“We view NASCAR as this sort of forum to help us get the message out,’’ said Tom Buis, chief executive officer of Growth Energy, an advocacy group spearheading an “American Ethanol ’’ marketing campaign. “If it’s good enough to drive out there on the track for multiple hours at high speed, it’s good enough for you on the road.’’
The goal of the sponsorship, of course, is to increase the use of gasoline blends with higher concentrations of ethanol - and hence ethanol itself - which has been held back by several factors, including concerns about how it affects the performance of older passenger cars. Ethanol content has been limited to 10 percent, but earlier this year, federal regulators permitted the sale of 15 percent blends for cars made since 2001.
The NASCAR promotion, the cost of which Growth Energy declined to disclose, also comes as lawmakers and policy makers consider slashing federal ethanol subsidies, expected to cost $6 billion this year, and lowering trade barriers to cheaper ethanol produced in countries such as Brazil.
While the alternative fuel is touted as a way to reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil, it has long been controversial, not only for those subsidies, but also because American ethanol is largely made from corn, creating added demand for the crop and putting upward pressure on food prices.
Because ethanol can also be made with nonfood materials, “the problems with corn ethanol have more to do with corn than they do with ethanol,’’ said Jeremy Martin, with the Clean Vehicles Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
“We don’t think you can use more corn. We don’t think that’s a promising solution,’’ he said.
But if any organization can boost the acceptance of ethanol, it’s NASCAR, marketing specialists said. NASCAR fans, estimated at up to 80 million nationwide, are famously known for buying the brands endorsed by their favorite drivers.
