Shorter Name But Same Message for Biodiesel Flick

John Davis

fuel-posterLast year at about this time, you might remember we were talking to movie maker Josh Tickell about his biodiesel documentary, “Fields of Fuel.” In fact, Cindy interviewed Tickell right after he showed his award-winning film at 2008’s National Biodiesel Conference & Expo in Orlando, Florida.

Now, the winner of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award for Best Documentary has shortened the title to simply “Fuel,” and the movie is making its debut to a limited number of theaters. The BIOConversion Blog’s C. Scott Miller sent us this review on the film:

“Fuel” is the end product of an eleven year odyssey by Director Josh Tickell in his sunflower festooned, diesel Winnebago called Veggie Van. The traveling show that accompanies the movie release promises to capture attention and stimulate grassroots demand to replace fossil thinking, process, and fuels with renewable energy. “Fuel” could become the communications vehicle that educates the public at large of the liabilities associated with fossil fuels and the benefits of home grown alternatives.

The current film is 111 minutes long and full of geology, biology, physics, politics, and history – most of it personal. It is first and foremost the perspective of a 34 year who grew up not knowing any better. He didn’t know that he couldn’t use the balance of his college student loans to buy a diesel vehicle. He didn’t know whether there would be a low-budget, sustainable way to convert restaurant grease and vegetables into fuel to power his transport. He couldn’t have imagined that he would spend the next eleven years RVing America. To what end? To what purpose? Quite frankly, when you’re 22, who cares.

All he knew was that he wanted to find out if there was a clean alternative to the paradigm that has resulted in the environmental and health disaster of the bayous of his family’s native Louisiana. This region, once home to Cajun culture and bayou ecology, is now dominated by the brown fields of the petro-industry with air, land, and water quality contamination that more than likely will never return to normal. In a stark section of the film about hurricane Katrina, Josh shows an on-land oil spill the size of the Exxon Valdez that was left in the hurricane’s wake – yet never reported in the mainstream media. Why not? Clearly, the petro industry is a “sacred cow” in the state.

“Fuel” is now playing on a few screens across the country. You can visit the movie’s Web site for showtimes and locations and more information.

Biodiesel

More Sorghum Projected for Ethanol Use

Cindy Zimmerman

USDA’s World Agricultural Supply Demand report for February projects more sorghum to be used for ethanol.

SorghumAccording to the report, sorghum food, seed, and industrial use is projected 40 million bushels higher based on indications of increased sorghum use by ethanol plants in the Southern and Central Plains.

The report also noted that ethanol blender and producer margins have recently improved and weekly production of gasoline blends with ethanol has risen. The projected season-average farm price range for corn is narrowed 10 cents on each end to $3.65 to $4.15 per bushel.

Globally, USDA reports coarse grain supplies for 2008/09 are lowered 0.9 million tons this month with reductions in corn production for South America and India and world corn production for 2008/09 is lowered by 4.6 million tons.

corn, Ethanol, News, sorghum

NEVC Applauds Inclusion of Tax Credit Improvement in Stimulus Package

nevcThe economic stimulus package, signed by President Obama, includes an increase in the federal income tax credit for alternative fuel infrastructure. The National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition (NEVC) played a lead role in the inclusion of this incentive and is confident this will lead to a more prominent position of high blends of ethanol in the marketplace.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or H.R. 1, increases the existing Federal alternative fuel infrastructure tax credit of $30,000 or 30 percent of the incremental cost, to $50,000 or 50 percent of the incremental cost. The NEVC began encouraging the inclusion of this additional tax incentive in November of 2008 by forwarding a letter to the Speaker of the House with nearly ninety industry leader signatures. The original infrastructure development provision was part of the 2005 Energy Policy Act.

More than seven million E85 compatible or flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs) are currently driving on American roads. To date, only 1,958 E85 stations exist to fuel these FFVs. Furthermore, Chrysler, Ford Motor Company and General Motors all have promised to increase their flexible fuel model year availability in a few short years. The additional tax credit will assist those struggling fuel retailers to include this clean burning, alternative fuel to their stations.

