Encouraging development of cellulosic ethanol is one of the main goals of the bi-partisan American Farm Improvement Act of 2007 introduced by Florida Congressmen Tim Mahoney and Adam Putnam. The bill seeks to jumpstart the alternative energy market by eliminating multiple, conflicting definitions of “biomass,” “cellulosic ethanol,” and other terms relating to the emerging biofuels market. The American Farm Improvement …
Hy-Vee Iowa Ethanol Promotion
Hy-Vee has been holding a couple of ethanol promotions here in Iowa during the IRL race week. One of them was held at a store in West Des Moines and Joe Miller, one of the store operations managers was on hand to talk about it. Joe says that he thinks ethanol is important and he’s glad to do what he …
Iowa Corn Growers Unveil Trophy
The Iowa Corn Growers just held a press conference here at the Iowa Speedway to unveil the trophy for Sunday’s Iowa Corn Indy 250. It’s a tall good looking trophy. The group show here consists of several board members and CEO, Craig Floss, speaking on the left. Craig made a short statement which you can listen to here: [audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/epic/iowa-corn-07-icga-press-conf.mp3] Here’s …
Talking With Jeff Simmons
At today’s Kum & Go pump promotion I got a chance to interview IndyCar driver Jeff Simmons once again. Jeff was on hand to pump ethanol enriched gas for customers during this midday promotion. Jeff says this would be a great weekend for his first win and I and thousands of corn growers couldn’t agree more. You can listen to …
E is Indy
The slogan for the Indy Racing League is “I am Indy,” and that’s especially true for ethanol producers who are proud to be a part of this great sport. This month’s “Fill up, Feel Good” features comments from Tom Branhan of Glacial Lakes Energy, Don Endres of VeraSun Energy, Todd Lucey of Endress+Hauser, Team Ethanol car driver Jeff Simmons, and …
Blame Energy Prices for Higher Food Costs
According to a new analysis of food, energy and corn prices conducted by John Urbanchuk of LECG, LLC, “rising energy prices had a more significant impact on food prices than did corn.” In fact, rising energy prices have twice the impact on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for food than does the price of corn, according to the report. “Energy …
Propane Helping Out Dairies
Here’s an interesting application for propane that targets the dairy industry from a company that’s known for making gas fired appliances. One of the companies that the Propane Education & Research Council is working with on some projects is Rinnai. One thing they’re doing that is real interesting is tankless water heaters. As you’ll hear in my interview with Mike …
Propane Powered Mowers
We think of propane as a cooking or heating fuel but how about mowers? I met Chris Row with Manchester Tank here at Propane Days and we talked about mowers. Chris says that his company is working with several OEM’s to bring propane powered mowers to market. I think they’re focusing on mower fleets primarily at this point. He says …
Propane Days and PERC
This morning I met with the President/CEO of the Propane Education & Research Council, Roy Willis. He was on hand at the sessions taking place for the 3rd Annual Propane Days here in Washington, DC. Roy says PERC’s goal here is to help educate policy makers so that they make good decisions based on sound science and research. I asked …
Trucking With Propane
As I promo’d last week, I’m here in Washington, DC at Propane Days. The Roush F-150 Propane Injection Truck is the first thing I got to learn about since it was on display right outside the hotel where the main program is taking place. To learn all about it I interviewed Tom Arnold, director, Roush Manufacturing. He says that the …