POET jumps into presidential campaign with open letter from employees to Obama, McCain

In South Dakota, more than 1700 employees of POET wrote to Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama to call for increased support of ethanol. “We strongly encourage you to support energy policies to ensure that the federal government continues its investment in domestic sources of renewable fuels like ethanol,” the letter said, in a thinly veiled reference to Obama’s support for biofuels mandates and incentives, and McCain’s opposition to them.

The National Corn Growers Association has previously endorsed Sen. Obama. No other major ethanol producer has made such an overt attempt to sway opinion in the presidential campaign, but Sen. McCain is running 10 points behind President Bush’s 2004 vote totals in Iowa and ethanol has been cited as a factor.

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