Ethanol Industry Saddened By Loss of IRL Driver Paul Dana

Chuck Zimmerman

EPICThe Ethanol Promotion and Information Council is not only a Domestic Fuel sponsor but sponsor of Rahal-Letterman Racing. Today the team suffered a serious blow when the #17 Ethanol car was in a pre-race warmup accident and driver and ethanol champion Paul Dana died from the injuries he suffered. “It is a black day for us, and on behalf of Rahal Letterman Racing, our sponsors and associates, our prayers and sympathy go out to the entire Dana family,” said team co-owner Bobby Rahal, the 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner. “This is a great tragedy. As a result, and in honor of Paul, we will not run the team’s No. 15 (with driver Buddy Rice, the 2004 Indy 500 winner) and No. 16 (with driver Danica Patrick, the 2005 Indy 500 and IndyCar Series Rookie of the Year) cars in today’s event.”

Audio, EPIC, Ethanol, Indy Racing, Racing

Good Day at the Races for Ethanol

Cindy Zimmerman

All three drivers for the Rahal Letterman Racing team, sponsored by the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council, qualified in the top ten for tomorrow’s Toyota Indy 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway – the first of the IRL Indy Car Series races to use ten percent ethanol fuel. The 2005 Rookie of the Year Danica Patrick will start third in tomorrow’s race, …

Audio, EPIC, Ethanol, Indy Racing

Johanns at Energy Summit in DC

Cindy Zimmerman

With a goal of providing 25 percent of the nation’s energy supply from renewable resources by 2025, the Ag Energy Work Group held it’s second National Ag and Forestry Renewabe Energy Summit, in Washington, DC this week. I apologize for having been remiss in doing posts about this group’s activities, especially since good friend Sara Wyant sent us some info …

Audio, Biodiesel, Ethanol, Government

Pawlenty of Renewable Fuel In MN

Chuck Zimmerman

Commodity Classic 37Minnesota Governor, Tim Pawlenty, spoke to a crowd here at Commodity Classic in Anaheim on Friday. I think some of the folks here would like to see him run for President. He gave a great talk about how his state has led the way in the development of renewable fuels and challenged other states to follow their lead in what he called the “Energy Revolution.”

Audio, Biodiesel, Ethanol, Government, Legislation

Hearing From The President of ASA

Chuck Zimmerman

Commodity Classic 24The President of the American Soybean Association is Bob Metz, from South Dakota. Bob is very happy with the way things are going with the whole renewable fuels initiative in the U. S. and especially with biodiesel. I don’t think you’ll find a bigger supporter out there.

Audio, Biodiesel

NCGA President Happy About Ethanol Progress

Chuck Zimmerman

Commodity Classic 23Hello from Commodity Classic, the combined annual meeting of the National Corn Growers Association and the American Soybean Association. The first press conference here at Commodity Classic is always with the leadership of NCGA and ASA. To get us started I interviewed NCGA President, Gerald Tumbleson.

Audio, Ethanol

Pioneer Developing Corn Traits To Increase Ethanol Yield

Chuck Zimmerman

Bill KuhnWhile Cindy is holding down the fort, I’m attending the Pioneer Hi-Bred, “Science of Solutions” media event in Johnston, IA. In the first interview I conducted ethanol came up. I was speaking with Bill Kuhn, Pioneer Research Director. Bill mentioned ethanol and I asked him how Pioneer is developing corn varieties that have traits that would increase ethanol production on a per bushel basis.

Agribusiness, Audio, Ethanol, Production