Leadership Quote by Richard Lugar

Ethanol gets cast here as more than a fuel additive; it’s a patriotic technology with a conscience. Richard Lugar’s phrasing stacks three powerful American virtues in one breath: performance, environmental responsibility, independence. “Premier, high performance” borrows the language of engines and competition, a subtle nod to motorists and industry that says: this isn’t sacrifice politics, it’s an upgrade. Then come “tremendous environmental benefits,” an intentionally broad claim that signals green credibility without getting trapped in the messy arguments about lifecycle emissions, land use, or fertilizer runoff. The line works because it sells a contested policy as common sense.

The subtext is classic Midwestern, farm-state coalition building. Lugar, an Indiana senator, is speaking to a constituency where corn is not an abstraction but an economy. Ethanol becomes a bridge between rural America and national security hawks: buy corn, weaken OPEC, keep dollars at home. “Energy independence” is the emotional keystone, a post-1970s rallying phrase that converts technical fuel policy into a sovereignty story. It also gently recasts subsidies and blending mandates as strategic necessities rather than market interventions.

Context matters: this was the era when ethanol enjoyed rare bipartisan appeal, before the “food vs. fuel” backlash and before EVs reframed the energy conversation. Lugar’s intent is to lock in legitimacy for biofuels by speaking in the moral register of national purpose. The rhetoric isn’t about ethanol’s chemistry; it’s about giving Americans permission to feel that a fill-up can be a vote for the country.