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Ethanol Advertising Blitz

Cindy Zimmerman

Expect to see ethanol advertising saturating the airwaves over the next few months.

poet adGrowth Energy and POET both announced major television advertising campaigns this morning that will air on major cable television networks, including Fox News, MSNBC, CNBC, and CNN. The POET campaign includes three ads, each representing a different aspect of ethanol production with a farmer, a scientist and a plant manager reciting free-verse poetry explaining their role in helping solve our nation’s fuel crisis.

Growth Energy, which is co-chaired by POET CEO Jeff Broin, introduced a $2.5 million campaign with six television spots during a live webcast from Washington DC this morning. Co-chairman General Wesley Clark, advisory board member Jim Nussle and CEO Tom Buis joined together for the announcement.

growth energy nussle buis clark“This is a dramatic step for domestic ethanol, it is a first for our industry,” Buis announced. “Never before has American ethanol developed a sustained TV ad campaign.”

“With this ad campaign, we’re going to make the case for America’s fuel – for ethanol – and it’s a forceful case for ending our addiction to foreign oil,” said Clark. “I think TV is the best way to shape public opinion.”

“American ethanol is engaging the nation in a way that has never been done before,” Nussle added. “America’s ethanol industry hopes to engage the American people in the conversation about America’s energy security.”

The campaign is called “America’s Fuel” and each of the six spots focuses on a particular message about ethanol: Independent, Clean, Renewable, Peace, Sensible and Economic. The spots began airing at 6 a.m. today and will continue for six months.

But “America’s Fuel” will have some competition from “Brazil’s Fuel” as the Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association (UNICA) also launched a campaign today aimed at explaining the benefits of sugarcane ethanol. UNICA’s campaign includes a new website, SweeterAlternative.com, online, print and radio advertising, new research and a high-profile partnership with the Indy Racing League.

Listen to the opening statements from the Growth Energy press conference in the player below:

Audio, Ethanol, Growth Energy, POET

USDA Experts Say Ethanol Blend Wall is Close

Cindy Zimmerman

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 is closing in.

“We’ve seen a sharp drop in ethanol prices,” USDA Outlook Board Gerry Bange adds in a USDA radio report, which he says has cut returns for ethanol producers dramatically.

That means that the future for the industry may very well hinge on the decision EPA has yet to make – moving the allowable blend level for ethanol in gasoline up to 15 percent from the current 10. “Given the fact that gasoline consumption in this country simply is not growing very rapidly and has essentially been flat for some time now, we are getting to the point where we simply have absorbed as much ethanol as we can under the current E10 legislation,” said Bange.

USDA’s latest supply-demand report out Friday left projected 2009-10 corn use for ethanol unchanged at 4.3 million bushels but lowered corn feed and residual use by 100 million bushels lower as March 1 stocks and a record January ethanol production indicate lower-than-expected December-February feed and residual disappearance.

Ethanol, Ethanol News, USDA

Economist Defends Ethanol Jobs Numbers

Cindy Zimmerman

Nat GreeneIn a commentary on the Natural Resources Defense Council blog, the organization’s Director of Renewable Energy Policy Nathanael Greene criticizes the ethanol industry for what he calls a “highly inflated jobs study” released earlier this week. Greene claims the industry’s jobs numbers are “way off” because they use both inflated jobs multipliers and inflated economic impact, creating what he calls “wonky numbers.”

The author of the study, John Urbanchuk of Entrix, provided a detailed defense of his analysis in a comment on Greene’s post.

John UrbanchukDefending the job multiplier, Urbanchuk writes, “Mr. Greene accuses me of using “inflated” jobs multipliers and suggests that “… a multiplier of 6 is aggressive. A multiplier of 3-4 is more realistic …” I used the RIMS II final demand employment multipliers for supplying industries calculated by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.”

Greene also accuses the ethanol industry of “magically creating thousands of corn growing jobs that would have existed anyway,” which Urbanchuk also defends.

“Our analysis estimates the number of jobs in the corn sector supported by ethanol and at risk if the VEETC is eliminated. The loss of 4 billion gallons of ethanol is the equivalent of 1.5 billion bushels of corn, or about 11% of total corn utilization. Mr. Greene assumes that if corn demand is reduced by lower ethanol production, corn growers will continue to plant and produce the same amount of corn regardless. Supply and demand, Mr. Greene … supply will adjust to lower demand … fewer acres and bushels translates to fewer jobs to plant, treat, harvest, transport corn … not to mention to provide all of the ancillary tasks on the farm. Moreover, during the whole international land use change debate the environmental community said if we weren’t growing corn for ethanol, all that land would “revert to nature.” It now appears that the claim is that if we weren’t growing corn for ethanol, we’d be growing the same amount anyway for some other else. In other words and to parody a famous movie “if you grow it, they will buy it”! You can’t have it both ways.”

