One of the ethanol pump promotions coordinated by the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council this week was held at Casey’s General Store in Newton, IA just down the road from the Iowa Speedway. The manager of the store is Shawn Retman pictured here on the right. Shawn says she’s really proud of her company for taking part in the effort …
POET Gets New Cellulosic Director
Jim Sturdevant has joined POET as its new director in POET’s partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy to build a commercial cellulosic ethanol production facility. According to this POET press release, Sturdevant joins POET’s Project LIBERTY after 28 years at EROS in Sioux Falls, the last 22 of which were spent with the U.S. Geological Survey: As director of …
Ethanol Big Winner in Energy Bill
The Energy Bill has cleared the U.S. Senate, and the ethanol industry looks like it will benefit the most from the package. This story was posted on CNNMoney.com: If any industry clearly comes out ahead, it’s the ethanol business, analysts say. The Senate bill massively boosts the mandate for ethanol use from 7.5 billion gallons in 2012 to 36 billion …
Coming up in Just a FEW
The 23rd International Fuel Ethanol Workshop is just a few days away now. It is being held next week in St. Louis and Domestic Fuel will be on-hand to cover the opening general session on Wednesday. Highlights of the opening session include a national update on ethanol from Bob Dinneen with the Renewable Fuels Association, as well as presentations on …
NCGA Calls for Better Ethanol Workforce
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have heard more testimony in favor of a bill that would help educate the ethanol workforce. National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) First Vice President Ron Litterer told a House Small Business Committee that the ethanol industry requires a continued commitment in providing a well trained workforce. A news release posted on the NCGA web site says …
Lack of Funding for Biofuels Research Concerns Ag Secretary
Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns is disappointed with the 2007 Farm Bill he sees developing in the House Agriculture Committee for a number of reasons. One of them is lack of funding for cellulosic ethanol research. Johanns says the farm bill proposal put forth by the administration boosted cellulosic ethanol research funding by $1.6 billion and had over $2 billion in …
Biofuels Focus of Farm Improvement Act
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 Make Race Reality
Craig Floss is the CEO of the Iowa Corn Growers. I met him at the Kum & Go pump promotion in West Des Moines and got to interview him. The Iowa Corn Growers have been working for at least a year on making this weekend’s Iowa Corn Indy 250 a reality. Craig says there will be thousands of corn growers …
Ethanol Car in Practice In Iowa
Jeff Simmons, driver of the #17 Ethanol car for Rahal-Letterman Racing got his first laps on this track this afternoon. He just got done dialing in the computer settings with his team in advance of what looks like some stormy weather moving in. I’m glad these drivers got their practice in because there’s not much time left before Sunday’s Iowa …