the volume of gasoline in the United States.
• Working with automakers to change the emissions testing and evaluate to support the development of high-compression engines burning cleaner-burning high octane fuels.