Here is a contributing blog entry from Beth Calabotta, who is oilseeds-biodiesel technology manager with Monsanto, on this week’s conference in St. Louis. Besides spending hours in the exhibit hall at the Monsanto booth, Beth had a front row seat for the president’s address and got pretty close when he hit the floor to meet and greet right after his …
President Promotes Renewables
President Bush got a nice round of applause when he just said, “I like the idea of promoting a fuel that relies upon our farmers.” “I guess we have some farmers here,” he said. “We’re up to five billion gallons of ethanol,” he adds. “We’re just in the beginning stages of an industry that’s evolving. We want you to succeed. …
Ethanol Industry Connections
Everybody who is anybody in the ethanol industry are in attendance here at the Advancing Renewable Energy Conference in St. Louis. Here is Greg Krissek, (left) Director of Governmental Affairs with ICM, Inc., one of the nation’s major ethanol plant design/build firms, located in Colwich, KS. He is networking with one of the many attendees on hand about the potential …
EPIC on Display
Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns did a little walk through of the trade show at the Advancing Renewable Energy Conference in St. Louis on Wednesday and stopped in front of the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council display with the Indy Car show vehicle. The flashy green and blue Indy Car continues to generate lots of attention wherever it goes, more so …
Corn Grower President at Renewables Conference
The president of the National Corn Growers Association says the interest in renewable energy across the nation is really a renewed interest in agriculture. Ken McCauley, a corn grower from White Cloud, Kansas, says “it elevates agriculture to a whole new level” and he notes that ethanol and biodiesel are giving young people a new future in agriculture and helping …
Renewable Energy Conference Crowd
There’s a huge crowd at the America’s Center in St. Louis for the Advancing Renewable Energy Conference. First main speaker up was Pat Woertz, CEO for ADM, who gave an impressive address on how we can and must meet the energy and food needs of the world. Coming up shortly will be the US Secretaries of Energy and Agriculture. More …
It’s Confirmed
President Bush is now confirmed to be the grand finale for the Renewable Energy Conference this week in St. Louis. He will make the final address on Thursday to attendees at the event, who will be hearing from other top administration officials on Wednesday, including Secretary of Energy Sam Bodman and Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns. Just about everybody who …
Ethanol Talks
The New York Times reports that two ethanol giants are talking about joining forces. Undisputed ethanol production king ADM met with with ethanol’s financial guru Vinod Khosla to “discuss opportunities they might pursue together” regarding cellulosic ethanol according to ADM CEO Patricia Woertz. ADM has a solid investment in ethanol from corn while Khosla, the founding chief executive of Sun …
Ethanol Convert
Here’s an article on ADM CEO Pat Woertz, who will be one of the many speakers at this week’s Renewable Energy Conference in St. Louis. The story talks about Woertz’s former life as a Chevron executive and her opposition to ethanol at the time, which she said was “tied to federal clean-air standards for vehicle emissions and the debate over …
Pacific Ethanol Plant Complete
Construction of Pacific Ethanol’s first plant in Madera, California is now finished and the ribbon will be cut on October 16. The 35 million gallon plant will then begin construction and should reach capacity by next month. This is the plant with Microsoft money behind it (see previous post) – Bill Gates personally invested about $84 million dollars in Pacific …