NASCAR DRIVER TALKS ETHANOL WITH ILLINOIS GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Tricia Braid

Mar 15, 2013  |  ICGA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Tricia Braid
                   (309) 557-3257

SPRINGFIELD, Ill.—NASCAR driver Kenny Wallace visited with members of the Illinois General Assembly during Ag Week, sharing his experiences with ethanol as a racing fuel.

Wallace joins NASCAR’s other drivers as they approach the milestone of 4 million miles raced using a fuel comprised of 15 percent ethanol. This year marks the third racing season that NASCAR’s three national series cars and trucks are running on Sunoco Green E-15.

At the Capitol, Wallace was joined by members of the Illinois Corn Growers Association (ICGA) and the American Lung Association of Illinois, promoting ethanol and a bill that currently is being considered by the Senate Agriculture Committee. The Consumer Fuel Choice for Illinois bill would provide an incentive to introduce E-15 to the Illinois marketplace, putting it on a level playing field with E-10.

“I’m excited to learn that E-15 fuel could be coming to Illinois if this Consumer Fuel Choice for Illinois bill passes. Pretty soon Illinois drivers could be fueling up like the pros with E-15,” Wallace said.

“You know, the first thing that many of this Senators and Representatives asked me is how that ethanol fuel runs in my race car,” explained Wallace, a 9 time NASCAR winner. “I’m always happy to tell everybody my car runs great!”

“We’ve had absolutely zero problems with ethanol in our race cars. Zero. Our cars run faster, they run cooler, and there’s less smoke coming out our tail pipes,” Wallace added.

ICGA Vice-President Gary Hudson, a family farmer from Hindsboro joined Wallace in talking about the benefits of the Consumer Fuel Choice for Illinois bill. The Bill is sponsored by Senator John Sullivan (D-Rushville) in the Senate and Representative John Bradley (D-Marion) in the House.

“Incentives like the one proposed in this Bill that increase the ethanol blended into gasoline benefit me as a consumer because gas prices will be cheaper. Ethanol is consistently cheaper than gasoline, and right now is running anywhere from 60 to 80 cents a gallon cheaper at wholesale,” Hudson explained.

“As farmers we benefit because more markets are secured for my corn and in a year where we expect to be back to a huge crop, that’s important,” said Hudson.

“When corn farmers worked to put in place the E-10 incentive, we promised to work out of it when the time is right. That time is now,” Hudson added. “E-10 has saturated the market at 95 percent and it’s time to give consumers an additional choice of E-15 at the pump and this Bill does just that.”

The Consumer Fuel Choice for Illinois bill would save the State of Illinois close to $130 million a year.

###

Links to Audio for broadcast:

Story Wrap E15 Press Conference

Script for Wrap E15 Press Conference

Hudson 1

Hudson 2

Hudson 3

Gary Hudson E15 Press Conference

Lung Association Angela Tin E15 Press Conference

Kenny Wallace E15 Press Conference

Wallace 1

Wallace 2