The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued final regulations for the nation’s first greenhouse gas reporting system to begin in 2010, but ethanol plants have been removed from the initial list of facilities required to report emissions. The regulations require large emitters of heat-trapping emissions to begin collecting greenhouse gas (GHG) data under the new program which will cover approximately 85 …
ACE Responds to Ethanol Attack Ad
The American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) is calling claims made by an advertising campaign against ethanol by a coalition food and oil company groups “half-baked.” “If the products sold to consumers by Big Food are as half-baked as their ethanol claims, we have a life-threatening food safety crisis in America,” stated Brian Jennings, Executive Vice President of ACE. “Never before …
Farmers Become Guardians of Ethanol Plant
A group of farmer-owned ethanol plants in Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska have teamed up become the guardians of a former VeraSun facility in Janesville, Minn. Guardian Energy is a joint venture between ethanol plants in Little Falls, Benson, Claremont, and Winthrop, Minnesota as well as Mason City, Iowa and Minden, Nebraska that last week closed on the purchase of the …
NBB, RFA Submit Biodiesel, Ethanol Comments to EPA
The comment period for the EPA’s proposed Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS2) has come and gone, and the leaders in the biodiesel and ethanol industries have turned in the comments they’ve collected from their members and interested parties. The National Biodiesel Board’s main contention is that the proposal contains several significant flaws: • EPA’s GHG [Greenhouse Gas] methodology relies on outdated …
Subsidies Should Help Nearly Double Canadian Biofuels
Biodiesel and ethanol production in Canada is expected to rise more than 75 percent over the next two years, thanks to subsidies from that country. Reuters reports that total biofuel output north of the border will reach 660 million gallons each year by 2011, including about 500 million gallons of ethanol and about 160 million gallons of biodiesel: “We’re certainly …
Ford Debuts B20 Biodiesel, E85 Compatible Trucks
Back at the end of August, I told you about how Ford was getting ready to debut a new engine that would be compatible with more blends of fuels, including B20 biodiesel. Today, at the State Fair of Texas, the automaker unveiled its new line of F Series trucks that will not only take the higher blend of biodiesel but …
Ethanol Group Finalizing Comments to EPA
The Renewable Fuels Association today released comments to be filed with the Environmental Protection Agency regarding proposed regulations to implement the expanded renewable fuel standard (RFS) program enacted by Congress in the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) in 2007. “Reducing America’s dependence on foreign oil was part of the Energy Security Act, providing economic opportunity and job creation and …
EPA Admits Uncertainty in Indirect Land Use
A group of Midwest senators led by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) dropped an amendment to appropriations legislation that would have prohibited the EPA from spending funds to include international indirect land use change (ILUC) emissions in the implementation of the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS). Sen. Harkin withdrew his amendment after receiving a letter from EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson that promised …
Proposed EPA Regs Would Cost Corn Growers
A study commissioned by the National Corn Growers Association finds that proposed regulations by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to implement the expanded Renewable Fuel Standard would cost the ethanol industry as much as $420 million a year. The study found that the up-front cost to the ethanol industry for compliance with the new regulations could total $30 million, with …
Minnesota Governor Talks Ethanol
Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty supports an increase in the amount of ethanol blended into gasoline to at least 15 percent and is hopeful about the future of next generation biofuels. The governor who might run for president in 2012 answered several questions about ethanol from reporters after helping celebrate the grand opening of the new