Multi-State Effort Includes Major TV/Radio Ad Buy, Warns of Increased Energy Costs and Expanded Reliance on Energy from Unstable Regions

WASHINGTON, D.C. – August 31, 2009   Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA), a nonprofit, nonpartisan coalition comprised of 120 affiliates and more than 180,000 grassroots supporters, today launched a multi-state campaign to educate American consumers on economic and national security impacts associated with a national Low-Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS).  If enacted, an LCFS would threaten American jobs, increase prices at the pump, and expand U.S. dependence on energy imports from unstable foreign regimes.

“In any form, a Low-Carbon Fuel Standard would represent a major blow to America’s economic health and strategic position,” said CEA’s Michael Whatley, a leading expert on LCFS proposals. “That’s because the energy we import daily from friends like Canada would essentially be prohibited from crossing our border. If these abundant resources are cut off, our dependence on unstable regions of the world would skyrocket, and so would the price American consumers pay at the pump.”

Added Whatley: “This campaign seeks to alert the American public of the implications of this policy, and enlist its support in ensuring it does not come to pass.”

Known as CEA’s “Secure Our Fuels” campaign, the work of enlisting the American people in support of affordable energy begins nationwide today, with radio and television ads running in several key states to engage those who stand to be most impacted under an LCFS. Efforts aimed at those initial states – Tennessee, Montana, North and South Dakota – will eventually broaden out to include many more, from the Intermountain West to the Atlantic coastline.

As part of the national launch, CEA also unveiled a new website to serve as a networking tool and information repository for its coalition: SecureOurFuels.org.

Most Americans might not know what an LCFS is, what it stands for, or even that its stated goal – reducing the carbon content of fuel – isn’t the true intent of the policy. Unfortunately, that’s precisely how advocates of a nationwide fuels mandate want it to remain, hoping to use the pending climate bill to advance a policy that will kill American jobs, expand our foreign energy dependence, and discriminate against secure supplies of energy available in our hemisphere.

Throughout this campaign, CEA will work with and engage its regional affiliates to ensure that working families, small businesses, organized labor, and everyday American consumers understand the threat posed by an LCFS.

Visit SecureOurFuels.org to view our latest television and radio ads, and learn more about how an LCFS will increase energy costs for American consumers while expanding our dependence on foreign, unstable regions of the world to fuel our economy.

NOTE: To view these television and radio advertisements, click HERE.