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Ganesan, Arvin[Ganesan.Arvin@epa.gov]
POLITICO Pro Whiteboard
Wed 4/30/2014 5:31 :43 PM
Pro-renewable fuels groups attack APl's Saudi interests

4/30/14 1:29 PM EDT

Pro-renewable fuels groups will run a television ad on Washington Sunday shows this week
criticizing the American Petroleum Institute's ties to Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil company
Saudi Aramco.
Sunday as part of
Americans United for Change and VoteVets.org are sponsoring
their effort to oppose EPA's proposed cut in volume mandates in the 2014 renewable fuels. The
near-six-figure ad will air May 4 during Meet the Press, Face the Nation, This Week and Fox
News Sunday.
Saudi Arabia is 7,000 miles away, but "they've got some good friends here at home - the
American Petroleum Institute,'' the ad begins. It implores viewers who see API's ads against the
RFS to "remember who's paying for them, and what they want- to keep you addicted to their
oil."
The groups joined in releasing information from API' s IRS disclosures, and subsidiaries of Saudi
Aramco listed on API' s membership list. IRS forms also showed that Saudi Refining CEO Tofiq
Al-Gabsani, who is also a registered agent for the kingdom, was on API's board of directors in
2010 and 2011. Currently Nabeel Amudi, CEO of Aramco Services, another Saudi Aramco
subsidiary, is on the board at API, the groups said.
"This is deeply troubling,'' AUFC President Brad Woodhouse said. "The American people
deserve to know who is funding ads" aimed at bringing down the RFS and "lengthening this
country's addiction to foreign oil,'' he said.
Numerous companies that support the U.S. biofuels industry are also foreign, such as Spain's
Abengoa or Dutch-based DSM. When asked about that, officials from the pro-renewable fuel
groups countered that the fuels are grown and produced in the United States
- Erica Martinson
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