A senior agency official with the U.S. EPA says they may need another year to determine how blending ethanol in gasoline over the current 10 percent limit would affect vehicles and nonroad equipment. EPA is working with the Energy Department to try to determine whether “mid-level” blends at 13 or 15 percent will affect emissions controls and engine durability. EPA …
Doubts About Meeting Cellulosic Ethanol Goals
Experts are expressing doubts the U.S. will meet targets for cellulosic ethanol production required under the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, but the need remains to make it happen as soon as possible. The legislation calls for the production of 4.3 billion gallons by 2015, but during a House Agriculture Subcommittee hearing this week, Dr. Howard Gruenspecht with …
Wind Farming For Electricity
Biofuels like ethanol and biodiesel weren’t the only energy alternatives on the program at the Farm Foundation Transition To A Bio Economy Conference. We also had a presentation on wind energy from Mark Willers, Minwind Energy. Mark says Minwind Energy was formed by a group of local farmers and businessmen in southwest Minnesota. He’d like people to understand that the …
Ethanol Half The Price Of Gas In Brazil
I think Joel Velasco, Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association, had the quote of the day here at the Farm Foundation Transition To A Bio Economy Conference. He said that carbon is the new agricultural commodity and that our incentive is to produce less of it and get paid for it. So, grow a crop, sell it and maybe earn some carbon …
Biofuels Policies Do Affect Trade But . . .
Seth Meyer is with the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI). He’s also a speaker here at the Farm Foundation’s Transition To A Bio Economy Conference. He talked to us about how biofuels policies are affecting commodity prices and trade but he says there are a lot of other factors affecting export volume. For example, he says that even …
Description Of EU Renewable Energy Mandate
Speaking on behalf of the European Commission To The United States here at the Transition To A Bio Economy Conference was Laurent Javaudin. His comments focused on the impact of EU mandates for renewable energy. To start with, in the EU they don’t have a mandate of a certain number of gallons of biofuels. Instead they are looking at requiring …
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 …
Ethanol Production Affects Meat Trading Patterns
Biofuels production in Canada will impact meat trading patterns according to research by Al Mussell, George Morris Centre, University of Guelph. He says that the increase in biofuels production will turn the country into an importer of grains instead of an exporter. Al was one of the speakers at the Transition To A Bio Economy Conference. He says that as …
Poverty And Biofuels Production
A very interesting presentation at our Farm Foundation Global Trade and Policy Issues conference had to do with the impact on poverty. Tom Hertel, Purdue University, was our presenter. He says they conducted an international study of 16 developing countries and the impact of biofuels production on the poverty level. As he puts it, it’s a very complex issue. Most …