Pioneer Joins with EPIC to Promote Ethanol as Part of Biofuels Strategy

Effort Boosts Support to Educate Consumers About the Benefits of Biofuels

DES MOINES, Iowa,- Pioneer Hi-Bred, a subsidiary of DuPont, announced today that it is teaming up with the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC) in an effort to educate consumers on the benefits of ethanol-enriched fuel. The effort includes funding for ethanol promotion and education programs.

"Ethanol is a factor in the effort to reduce our nation’s reliance on petroleum" says Dean Oestreich, Pioneer president and DuPont vice president and general manager. "EPIC has already helped to significantly raise awareness about the benefits of biofuels, and we are proud to be joining forces with them to continue their efforts to promote ethanol.

"EPIC’s efforts, combined with our commitment to develop traits and technologies that help increase harvestable yield and ethanol production per acre, are helping create a promising future for biofuels" says Oestreich.

The investment from Pioneer includes a sponsorship of Team Ethanol in the IndyCar® Series for the 2007 season. This will be the first year in IndyCar Series’ history that all IndyCars will run on 100 percent fuel-grade ethanol.

"This partnership will help raise awareness of the performance and environmental benefits of ethanol to consumers across the country" says Tom Slunecka, EPIC executive director. "EPIC is pleased to have the support of Pioneer and applauds the company’s commitment to ethanol"

The Pioneer commitment is one part of a three-part strategy by DuPont to deliver new technologies to the growing biofuels market while continuing to meet growing demand for grain corn, soybeans and other crops. The strategy includes: 1. improving the yield of grain ethanol production through the research and technology expertise of subsidiary Pioneer; 2. developing technologies to convert other agricultural feedstocks and energy crops into biofuels; and 3. discovering new technologies to make advanced biofuels with enhanced fuel properties such as biobutanol.

Pioneer is enhancing ethanol and co-product production by taking a holistic approach toward increasing ethanol yield per bushel, overall corn yield per acre and improving feed quality of ethanol co-products. The company has nearly 180 Pioneer brand high total fermentable ethanol hybrids that are part of the Pioneer IndustrySelect® program which provides seed products with specific grain traits to end users, including the ethanol industry.

Through a $38 million matching grant partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), DuPont is developing an integrated technology package to harvest, store and produce cellulosic ethanol from entire corn plants. DuPont is collaborating with POET to accelerate the commercialization of cellulose to ethanol at Emmetsburg, Iowa. POET also has been selected by the DOE to receive up to $80 million in federal funding during the next four years to bring cellulosic ethanol to market.

DuPont also has partnered with BP to develop, produce and market next-generation biofuels to help meet increasing global demand for renewable transport fuels. The first product to market will be biobutanol.

"We’re racing to leverage our research, technology and agronomy expertise to help accelerate the availability and adoption of ethanol and other biofuels" Oestreich says. "What better way to showcase the advances being made in alternative fuels than through our partnership with EPIC"

The Ethanol Promotion and Information Council is a nonprofit organization of ethanol producers and industry leaders who have come together to spread the word about the benefits of ethanol through information and promotional programs. To learn more about ethanol, visit www.drivingethanol.org