According to Bernie Punt, chairman of the NEVC and general manager of Siouxland Energy and Livestock Coop., the increased federal income tax credit should be instrumental in the establishment of new fueling systems across the nation. Punt stated, “The NEVC has been focusing on the lack of E85 fueling infrastructure for the past several years. We lead the effort to establish the tax credit in 2005 and to increase the credit in the stimulus bill. The lack of fueling infrastructure remains the major impediment to using high-level blends of ethanol.”

Also included in the recently signed Stimulus Bill is a grant program providing $300 million to the Department of Energy’s Clean Cities program to implement section 721 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The NEVC will be closely monitoring the planned distribution of these funds to encourage DOE to allocate significant portions of the monies to advance E85 fueling systems and educational/marketing efforts.

E85, Equipment, Ethanol, Facilities, Government, National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition, News

BP and Verenium Form Cellulosic Ethanol Venture

Cindy Zimmerman

VereniumBPBP and Verenium Corporation have taken another step in a partnership announced last year by forming a joint venture to develop and commercialize cellulosic ethanol from non-food feedstocks. Both companies have agreed to commit $45 million in funding and assets to the company.

The collaboration will be focused on the development of a commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol facility in Highlands County, Florida and expects to break ground on that site in 2010. The estimated construction cost for this 36 million gallon-per-year facility is between $250 and $300 million. Production from this plant is expected to begin in 2012. With plans to add additional capacity, the joint venture company also intends to develop a second site in the Gulf Coast region.

The joint venture company will initially be based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, will be comprised of a team from both BP and Verenium and will be governed by a board with equal representation from both parent companies.

Cellulosic, Ethanol

Record Distillers Grains Exports

Cindy Zimmerman

Exports of the primary by-product of ethanol production are continuing to skyrocket.

According to USDA’s Foreign Agriculture Service, exports of distillers grains from the United States nearly doubled last year, up more than 90% from 2007 to total 4.51 million metric tons. Distillers grains are an ethanol co-product used as livestock feed.

About one-third of every bushel of corn used to produce ethanol becomes distillers grains, which Renewable Fuels Association Vice President of Research and Analysis Geoff Cooper says have become a very valuable co-product for ethanol producers. “This increasing production and use of distillers grains is providing livestock feeders across the globe with a high protein source of feed that can partially displace the need for whole corn and soybean meal in feed rations,” said Cooper. “As a result, distillers grains are an important and often overlooked component of both the fictitious debate about food versus fuel and the ongoing discourse surrounding the science of land use change.”

The largest markets for exports of distillers grains from the United States in 2008 were Mexico, Canada and Turkey.

Distillers Grains, Ethanol, RFA, USDA

REG Opens Houston Biodiesel Truck Loading Facility

John Davis

regbiodiesel2Less than six months after opening a biodiesel plant in petroleum country, Iowa-based Renewable Energy Group has opened its Houston biodiesel facility for 24-hour a day pickup for trucks… the first of its kind in the Houston area.

This story from the Houston Business Journal has details:

“The current market conditions in Texas make biodiesel a tremendous choice for truck stops and petroleum distributors throughout the Gulf Coast,” REG Vice President of sales and marketing Gary Haer said.

The Seabrook production facility is capable of producing 35 million gallons a year of B99 or B100 biodiesel, and proximity to diesel terminals allows in-truck splash blending.

Purchasers will receive Renewable Identification Numbers currently worth 20 cents a gallon, and will be exempt from Texas’ 20-cents-per-gallon state excise tax.

Biodiesel

Oklahoma Moves Forward on Alt Fuel Bills

John Davis

A pair of bills that will give Oklahomans who choose alternative energy to heat and cool their homes and run their vehicles a break on their taxes continue their way through the state’s legislature.

chris_bengeThis story from The Daily Oklahoman says House Speaker Chris Benge’s bills are designed to lessen the dependence on foreign oil and could be applied nationally:

House Bill 1948 would provide a 5 percent tax credit for residents and businesses who would buy a geothermal heat pump system. House Bill 1949 is intended to double the number of publicly available compressed natural gas fueling stations and give Oklahomans tax credits to help them make a transition to alternative fuel vehicles.

Benge, R-Tulsa, said other energy-related measures to be taken up this session deal with solar, nuclear and wind power.

It’s estimated HB 1948 would cost the state about $850,000 a year while no estimate has determined yet how much HB 1949 would cost, Benge said.

