ACE Conference 2026

Alcohol Can Be A Gas Live Event Recorded

Chuck Zimmerman

Dave Blume’s Alcohol Fuel For Sustainable Living and the International Institute for Ecological Agriculture held a live event today which you can watch the recording of below. It was conducted at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles this morning.

Presenters included Actor/activist Daryl Hannah, actor/activist Ed Begley Jr. (honorary MC), L. Hunter Lovins (President of Natural Capital Solutions) and David Blume (author Amazon.com best selling Alcohol Can Be A Gas!).

Included in the presentation are:

* Tour the Daryl Hannah Pontiac TransAm Firebird (featured in the movie series Kill Bill) newly converted to run on Alcohol Fuel, too cool/totally GREEN
* Watch Ed Begley Jr. (as he Daryl Hannah and David Blume) install an Alcohol Fuel conversion kit in Ed’s Toyota Prius (easy and practical!)
* Hear global sustainability initiative report from Hunter Lovins (as she recently presented at the International Green Industry Conference in Asia)
* Witness a smog shoot-out between gas and Alcohol Fuel powered cars
* See home heating and cooking solutions that run on Alcohol Fuel
* Learn how Permaculture science and small-scale Alcohol Fuel production are being used globally to create economic and ecological balance

Ethanol, Video

E85 Promotion in Sauke Center, MN

ala-mnAn E85 promotion will be held at the Holiday Kranz Super Stop at 1185 Main Street South in Sauke Center, Minnesota on Tuesday September 29. The alternative fuel will sell for 85 cents off per gallon from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Additional in-store specials will be a 2-liter of Pepsi for 85 cents and 85 cents deluxe car wash with E85 purchase.

mn_corngrowers_assnEvent Supporters include the Stearns County Corn Growers, Kranz Super Stop (Holiday), Minnesota Corn Growers Association, American Lung Association in Minnesota and the Minnesota Clean Air Choice™.

There are now 361 E85 fueling locations in the state of Minnesota; the most E85 stations of any state.

corn, E85, Ethanol, Facilities, News

Get Renewed With RFA

Chuck Zimmerman

Renewable Fuels Association LogoAs I posted earlier, RFA has a new logo. That prompted me to call on CEO Bob Dinneen, the Reverend of Renewable Fuels, to find out what the new look signifies for the organization. To start with, Bob says that RFA has doubled in staff size in the last 18 months with new staff in the area of marketing, technical resources and lobbying. He says that just as the industry has grown they’ve had to grow to continue to serve it. He says they have more than 100 years of ethanol experience represented on the staff.

Bob sees that the challenges faced by the industry have grown along with it. So he sees it as a dynamic industry and marketplace that RFA has had to adapt to. He sees improvements in the industry financially just as improvements are being seen in the economy in general but it is still “tough.”

Bob says the organization will be holding its annual meeting this week and members will be discussing priorities for RFA like the RFS2 and “helping EPA get it right” and next year’s sunset of the ethanol tax incentive. He believes the industry is up to the challenges though.

Listen to my interview with Bob below:

Audio, Ethanol, Ethanol News, RFA

Department of Energy Awards POET $6.85 Million

Joanna Schroeder

COB2-300x279The Department of Energy (DOE) awarded POET $6.85 million to help establish a market for corn cobs. This is the first portion of the funds which are expected to provide an additional $13.15 million next year. Cobs are the feedstock for POET’s effort to commercialize cellulosic ethanol which is officially dubbed Project LIBERTY and under construction in Emmetsburg, Iowa.

The second portion of the funds will be dedicated to helping develop the feedstock infrastructure for cellulosic ethanol production. For many months, POET has been working with equipment manufacturers to help speed the process of getting cob-harvesting technology into fields.

“DOE has shown an incredible commitment to speeding the commercialization of cellulosic ethanol,” POET CEO Jeff Broin said. “With this grant, we’ll be able to help farmers take advantage of this new revenue stream while helping our nation realize all the benefits of second-generation ethanol.”

The DOE has been a major supporter of Project LIBERTY. The two grant increases will bring the total financial commitment from DOE to $100 million. The entire project is estimated to cost $250 million and is expected to go online in 2011.

Cellulosic, corn, Ethanol, News

Ethanol Co-Product Demand in China

Cindy Zimmerman

The U.S. Grains Council’s (USGC) Annual China Corn Tour currently underway is finding big demand for the ethanol co-product distillers dried grains for livestock feed in that country.

According to Cary Sifferath, USGC Senior Director in China, drought conditions in China this year have led to high corn prices. “Those high prices have led to some opportunities for US feed grains products, specifically distillers dried grains (DDGS) products from the US ethanol industry,” Cary said. “We had roughly 8,000 metric tons of DDGS that was exported from the US into China and right now for 2009 we can easily predict 250,000 to 300,000 tons of distillers dried grains being imported by China’s feed and livestock industry, especially in the southern and coastal areas of China where DDGS has become a very competitive feed ingredient.”

Drought conditions in some areas of China are expected to result in crop losses of up to 50 percent this year.

Pictured in the photo are Sam Niu, USGC assistant director for China, Sifferath, and National Corn Growers Association board member Guy Davenport of North Carolina.

corn, Distillers Grains, Ethanol, Ethanol News

RFA Announces New Logo

Chuck Zimmerman

Renewable Fuels Association LogoThe Renewable Fuels Association has a new look and color scheme. The organization announced their new logo today but says they will supply the “same great service.”

The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA), long recognized as the voice of America’s ethanol industry, has gone through some changes in the past 24 months. New staff additions have bolstered the RFA’s already unparalleled expertise and expanded its activities beyond its traditional role as ethanol’s chief advocate in Washington.

