Ethanol is getting very close to hitting the blend wall, according to economists with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. With four months in a row of record ethanol production and stagnant gasoline demand, ethanol stocks are increasing. “Margins have weakened a lot over the last few weeks,” says USDA chief economist Joe Glauber, and indicators are that the blend wall …
USDA Watching and Waiting on Biodiesel Incentive
Federal ag department officials seem to be rooting for renewal of the $1-a-gallon biodiesel tax incentive to finally pass Congress … but no one from USDA is pressuring lawmakers to get the deal done. During yesterday’s event in Hawaii, where the U.S. Navy and USDA pledged to work together to produce more biofuels for the service’s renewable energy goals, reporters …
Ag Department, Navy Team Up for Biofuels
Leaders from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Navy have kicked off the first of several forums designed to increase biofuels production and meet the Navy’s renewable energy needs. This USDA press release says the opening of the forum today in Honolulu came as a result of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) recently signed by the USDA and …
More Corn Acres for Food and Fuel
More corn acreage is in the forecast for this year, according to the USDA Prospective Plantings report out today, and there is still plenty more in storage. According to the forecast, farmers intend to plant 88.8 million acres of corn in 2010, three percent more than both last year and 2008. Meanwhile, the Grain Stocks report shows corn stocks as …
USDA Offers Biomass and Bioenergy Funding
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced that Fiscal Year 2009 funding is once again available again for three USDA Farm Bill programs to promote increased production of biomass and bioenergy. Applications for the Biorefinery Assistance Program, which uses loan guarantees to develop, construct, and retrofit commercial-scale biorefineries, must be received by June 1, 2010. Applications are also being accepted for …
Biofuels and Conservation Achievable with Biomass
Getting energy from the land and practicing good conservation are not mutually exclusive. A federal ag deartment researcher says we can have both through using biomass. USDA researcher Doug Karlen, who works at the Agricultural Research Service’s National Soil Tilth Lab in Ames, Iowa, told attendees of the recent USDA Outlook Forum that conservation and energy from biomass can be …
USDA Guarantees Loan for GA Wood Ethanol Plant
A Colorado-based firm with a planned biorefinery located near Soperton, Georgia is the recipient of a loan guaranteed by USDA Rural Development to make cellulosic biofuel from wood chips, according to a USDA announcement. The finalized deal with Range Fuels was first announced last year and represents the first ever loan guarantee by USDA to a commercial-scale cellulosic biofuel plant. …
USDA & EPA Called to Update Climate Change Analysis
Questions by the Secretary of Agriculture himself about the USDA’s and EPA’s climate change analysis has prompted the two ranking members of the U.S. Senate and House Ag Committees to ask questions as well. U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) and U.S. Representative Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) have sent a letter to Secretary Tom Vilsack, asking him about his apparent lack of …
Energy From Cows Could Reduce Emissions
Producing more energy from cow manure could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. At the climate summit in Copenhagen, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced an agreement with U.S. dairy producers to accelerate adoption of innovative manure to energy projects on American dairy farms. “This historic agreement, the first of its kind, will help us achieve the ambitious goal of drastically …
USDA Responds To EPA’s Postponement of E15 Waiver
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has responded to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) postponement of the E15 Waiver request. In a statement issued by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Vilsack said, “We are very encouraged that the results of the tests of E15 in newer model cars have been positive. The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) movement towards developing an …