Benge authored HB 1949 last summer when gasoline prices were about $4 a gallon in the state. Gasoline prices have dropped more than half since then, but Benge said it’s still important for Oklahoma to push an energy plan.

“Once the economy picks back up, we’re expecting the gasoline prices to go up again because that demand’s going to be there,” he said.

Government, Legislation, Miscellaneous

American Lung Assn. of WI Sponsors E85 Snowmobile Challenge Team

uw_snowmobile_teamThe American Lung Association of Wisconsin will be sponsoring the UW-Platteville Society of Automotive Engineering (SAE) Clean Snowmobile Challenge team in a project designed to inspire students and showcase innovative, cleaner energy technologies. As part of SAE’s Clean Snowmobile Challenge, the group modified a stock snowmobile to operate on E85.

Since its inception 10 years ago, the “challenge” of each competition has been for students to modify a stock snowmobile to meet a series of requirements, including air pollution levels. Last year, snowmobiles were required to run on ethanol. This year, snowmobiles must run not just on pure ethanol, but on any blend up to 85 percent, making these true flex-fuel vehicles.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has managed snowmobile air quality regulations since 2006, according to lead event organizer Jay Meldrum. According to Meldrum, the EPA has established regulations that significantly reduce acceptable levels of hydrocarbons, carbon and oxides of nitrogen in snowmobile exhaust. “Our teams are proving at each competition that we can beat the emissions and noise standards with practical solutions,” says Meldrum.

The team has been on the move, promoting their unique machine across the state. The UW-Platteville snowmobile served as the pace sled of the AMSOil World Championship Snowmobile Derby in Eagle River in January, and was displayed at the 2009 Corn/Soy Expo in Wisconsin Dells. This year’s competition will be held March 16-21 at Michigan Tech University.

E85, Ethanol

Stimulus Includes Billions for Renewables

Cindy Zimmerman

Obama stimulus signRenewable energy and biofuels are among the big winners in the $787 billion economic stimulus package signed by President Barack Obama today.

“Because we know we can’t power America’s future on energy that’s controlled by foreign dictators, we are taking big steps down the road to energy independence, laying the groundwork for new green energy economies that can create countless well-paying jobs,” said President Obama during the signing ceremony. “It’s an investment that will double the amount of renewable energy produced over the next three years. Think about that — double the amount of renewable energy in three years.”

Provisions that will benefit the domestic energy industry include $16.8 billion for the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Program. That funding specifies $800 million for projects related to biomass and $400 million for geothermal activities and projects, as well as $300 million for the Alternative Fueled Vehicles Pilot Grant Program.

AFBF StallmanThe American Farm Bureau Federation is among many organizations praising the stimulus package.

AFBF president Bob Stallman says the renewable energy provisions in the package will help the agriculture industry and all Americans through the economic recovery period.

“The tax incentives for renewable energy, particularly for new renewable fuels, will help build an industry that will provide farmers and ranchers with income and the rural economy with jobs, while contributing to a cleaner environment and reducing dependence on imported oil,” said Stallman in a statement today.

Energy, Ethanol, Farming, Government, News

Musical Activist to Headline World Biofuels Meeting

Cindy Zimmerman

Activist and musician Bob Geldof has been announced as the keynote speaker at World Biofuels Markets 2009 (WBM09) to be held March 16-19 in Brussels, Belgium.

Geldof, an Irish musician who launched his activist career by organizing Live Aid in 1985, will discuss how he believes biofuels can help developing countries become more energy independent without impacting food production. He and along with other speakers will discuss the sustainable bio future and how this could help eradicate poverty, particularly across the African continent.

In an interview with WBM, Geldof explained how he sees biofuels helping Africa. “Import substitution. More money in the economy. More jobs. Domestic fuel at the local level,” he says. “Africa has always used “bio-fuel” as a primary source – wood, dung, residue etc. They can build responsibly on this tradition.”

The WBM09 website states: Biofuels has come under a concerted media campaign alleging that they are all unsustainable and have adverse impacts. Some biofuels can be harmful to the environment but most biofuels provide a positive energy balance, can play an increasing role in reducing transport emissions, can be developed from feedstocks without impacting food production, can be grown on land without impacting delicate ecosystems or water use, can help alleviate poverty in developing countries.

conferences, Energy, Ethanol, International