The ethanol industry tends to issue a press release after any perceived slight, and the targets usually are Big Oil or the food industry.  This week, it’s taking on the hallowed ground of auto racing, the Indianapolis 500.

The IndyCar Series, it seems, has done the all-American thing of signing a sponsorship deal with an “official” fuel supplier. but that supplier is from South America. Indy drivers will get their fuel from APEX-Brasil, the Brazilian trade-promotion agency, with help from UNICA, the Brazilian sugar cane industry association. An outraged Bob Dinneen, president of the Renewable Fuels Association, says in a letter to IndyCar’s Terry Angstadt:

On behalf of America’s ethanol producers, I want to express my deep displeasure in the Indy Racing League’s decision to abandon homegrown ethanol as the league’s official fuel. How can you run the Indianapolis 500, a race so imbedded in the culture of this nation, on an imported fuel?

The IRL, for its part, is striking an ecumenical tone. Its news release characterizes the sponsorship as

an effort to communicate the many options in which ethanol can be produced and to enhance its position as a global commodity

A statement from Angstadt adds:

The move to other sources of ethanol is a natural progression as the ethanol industry continues to grow and evolve. We continue to strive to be on the leading edge of the greening of racing.

Maybe, just maybe, the IndyCar Series’ move will spark a real debate over the tariff that keeps most Brazilian ethanol out of the U.S. If we’re serious about curing our so-called addiction to oil, we ought to be taking advantage of the world’s biggest, lowest-cost source of renewable fuel.