The Fuels America coalition today released an economic impact study by John Dunham & Associates showing the far-reaching benefits of renewable fuels for America’s workers and the U.S. economy – including supporting more than 850,000 American jobs.
Renewable fuels now represent nearly 10% of America’s fuel supply and have helped reduce U.S. reliance on foreign oil to the lowest level in years. The analysis takes into account the entire supply chain for renewable fuels and quantifies the impact to the U.S. economy, including:
-- Driving $184.5 billion of economic output
-- Supporting 852,056 jobs and $46.2 billion in wages
-- Generating $14.5 billion in tax revenue each year
The full analysis is publicly available on the Fuels America website, including localized reports for every state and every congressional district in the country.
The report tells the story of an innovative, advanced renewable fuels and biofuels industry that is producing growing benefits for America’s economy. “The data are in: The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) is driving billions of dollars of economic activity across America,” the report concludes. “This is the result of years of investment by the biofuel sector to bring clean, low carbon renewable fuels to market.”
Embraced by both Democrats and Republicans and signed into law by President Bush – but bitterly opposed by the oil industry – the RFS calls for the use of American-grown renewable fuels in our transportation fuel supply. The oil industry is urging the U.S. EPA and/or Congress to repeal or weaken the RFS so that renewable fuels do not further reduce oil industry market share.