ACE Thanks EPA Administrator for Support

Cindy Zimmerman

ACEThe American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) sent a letter this week to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson thanking her for EPA’s consideration of the application for approval to use ethanol blends up to E15.

EPA Lisa Jackson Addresses ACEJust a few days before the waiver petition was filed, Administrator Jackson met with a group of 30 ethanol supporters who traveled to Washington DC for the “Biofuels Beltway March,” a grassroots ethanol advocacy fly-in organized by ACE. In the letter, ACE executive vice president Brian Jennings expressed his appreciation to Jackson for taking time to meet with the group.

“We are most grateful you took the time to address our concerns about the E10 blend wall and the role EPA has in examining the scientific data to consider how midlevel blends, up to E15, may be approved for use in motor vehicles,” said Jennings. “ACE agrees with you that science, not politics, must drive the decision to move beyond E10. We are further convinced the scientific data contained in our petition and available today on the use of blends up to 15 in legacy motor vehicles justifies its approval.”

Jennings also invited Jackson to visit “a modern-day, state-of-the-art ethanol biorefinery to discover more about how technology innovations are helping biofuels contribute to a low-carbon future” and offered to arrange a tour of a facility for the administrator or her staff.

ACE, blends, Energy, Environment, Ethanol, Government

Ethanol Workshop Celebrates 25 Years

Cindy Zimmerman

2009 marks the silver anniversary of the Fuel Ethanol Workshop, the industry’s largest and most widely attended expo and educational event.

FEW 09With the economy in mind, the 2009 International Fuel Ethanol Workshop & Expo has joined with the 2009 International Distillers Grains Conference & Trade Show and the Advanced Biofuels Workshop, to give industry professionals the ability to attend all three shows in one trip. In addition, FEW is offering a special deal for all existing and under construction ethanol plants to send two members of their team for free.

All three events will be held at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, with the Distillers Grains Conference kicking it off on June 14-15. The Advance Biofuels Workshop will be held on June 15 and the 2009 FEW on June 15-18.

Registration information and details for all three events, which are all organized by BBI International, can be found on-line here.

conferences, Distillers Grains, Ethanol, FEW

California Low Carbon Fuel Standard Criticized

Cindy Zimmerman

The California State Senate Committee on Transportation and Housing heard testimony Monday from the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) criticizing the proposed Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS).

RFA Vice President of Research Geoff Cooper testified on behalf of the ethanol industry that under the standard proposed by the state Air Resources Board (ARB) “biofuels are penalized for a highly uncertain and unproven market-mediated effect known as indirect land use change, while petroleum and other fuel types are assumed not to cause any indirect or market-mediated impacts.”

RFARFA’s testimony reflects the views of 111 scientists, researchers, and academics from California and around the country who wrote Governor Schwarzenegger recently stating, “Leaving aside the issue of whether these [indirect] effects can be predicted with precision or accuracy, or whether such a penalty is appropriate for the LCFS, it is clear that indirect effects should not be enforced against only one fuel pathway.”

In addition, RFA is concerned that the proposed standard “has the potential to undermine the development of next generation biofuels, like cellulosic ethanol, because of the arbitrary nature in which the carbon accounting modeling is applied to biofuels and ethanol specifically.” Cooper testified that “artificially limiting the use of first generation biofuels may inadvertently “blow up the bridge” to future renewable fuels.”

Cooper suggested that the ARB change the proposal by improving the modeling used and including more current data for agricultural yields and the impact of distillers grains, the feed co-product of ethanol production, on reducing the need for additional crop acres. He also suggested that ARB initiate a comprehensive evaluation of the indirect impacts of other fuels under consideration, including gasoline, electricity, natural gas, and others to ensure an accurate performance-based regulation and organize a multi-disciplined group of disinterested economists, climate experts and other scientists to evaluate the accuracy of ARB’s work.

Environment, Ethanol, RFA

Nebraska, U.S. on the Cusp of Wind Energy Boom

John Davis

wind_turbineDespite having some pretty wind-swept plains, Nebraska has lagged behind other states in wind energy production… including its closest neighbor to the east, Iowa, which boast the nation’s second largest amount of wind energy produced. But that could soon change.

This article from the Omaha (NE) World-Herald says Pres. Barack Obama’s push for renewable energy could help Nebraska catch up, while giving the nation’s wind energy production a boost:

The push could create hundreds of thousands of jobs in the wind energy industry alone, and experts say there is still time for Nebraska to join in the boom.

“Nebraska historically has been a conservative state, and I think we took a conservative approach to wind,” said Dave Rich, manager of renewable energy programs for the Nebraska Public Power District. “We’re behind, but we think there are still opportunities for Nebraska.”

Wind isn’t the only area where Nebraska and Iowa can capitalize on Obama’s green jobs push, which began with passage last month of the president’s stimulus plan.

The article goes on to point out that wind energy jobs in the U.S. grew from 50,000 to 85,000 during 2008. And if the U.S. gets just 20 percent of its power from wind by 2030, the wind energy industry will grow by 12 times.

Wind

Encore Energy Buying Troubled Biodiesel Plants

John Davis

encoreenergyMississippi-based Encore Energy has announced it is buying up biodiesel plants that are not producing at their capacity.

Biofuels International reports the move comes on the heels of the company’s move to team up with another firm to provide plant management and feedstock allocation… moves that I’m sure are not just coincidental:

This represents a major component of the company’s 2009 growth plan. It believes that consolidation of biodiesel assets will position the company as a premier producer and distributor of biodiesel nationwide.

