A four hour hearing of the House Agriculture Committee Thursday covered the waterfront on mainly ethanol, even though it was supposed to be on renewable fuels in general. After USDA’s Tom Dorr, the second panel offered some really interesting testimony on lots of new developments in the field. First up was Mark Gaalswyk, president of Easy Automation in Welcome, Minnesota …
Dorr Pays Tribute to Paul Dana
In testimony before the House Agriculture Committee Thursday, USDA Undersecretary Tom Dorr paid tribute to Indy race car driver and ethanol advocate Paul Dana for his contributions to the ethanol industry. “Last month I was in Indianapolis for an ethanol event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway,” Dorr said. “While I was there I met Tanya Dana, the wife of Paul …
Bill Would Keep Incentives in Place
A bill introduced this week in Congress would make the federal excise tax credits for renewable fuels permanent. According to a release from the National Biodiesel Board, Congressmen Kenny Hulshof (R-MO) and Earl Pomeroy (D-ND) introduced the Renewable Fuels and Energy Independence Promotion Act, which removes sunset provisions for ethanol and biodiesel incentives that accompanied the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax …
USDA Will Help Fund IA Biodiesel Plant
Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns has announced a loan guarantee and grant totaling $3.75 million for construction and operation of a new biodiesel production facility in Iowa. Riksch BioFuels LLC will construct a plant near Crawfordsville, Iowa. Twenty-five investors, including farmers and business owners, already have raised over $3.3 million for the project and will receive $400,000 from the Iowa Department …
USDA and DOE Announce Renewable Conference
U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns and U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman today announced that the two agencies will co-host a national renewable energy conference to help create partnerships and strategies necessary to accelerate commercialization of renewable energy industries and distribution systems, the crux of President Bush’s Advanced Energy Initiative. According to a USDA release, the conference, …
Louisiana Governor Signs Ethanol Bill
Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco has signed into law a bill requiring refineries to mix ethanol with some of the gasoline they produce. The governor issued a statement about the bill, saying she was “proud to join President Bush, the federal government and dozens of other states in promoting a biofuels market. As the President has said on many occasions, America …
MI Lawmakers Call for More Ethanol
Sixteen members of Michigan’s congressional delegation, including Senators Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow, are calling on President Bush to pressure oil companies into setting a target for installing more ethanol filling stations by 2010. According to the Detroit Free Press, the Michigan lawmakers say the domestic auto industry has already done its part to increase ethanol use by committing to …
IL Governor Argues Against New Ethanol Research Center
Looking at the headline you would think Governor Rod Blagojevich is against new ethanol research. Not so. According to the AP story, he is against the government wasting money, building a new center when they can just upgrade the current National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center in Edwardsville instead. The new center is proposed to research cellulosic ethanol, however, so the current …
Greenspan Sees Future in Cellulosic Ethanol
Testimony of former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday has gotten quite a bit of news coverage, especially his comments about ethanol. In his written remarks to the committee, Greenspan said “Corn ethanol, though valuable, can play only a limited role, because its ability to displace gasoline is modest at best. But cellulosic …