The Advanced Bioeconomy Leadership Conference (ABLC) is underway
in Washington, and the discussions and presentations have been lively. At the
opening “Policy Outlook” forum Wednesday morning, Biofuels Digest
Editor Jim Lane welcomed the leaders gathered, including more than 130 C-level
attendees, and introduced the heads of the “7 families” on the dais
representing the key trade groups involved in biobased policy, one of which is
the Biobased and Renewable Products Advocacy Group (BRAG®).
In her comments, Kathleen Roberts, Executive Director of BRAG,
harkened back to Chicago cop Jimmy Malone’s (Sean Connery) dying words from the
movie The Untouchables to paint a picture for the audience illustrating
the significance of the TSCA reform opportunity before them. “What are you
prepared to do?” Roberts implored those gathered, who have fought so hard
to innovate and commercialize and become “card-carrying members of the
chemical manufacturing industry,” to not let this once in a generation
opportunity to influence the future of chemical regulatory law pass them by.
“This industry segment needs to engage now — or be willing to live with
what others decide. It could be another 40 years before change occurs again. So
again I ask you, what are you prepared to do?”
A full update from ABLC will be in next week’s Biobased Policy and
News Report.