Encore Energy Systems has also entered into an agreement with Chicago-based Zenergy International to provide biofuel plant management services and feedstock allocation. The agreement provides mission critical management and provisioning services to Encore Energy Systems’ biofuel production facilities as required.

Biodiesel

AT&T Makes Big Investment in Alt Fuel Vehicles

John Davis

Communications giant AT&T is putting more than 15,000 alternatively-fueled vehicles on the road… a $565 million venture aimed at helping the environment and saving the company gasoline costs.

This story from Bloomberg says Chief Executive Officer Randall Stephenson figures replacing the company’s cars with electric hybrids and more energy-efficient vehicles will save AT&T 49 million gallons of gas over the next 10 years:

Stephenson said the new vehicles, which would amount to about one-fifth of AT&T’s current fleet, also will produce 25 percent fewer greenhouse-gas emissions — atmospheric gases that overheat the planet. The strategy falls in line with President Barack Obama’s goal of capping emissions to fight global warming.

Company officials say more than half of the vehicles will run on compressed natural gas (CNG), and the move is expected to reduce carbon emissions the equivalent of taking more than 38,600 traditional passenger vehicles off the road for a year.

Miscellaneous

Joint Work Toward Ethanol Pipeline

Cindy Zimmerman

The nation’s largest ethanol producer is joining forces with a fuel transportation and distribution company to work on the development of a pipeline to deliver ethanol from the Midwest to distribution terminals in the northeastern United States.

South Dakota-based POET just signed a joint development agreement with Magellan Midstream Partners of Tulsa, Oklahoma to continue assessing the feasibility of constructing a dedicated ethanol pipeline.

The proposed common carrier pipeline system would gather ethanol from production facilities in Iowa, South Dakota, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio to serve terminals in major Northeastern markets. The project, preliminarily estimated to cost in excess of $3.5 billion, would span approximately 1,700 miles and would take several years to complete.

The feasibility of this project is dependent upon the successful outcome of ongoing studies addressing technical and economic issues associated with the transportation of ethanol via pipeline. In addition, federal legislation revising the U.S. Department of Energy’s loan guarantee program is critical for a project of this nature to move forward.

Ethanol, News, POET

Brazil and US Talk Ethanol Tariffs

Cindy Zimmerman

President Barack Obama and President Lula da Silva of Brazil talked about the touchy topic of ethanol tariffs when they met for the first time on Saturday.

Asked about their discussions during a joint press conference, President Obama praised Brazil for its leadership in biofuels but acknowledged that “the issue of Brazilian ethanol coming into the United States has been a source of tension between the two countries” that is “not going to change overnight.”

President Lula said since this is the first meeting he has had with Obama he didn’t expect “an immediate answer” with regard to the tariff on Brazilian ethanol, but he “can’t also understand while the world is concerned with climate change and with carbon emissions that bring greenhouse effect, … clean fuel also gets tariffs.”

Lula added that “when President Obama comes to visit Brazil I’m going to ask him to get inside a car that is run by a flex-fuel engine and he will feel very comfortable.”

Obama responded that he “actually had a flex-fuel vehicle. But one of the problems here in the United States is that we don’t have enough gas stations that have biofuels in them. So that’s one of the areas that we need to change our distribution networks here in the United States.”

Ethanol, Government, International

Navy Exchange Pumped Up on E85

Cindy Zimmerman

The opening of an E-85 pump on Friday at Oceania Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach, Virginia received enthusiastic response from the public and the media.

The Virginia-Pilot reported that, “A crowd of Navy officers, energy executives, a congressman and camera-toting media circled the first customer who pulled up to the shiny new pump, Petty Officer 1st Class Lacresha Fears.” The first tankful of E85 was pumped and paid for by NEXCOM (Navy Exchange Service Command) Commander Rear Adm. Robert Bianchi.

Television station WAVY-TV was also on hand to cover the event Friday, as Bianchi participating in a ribbon cutting for the new pump with Renewable Fuels Association president Bob Dinneen, Congressman Glenn Nye of Virginia; Capt. Mark Rich, commanding officer of Naval Air Station (NAS) Oceana; and Protec Fuel CEO Todd Garner.

“Just as the U.S. Navy is vital to the security of this nation, so too is ethanol in helping this nation become more energy secure,” said Renewable Fuels Association President Bob Dinneen. “America’s ethanol industry is pleased to partner with the United States Navy to help reduce the demand for imported oil and increase our reliance on homegrown sources of renewable energy. Opening this facility sends a powerful signal that the U.S. Navy is committed to reducing oil dependence by leading by example.”

The pump at Oceana Exchange was made possible by a contract between NEXCOM and Protec Fuel.

E85, Energy, Ethanol, Government, RFA

West Coast Highway Could Become Alt Fuel Corridor

John Davis

i-5Soon, you might be able to drive from Canada to Mexico along the Pacific Coast… without ever burning a single drop of gasoline.

This story on the gas2.0 Web site says governors in California, Orgeon and Washington have been talking about putting in the infrastructure on Interstate 5 so drivers could get biodiesel, ethanol, hydrogen and compressed natural gas, as well as recharging electric cars:

As it stands today, only the exceptionally motivated are able to find alt. fuels on the road, although some stations do exist, and there are services that will send local station information to your cell-phone. But if this plan moves forward—which it could in Washington State as early as next summer—it would be the first time drivers have easy access to all these options.

The new fueling stations would also be the first businesses on the West Coast allowed at rest stops, and wouldn’t be charged rent until they turn a profit.

There’s even plans to put in battery-swapping stations, set up at rest areas every 40 miles. It could finally make it possible to drive the entire stretch using an electric car.

Miscellaneous