All eyes in the ethanol industry are on California today as the state’s Air Resources Board (ARB) is hearing arguments and preparing to vote on a controversial staff proposal for the state’s low carbon fuel standard (LCFS). Hundreds of scientists, biofuel producers, including both current and next generation companies, and petroleum interests have all cautioned that ARB’s approach is far …
Ethanol Blending in Nebraska
Motorists in Grand Island, Nebraska now have a range of choices at the pump when it comes to ethanol blended gasoline. Six ethanol blender pumps were unveiled last week providing flexible-fuel vehicle owners with the option of using E85, E30, E20 or the traditional E10 blend of gasoline. “If you drive a flex-fuel vehicle, you don’t have to fill up …
Final Day for Comments on CARB Plan
Earth Day 2009 is ironically the final day for filing written comments with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) on a proposed low-carbon fuel standard, or LCFS, that threatens to undermine the role of renewable fuels in helping the environment. An increasing number of university professors, scientists, researchers, and industry trade organizations have registered their opposition to the controversial proposal …
Ethanol, Corn Not Culprit in Rising Food Prices
The American Farm Bureau Federation, Growth Energy, National Farmers Union, and National Corn Growers Association joined together today to host a media call to applaud the recently released report from the Congressional Budget Office, “The Impact of Ethanol Use on Food Prices and Greenhouse-Gas Emissions.” The report concluded that from April 2007-April 2008 ethanol did have a slight impact on …
Missouri Ethanol Group Reaches Out to Consumers
Missouri’s ethanol producers are reaching out to consumers with a new website and print ad campaign. The Missouri Renewable Fuels Association (MoRFA) website contains research and information about ethanol, links to other renewable fuel articles and an overview of the state’s farmer-owned biorefineries. Also featured on the new site are three print ads currently running in many Missouri newspapers that …
USDA Sees No Change in Corn Use for Ethanol
The April World Supply and Demand report out today from USDA lowers ending stocks for corn, but keeps corn use for ethanol the same. Corn ending stocks were cut by 40 million bushels “as higher expected feed and residual use more than offsets a reduction in food, seed and industrial use.” Food, seed, and industrial use was lowered 10 million …
Colorado Celebrates Earth Day
The first Earth Day was celebrated on April 22, 1970 with about 20 million people across America. Now Earth Day is celebrated annually around the globe. Through the combined efforts of the U.S. government, grassroots organizations, and environmentally caring citizens, what started as a day of national environmental recognition has evolved into a world-wide campaign to protect our global environment. …
Report Finds Ethanol is Reducing GHG
A new report has found that ethanol use is contributing to a growing reduction in greenhouse gases on a global scale. Using a model for lifecycle assessment of transportation fuels called GHGenius, report author Don O’Connor examined greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions from grain ethanol since 1995 and projected GHG reductions from ethanol out to 2015. The important conclusion was that …
Ethanol Reducing OPEC’s Price Grip
We know that OPEC has had a monopoly control over the price of oil on the world market and we hope that the increase of more environmentally friendly biofuels will force that to change. However, David Zilberman, University of California, Berkeley, has created a model to measure how much impact we’re having. I spoke to David here at the Farm …