The idea of turning oil into salt may sound like something that should be done in a science lab but Dr. Gal Luft says it’s something that Congress can do with a simple piece of legislation.
Luft, who is executive director of the Institute for Analysis of Global Security, explained his analogy between oil and salt at the 6th Annual Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit in Des Moines on Tuesday.
“Salt used to be the most strategic commodity of all because it was the only way to cure food,” said Luft. “That changed with the invention of canning and refrigeration. Those two simple technologies essentially stripped salt of its strategic status.”
“Just like salt dominated food preservation, oil today dominates transportation,” he continued. “And just like salt’s strategic status was diminished through those simple inventions, oil’s strategic status can be diminished through the technology of flexible fuel vehicles.”
That’s why Luft strongly advocates the simplest solution to diminishing the stranglehold oil has on the transportation industry, and that is requiring all new vehicles sold in the United States to be capable of running on a variety of fuels. “Whether it is ethanol or methanol or butanol, whatever it is, let’s give people choices,” he said, noting that there is just such a bill pending in Congress called the Open Fuel Standard Act.
Luft and co-author Anne Korin wrote a book about the analogy between salt and oil and the importance of fuel choice, called “Turning Oil into Salt”, which was reviewed here on Domestic Fuel in 2009.
Listen to Luft’s address to the 6th annual Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit here: Gal Luft address
Listen to a brief interview with Gal Luft here: Gal Luft interview
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will be a headline speaker on Friday, February 24th, at the 17th annual 
During his tenure, Secretary Vilsack has been a champion for all domestic renewable fuels, including ethanol. Secretary Vilsack has led the charge to modernize America’s fueling infrastructure through the installation of blender pumps. Under his leadership, USDA is investing in new ethanol technologies that will turn abundant materials like grasses, wood wastes, ag residues, and municipal solid waste into ethanol. And, Secretary Vilsack has been a steady voice is combating falsehoods about ethanol, including soundly refuting claims ethanol is the driving factor behind rising food prices.
“The state of Iowa is number one in ethanol, number one in biodiesel, we’re number two in wind energy but that’s number two to Texas and if you look at it per capita, we’re number one in that as well,” Branstad said at the 
In his State of the Union address Tuesday night, President Obama voiced strong support for renewable energy and an end to oil subsidies.
Gen. Kern ended his address to the 
The 
On Friday, January 20, 2012, CARB filed papers asking the Court to reverse its decision and allow the state to continue implementing the LCFS in 2012. Judge O’Neill ruled that CARB “improperly seeks to relitigate issues this Court resolved in its order granting the preliminary injunction and orders on the summary judgment motions.” He further noted that CARB sought not to preserve the “status quo” but rather to “allow enforcement that imposes higher restrictions than had been imposed previously” without citing any authority to show why the Court would have jurisdiction to grant that type of relief.
“Judge O’Neill’s decision demonstrates the strength of our claims against the LCFS,” said 
POET has announced a joint venture with 
The two partners will produce cellulosic ethanol from corn crop residue through a biological process using enzymatic hydrolysis followed by fermentation. The first commercial demonstration of the technology will be at Project Liberty, which is currently being constructed adjacent to POET’s existing corn ethanol plant in Emmetsburg, Iowa. The initial capacity is expected to be 20 million gallons in the first year, growing to approximately 25 million gallons per year.
If you did not register in advance for the 6th annual