U.S. ethanol group wants origin labeling for oil

Source: Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. ethanol industry group is pushing lawmakers to craft legislation requiring gasoline filling stations to inform customers what country their fuel came from in hopes of increasing awareness about money spent on oil imported from overseas.

"Most Americans don't want their paychecks going to Venezuela and other regimes that don't agree with and support the U.S," said retired U.S. Army General Wesley Clark, who co-chairs Growth Energy, the industry group behind the push.

Clark said Growth was targeting lawmakers such as U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson, chairman of the House agriculture committee, and others from fuel-producing states, and urging them to craft legislation that would require such labeling.

He said the United States spends tens of billions of dollars a year on protecting shipping lanes for oil. Some of that could be saved by increasing production of U.S. oil and developing alternative fuels like ethanol and fuel-sipping cars, he added.

U.S. oil production peaked in the 1970s which means the world's largest fuel consumer has to import most of its crude.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE5800QT20090901

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Growth Energy also launched a website called labelmyfuel.com which details its calculations on the cost of American dependence on foreign oil.