Read Greene’s entire post and Urbanchuk’s response here.

Environment, Ethanol, Ethanol News, RFA

Growth Energy to Unveil Ethanol TV Campaign

Cindy Zimmerman

Growth EnergyGrowth Energy is set to unveil an aggressive new television advertising campaign on Monday and is planning “watch parties” and press conferences at different locations around the country to kickoff the new commercials, as well as a live webcast. The $2.5 million national TV advertising campaign is being called a first for the ethanol industry.

Growth Energy leadership, including co-chairman General Wesley Clark, CEO Tom Buis, and advisory board member Jim Nussle will make the announcement at 10:00 am Eastern time Monday from Washington, DC to introduce the six television spots that are set to air on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Headline News. “Watch Parties” have already been scheduled in Wisconsin at the State Capitol and in Sacramento, California at The Citizen Hotel.

Find out more on Growth Energy’s newly revamped website.

Ethanol, Growth Energy, Promotion

Brown Adds to Green Fleet

John Davis

Shipping giant UPS has added to its fleet of alternative-fueled vehicles with 200 next-generation hybrid electric delivery trucks in eight U.S. cities.

This company press release says the HEVs will be used in Austin, Houston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Long Island, Minneapolis and Louisville, and they will add to UPS’ fleet of about 20,000 low-emission and alternative-fuel vehicles already in use:

“We’re proud of this large HEV deployment to major cities in the United States,” said Bob Stoffel, UPS senior vice president of supply chain, strategy, engineering and sustainability. “This technology, where properly used, can yield a 35 percent fuel savings, the equivalent of 100 conventional UPS delivery vehicles.”

The 200 new HEV delivery trucks are expected to reduce fuel consumption by roughly 176,000 gallons over the course of a year compared to an equivalent number of traditional diesel trucks. The hybrids also should reduce by 1,786 metric tons the amount of CO2 gases released annually into the atmosphere.

The new hybrid power system utilizes a conventional diesel engine combined with a battery pack, saving fuel and reducing pollution-causing emissions. The small diesel is used to recharge the battery pack and to add power when necessary.

The HEVs also use regenerative braking. The energy generated from applying the brakes is captured and returned to the battery as electricity. The combination of clean diesel power and electric power, supplemented by regenerative braking, allows dramatic improvements in fuel savings and emissions reductions.

The trucks will look just like the brown delivery trucks we’re all used to seeing, except they will also have labels identifying them as hybrid electrics. Now, if they’ll just use biodiesel as their TRUE clean diesel source.

Electric Vehicles

Navy Gets Advanced Biodiesel Production System

John Davis

On the heels of the U.S. Navy announcing closer cooperation with the USDA in the use of biofuels, an advanced biodiesel production system has been delivered to a Navy installation in California.

This press release from Biodiesel Industries says Naval Base Ventura County has received the first ARIES biodiesel production system … a joint effort by the Navy, Biodiesel Industries and Aerojet to produce a sustainable and reliable form of biodiesel from local resources:

The new system, named ARIES (Automated Real-time, Remote, Integrated Energy System), is a highly automated, transportable biodiesel production unit that can be controlled from a remote location. These features ensure reliable process control and optimal production yields in a sustainable system that can be readily and widely deployed.

Russell Teall, President and Founder of Biodiesel Industries explained, “Creating truly sustainable systems requires a thorough understanding of every aspect of biodieselproduction, from feedstocks to finished products. The Integrated Energy System incorporated into ARIES will eventually allow us to generate our own heat and power,and to feed the surplus into a local micro-grid. These Energy Islands will support the local community with renewable and sustainable fuel, electricity and heat.”

The release goes on to say the beauty of ARIES is its flexibility to use a variety local, non-food feedstocks and its ability to remotely operate hundreds of scalable facilities that can produce as much as 3-10 million gallons a year. In addition, a rugged 100,000 Mini-MPU has been developed for use by the military. And that makes ARIES deployable around the world.

Biodiesel

Ethanol Starts 2010 With Record Production

Cindy Zimmerman

U.S. ethanol production began 2010 on a record pace. The latest report from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) puts January 2010 ethanol production at an average of more than 818,000 barrels per day, compared to 188,000 in January 2009. EIA also reports fuel ethanol imports of 1.4 million gallons in January.

Renewable Fuels Association LogoEthanol demand, as calculated by the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA), also reached an all time high at 784,000 b/d in January, up from 644,000 b/d a year ago.

RFA President Bob Dinneen says the increased production and demand are good news, but continue to point out the need for increasing the blend level of ethanol in gasoline. “American ethanol producers continue to provide increasing supplies of a renewable alternative to imported oil,” said Dinneen. “Due to antiquated regulations, however, American drivers are being prevented access to increased use of ethanol and ethanol blends. The increase seen in ethanol reserves during a time of great economic advantage in ethanol pricing speaks directly to the need for EPA to allow up to 15% ethanol blends for all vehicles, regardless of model year.”

