If you want to spend a day next week with Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, author and energy security expert Anne Korin, Growth Energy President Tom Buis and USDA Under Secretary Dallas Tonsager – today is the last day of pre-registration for the 7th Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit on January 30 in Altoona. Registration is free and you can register on …
Coalition Urges New Farm Bill for Energy
The Agriculture Energy Coalition (AgEC) today urged Congress to begin work on a new five-year Farm Bill with strong mandatory funding for energy programs. The coalition notes that programs included in the farm bill Energy Title including the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP), Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP), Biorefinery Assistance Program (BAP) and Biobased Markets Program (Biopreferred) have helped …
American Farm Bureau Supports RFS
Delegates for the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) last week voted overwhelmingly to support continuation of the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS), despite the fact that membership in the organization includes a substantial percentage of livestock producers. “The livestock guys still have concerns about high feed costs, and I’m one of them, I’m a beef producer,” said AFBF president Bob Stallman. …
E15 Hot Topic at Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit
Giving consumers more choice at the pump with an E15 ethanol fuel blend will be a feature presentation during the 7th Annual Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit and Trade Show being held in Altoona, Iowa on January 30, 2013. “E15 and Beyond – The Future of Consumer Fuel Choice” panel will include Scott Zaremba, President of Zarco 66, the nation’s first …
Marginal Lands Well Suited for Biomass
According to an article in Nature, researchers with Michigan State University (MSU) show that marginal lands can serve as prime real estate for meeting alternative energy production goals. By growing mixed-species cellulosic biomass, marginal lands could annually produce up to 5.5 billion gallons of ethanol in the Midwest alone. “Understanding the environmental impact of widespread biofuel production is a major …
Iowa Groups Support Renewable Fuel Standard
The Iowa Renewable Fuels Association has joined forces with a group of Iowa businesses and organizations to form a coalition supporting the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). Representatives of the newly-formed Iowa RFS Coalition sent a letter to President Obama today thanking him for his unwavering support of the RFS and asking him to continue supporting agriculture and renewable fuels throughout …
RFA Urges CARB to Revise Land Use Change
It has been more than two years since the California Air Resources Board (CARB) committed to revise indirect land use change (ILUC) penalties assessed against certain biofuels as part of its Low Carbon Fuels Standard (LCFS). Since it went into effect, a federal district judge has ruled the LCFS unconstitutional; however, CARB was able to move forward with the law …
Nebraska Student Awarded NEC Scholarship
Wade Hunt, a native of Sterling, Nebraska, has been awarded the National Ethanol Conference (NEC) Scholarship. Wade began his university academic career at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln as a chemical engineering student. From there, he was accepted as a research internship for the Undergraduate Creative Academic Research Experience (UCARE) program. He also selected to participate in NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory …
POET Producing Corn Oil at 25 Biorefineries
Nearly all of POET’s ethanol plants have now producing corn oil: 25 of their 27 plants have installed corn oil technology bringing its total capacity to approximately 250,000 tons per year, enough feedstock to produce 68 million gallons of biodiesel annually. Branded Voilà, POET has been selling the corn oil since January 2011 with its ethanol plant in Hudson, South …
BIO, Fuels America Talk 2013 RFS
As the ethanol industry awaits what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will release for targets for this year’s Renewable Fuels Standard, members of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) and Fuels America expressed their support for the green fuel. BIO‘s Executive Vice President, Brent Erickson, said today in a news conference that they are expecting EPA’s release of the 2013 …