Given the additions and expanded capabilities of the association, the RFA has refreshed its logo and color scheme. For more information on the logo, including how to use it in place of the old logo, please email Christina Martin at cmartin@ethanolrfa.org.

RFA President Bob Dinneen welcomed both the expanded capabilities of the association as well as the unveiling of the new logo:

“America’s ethanol producers are in a constant state of innovation, creating new processes and developing new technologies that will increase our ability to produce ethanol is an increasingly sustainable manner. As it is with the ethanol producers, so too is it with the trade association representing them. The Renewable Fuels Association has undergone a transformation over the past 24 months, adding expertise and capabilities to better serve America’s ethanol industry beyond its traditional role as the voice of the industry in Washington. Such expansion in the capabilities of the RFA required a refreshing of our logo and image. Thus, the new look – but same unparalleled expertise – of the Renewable Fuels Association. “

RFA

Wisconsin Corn Ethanol Sponsors Lung Walk

Cindy Zimmerman

Wisconsin’s corn ethanol industry is putting on the green and walking for clean air at Milwaukee’s annual Lung Walk October 4 at the Milwaukee County Zoo and is offering free Green Team T-shirts to everyone who joins them.

The walk is a major fund-raising event that helps the ALA, the oldest nationwide voluntary health agency in the United States, fight lung disease through education, community service, public policy and research. As part of the year’s promotional efforts supported by Wisconsin’s corn checkoff, the Wisconsin Corn Promotion Board is the official sponsor of the Lung Walk’s Green E85 Team and paid for the commemorative T-shirts shirts for all team members. Badger State Ethanol, Didion Ethanol, United Ethanol and the UWGP ethanol plant, along with several individual corn growers made major donations to the Green E85 Team effort, helping meet the team fund raising goal of $1,500.

corn, Ethanol, Ethanol News

Ethanol Plants Left Out of Greenhouse Gas Reporting

Cindy Zimmerman

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued final regulations for the nation’s first greenhouse gas reporting system to begin in 2010, but ethanol plants have been removed from the initial list of facilities required to report emissions.

EPAThe regulations require large emitters of heat-trapping emissions to begin collecting greenhouse gas (GHG) data under the new program which will cover approximately 85 percent of the nation’s GHG emissions and apply to roughly 10,000 facilities. Ethanol plants were on the list when it was first proposed in March.

According to EPA, the new reporting system will provide a better understanding of where GHGs are coming from and will guide development of the best possible policies and programs to reduce emissions. The data will also allow businesses to track their own emissions, compare them to similar facilities, and provide assistance in identifying cost effective ways to reduce emissions in the future. This comprehensive, nationwide emissions data will help in the fight against climate change.

Among the facilities that are included in the program are extractors of crude petroleum and natural gas, coal and oil refineries, industrial landfills, and wastewater treatment plants.

Environment, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Government

ACE Responds to Ethanol Attack Ad

Cindy Zimmerman

The American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) is calling claims made by an advertising campaign against ethanol by a coalition food and oil company groups “half-baked.”

ACE“If the products sold to consumers by Big Food are as half-baked as their ethanol claims, we have a life-threatening food safety crisis in America,” stated Brian Jennings, Executive Vice President of ACE. “Never before has more corn been used to make more ethanol, and yet retail food prices have fallen sharply this year.”

Jennings issued the statement in response to an anti-ethanol ad last week in the Capitol Hill publication Roll Call, that was funded by the American Meat Institute, Grocery Manufacturers Association, National Petrochemical and Refiners Association, Environmental Working Group and others. The ad claimed that moving from 10 percent ethanol in gasoline up to E15 would be bad for consumers, the environment, and rural communities.

“This coalition of strange bedfellows is both desperate and naïve,” Jennings said. “Oil and food companies are desperate and will resort to anything to protect the status quo of cheap corn and expensive oil. Some environmental groups naively believe getting rid of corn ethanol today, in hopes that some other potentially promising but not yet commercialized technology will be available tomorrow, will somehow reduce air pollution.”

EPA is currently considering a petition that would increase the amount of ethanol allowed in regular gasoline to 15 percent from the current 10 percent.

ACE, Ethanol, Ethanol News, food and fuel, Food prices

Farmers Become Guardians of Ethanol Plant

Cindy Zimmerman

RFAA group of farmer-owned ethanol plants in Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska have teamed up become the guardians of a former VeraSun facility in Janesville, Minn.

Guardian Energy is a joint venture between ethanol plants in Little Falls, Benson, Claremont, and Winthrop, Minnesota as well as Mason City, Iowa and Minden, Nebraska that last week closed on the purchase of the 100 million gallon per year ethanol plant in Janesville.

“Drawing on the experience of its member plants, Guardian Energy is rapidly working to bring the facility on line this fall,” said interim CEO and Board President Randall Doyal. “We are actively recruiting and interviewing candidates from across the region to fill more than 45 new jobs. We will work closely with local farmers to create a new, value-added market for their corn, as well as with other local suppliers who are already at work completing the plant, putting the finishing touches on the plant site, and bringing in supplies necessary to operate the facility.” Doyal also serves as CEO of Al-Corn Clean Fuel.

Guardian Energy LLC is the cooperative effort six midwestern farmer owned ethanol plants which have a philosophy that the economic benefits of producing ethanol should stay in the local communities and that has been key to the success of each of the member plants involved in Guardian Energy. Guardian Energy negotiated with the banks holding the Janesville facility, and their negotiations led to the successful close and transfer of ownership to Guardian Energy on September 23.

The six facilities comprising Guardian Energy are Al-Corn Clean Fuel, Central Minnesota Ethanol, Chippewa Valley Ethanol Company, Golden Grain Energy, Heartland Corn Products, and KAPPA Ethanol.

Ethanol, Ethanol News, Facilities