Ethanol, Ethanol News, RFA

USDA Biomass Crop Assistance Program Successful

Joanna Schroeder

According to Jonathan Coppess, USDA Farm Service Agency Administrator, biomass producers, energy facilities and communities are benefiting from USDA’s Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP). Through April 2, 2010, USDA has approved 4,605 agreements for the delivery of more than 4.18 million tons of biomass and paid eligible biomass owners $165,274,695 in matching payments under BCAP’s first phase. BCAP was established in the 2008 Farm Bill.

“We’ve had dozens of reports from biomass producers, energy facilities and communities that are benefiting from BCAP payments right now, which shows the incredible potential of this innovative program,” said Coppess.

The program authorized USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) to help those producing biomass by providing matching payments for the collection, harvest, storage and transportation of eligible biomass delivered to approved facilities to convert it to biofuels. FSA service centers across the country have issued payments of up to $45 per dry ton for eligible biomass deliveries. Biomass is any organic matter that is available on a renewable or recurring basis including: agricultural commodities, plants, trees, algae, and other animal, vegetative and wood waste materials.

“Congress directed USDA to establish a program to encourage farmers and forest landowners to help develop the biomass supply chain and accelerate energy independence, rural economic development and renewable sources of energy,” said Coppess. “Since we issued initial guidance last June, BCAP has gathered momentum and our efforts to expedite matching payments provided valuable, real-world information and experiences that will inform the crafting of the final regulation, as well as some much-needed economic stimulus in many rural areas.

Once the final rule for the program is approved, it will provide funding for producers of renewable biomass who establish new biomass crops within select geographical areas and will continue to provide matching payments for deliveries of eligible materials. Click here to access charts showing BCAP Collection, Harvest, Storage & Transportation Component and Summary Reports.

biofuels, biomass, Farming, News

Biofuels Benchmarking Annual Report Released

Joanna Schroeder

Today, Christianson & Associates, PLLP (C&A) has released a new in-depth report that looks into ethanol plant efficiency and financial viability. The Biofuels Benchmarking Annual Report is in its 7th year and analyzed the operational and financial performance of more than 50 ethanol plants along five major “bench” areas: overall ethanol industry analysis, regional ethanol plant analysis, production capacity analysis, plant production efficiency analysis and balance sheet analysis.

Brian Jennings, the Executive Vice President for the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) notes that this report is yet more proof that ethanol is a sustainable way for our country to produce fuel.

“This report proves that ethanol producers are getting more efficient every day, indicating that ethanol facilities producing WDGS use only about 19,000 BTU’s of energy to make just one gallon of ethanol. As we continue to point out that ethanol is getting more efficient as oil is getting less sustainable, this is the sort of data that helps reinforce and prove our point,” said Jennings.

C&A has the most robust benchmarking programs available for the ethanol industry. The program enables participants to measure themselves in over 90 financial and operational factors on a quarterly basis and compare their results to others in the industry. Ultimately the program helps plants identify their strengths and weaknesses as a tool to improve their financial outlook.

“Not only is this annual report a valuable tool for ethanol producers, it is also a helpful resource for public and private researchers and analysts who are looking for unbiased, independent data and information to assist them in their own analytical efforts,” said Geoff Cooper, Vice President Research for the Renewable Fuels Association.

The Biofuels Benchmarking Report is available for free to all current Christianson & Associates Biofuels Benchmarking participants. In addition, members of the media, academia and current legislative and executive branch members may also receive a free copy. Current RFA and ACE members will receive the report for a discounted amount of $250.00; all others can purchase the report for $500.00. Click here to order your copy.Read More

biofuels, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Research

Constellation Energy Buys Maryland Wind Project

John Davis

Constellation Energy has finished a deal to buy the 70-megawatt Western Maryland Criterion wind project from Clipper Windpower, Inc.

This Constellation press release says the deal includes purchasing 28 Clipper Liberty 2.5-megawatt wind turbines for the project:

“Maryland’s clean energy goals are among the most ambitious in the nation and we’re committed to working with the state to achieve them by investing in an array of solar, wind, biomass and other sustainable energy projects,” said Kathleen W. Hyle, senior vice president, Constellation Energy, and chief operating officer, Constellation Energy Resources. “The market for clean energy products and services is growing rapidly in Maryland and across competitive energy markets nationwide. Investments in sustainable energy sources improve the environment by reducing carbon emissions, spur much-needed job growth and allow us to broaden our clean energy product offerings for customers.”

The project has entered into a 20-year power purchase agreement with the Old Dominion Electric Cooperative for energy and renewable energy credits produced by the wind facility. Old Dominion is a not-for-profit wholesale power provider serving public electric cooperatives in Maryland, Delaware and Virginia.

The project is expected to be operating commercially by the end of this year.

Wind