National Biodiesel Board Elects New Governing Board Virtually

Cindy Zimmerman

Members of the National Biodiesel Board members met virtually this week to elect new Governing Board leaders, and also met virtually with farm broadcasters to do interviews.

NBB members voted to fill eight board member spots for two-year terms:

Troy Alberts, Ag Processing Inc.
Greg Anderson, Nebraska Soybean Board
Tom Brooks, Western Dubuque Biodiesel, LLC
Tim Keaveney, Lake Erie Biofuels DBA HERO BX
Mike Rath, Darling Ingredients Inc.
Rob Shaffer, American Soybean Association
Robert Stobaugh, Arkansas Soybean Promotion Board
Paul Teta, Kolmar Americas Inc.

NBB members also participated in a virtual fly-in this week, while the organization was also participating in the National Association of Farm Broadcasting Trade Talk. Here are interviews with NBB Board member Greg Anderson, Feedstock advisor Alan Weber, and Vice President of Federal Affairs Kurt Kovarik, a Washington insider for many years who offers his perspective on the election aftermath.

2020 NAFB Interview with Greg Anderson, NBB (7:48)

2020 NAFB Interview with Alan Weber, NBB (6:17)

2020 NAFB Interview with Kurt Kovarik, NBB (15:42)

Audio, Biodiesel, NBB

RFA Shares Good News for Ethanol in 2020

Cindy Zimmerman

There was more than enough bad news for the ethanol industry to go around this year, but there was still some good news as well.

The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) is offering that perspective to farm broadcasters this week at the virtual 2020 NAFB Convention Trade Talk. RFA Vice President of Industry Relations Robert White tells the good news about building demand for higher ethanol blends, and how activities to promote ethanol were still able to continue this year.

Listen here:
NAFB 2020 Interview with Robert White, RFA 6:16

Audio, Ethanol, Ethanol News, NAFB, RFA

NAFB Session Focuses on Ag and Energy

Cindy Zimmerman

The National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB) is holding its annual convention this week, and like everything else it is virtual. One of the newsmaker sessions on opening day of the convention focused on ethanol and biodiesel and “Agriculture’s Contributions to the Energy Market.”

Carey Martin with Texas Farm Bureau Radio Network moderated the discussion with Tom Verry, Director of Outreach and Development for the National Biodiesel Board, and Ron Lamberty, American Coalition for Ethanol Senior Vice President.

Listen to their discussion here:
2020 NAFB Newsmaker Session Energy Market (52:06)

ACE, Audio, Biodiesel, Ethanol, Ethanol News, NAFB, NBB

2021 National Ethanol Conference Shifts to Digital

Cindy Zimmerman

The Renewable Fuels Association announced today that the 26th annual National Ethanol Conference to be held February 16-18, 2021 will now be an all virtual format.

“As RFA prepares to enter its 40th year in operation in 2021, the upcoming NEC will hold special meaning for our organization and the entire industry,” said RFA President and CEO Geoff Cooper. “While the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has led us to adopt a fully digital format, we are confident the NEC will continue to serve as the largest and most visionary ethanol policy and marketing event for industry leaders and stakeholders. This is a critical time for our nation’s ethanol industry, which faces a changing political landscape, regulatory challenges, and uncertainty in the marketplace. But it is also a time of incredible opportunity for low-carbon renewable fuels, and NEC will serve as an excellent forum for exploring the strategies and approaches that will facilitate continued success for our essential industry in the future.”

The theme for the 2021 NEC is “Essential Energy” and the digital format will enable broader participation, provide attendees the flexibility to view content live in real-time or on-demand, and offer unique networking and business development opportunities.

Registration and agenda details for the event will be announced in the days ahead on the National Ethanol Conference website.

Ethanol, Ethanol News, National Ethanol Conference, RFA

Biodiesel Board Welcomes East Coast Policy Director

Cindy Zimmerman

The National Biodiesel Board has created a new Director of State Regulatory Affairs position and announced the appointment of Steve Dodge to fill it. Dodge is a longtime energy industry veteran who will focus primarily on advancing state and regional policy efforts for biodiesel, renewable diesel, and Bioheat® home heating oil on the east coast.

With more than two decades of experience guiding and managing outreach, communication, and lobbying efforts for the American Petroleum Institute, most recently as Executive Director of the Massachusetts/New England Petroleum Council, Dodge is well positioned to take the lead on NBB efforts focused on this important market.

NBB’s state governmental affairs efforts are led by Floyd Vergara from the organization’s Sacramento, California office. Dodge’s addition on the East Coast compliments the program along with a contract lobbying and support team positioned across the country.

Biodiesel, NBB

Kansas Biofuels Head Offers Post Election Views

Cindy Zimmerman

The president and CEO of Renew Kansas Biofuels Association gave his post-election analysis during the Agricultural Business Council of Kansas City’s November 12 webinar.

Ron Seeber, who is also president and CEO for the Kansas Grain and Feed Association and Kansas Ag Retailers Association, summed up results for races on both the state and federal level. “Kansas is still very much a red state,” said Seeber, noting the win by Republican Roger Marshall to take the place of Sen. Pat Roberts. “The state kind of went from red to redder.”

Seeber was asked what his perspective was on biofuels under a Biden administration, including low carbon fuel standards in the Midwest. “A lot of it will have to do with who is appointed as head of the EPA under a Biden administration, what their overall energy policy is going to be, and whether there’s a place for biofuels in that policy,” said Seeber, noting that a move toward more electric vehicles rather than biofuels would be problematic.

Listen to Seeber’s comments:
KC AgBiz webinar - Ron Seeber (10:42)

Audio, biofuels, Ethanol, Ethanol News

Biodiesel Ready to Meet USDA Ag Innovation Goals

Cindy Zimmerman

Biodiesel is ready now to meet the goals of the Agriculture Innovation Agenda. That was the message that the National Biodiesel Board gave to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in comments last week on “’ready to go’ technologies, practices, and management approaches to benefit farmers, consumers, and the environment.”

NBB Vice President of Federal Affairs Kurt Kovarik wrote in his comments, “Biodiesel is ‘ready to go’ and adoptable. The reliability and dense energy storage capacity of liquid fuel simply cannot be replaced for many vital sectors. Diesel fuel powers the heavy-duty trucks, trains, vessels, and aircraft essential to our economy. Diesel also powers agriculture and construction equipment vital to providing human necessities. Diesel powers most equipment needed for public safety such as ambulances, firetrucks, the military, snow removal, and emergency backup for electrical generation. While we expect that numerous strategies can reduce the total volume of liquid fuel consumed for transportation, we will need liquid fuel for certain purposes for at least several decades.”

USDA’s Ag Innovation Agenda (AIA) is an effort to align the agency’s resources, programs, and research to provide farmers with the tools they need and to position American agriculture as a leader in the effort to meet the food, fiber, fuel, feed, and climate demands of the future. Specifically, USDA will stimulate innovation so that American agriculture can achieve the goal of increasing U.S. agricultural production by 40 percent while cutting the environmental footprint of U.S. agriculture in half by 2050.

USDA issued a request for information on its Agriculture Innovation Agenda back in September and the deadline for comments was last week.

Biodiesel, NBB, USDA

USDA Lowers Forecast for Corn and Soybeans

Cindy Zimmerman

The November World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates from USDA show lower forecasts for domestic production of both corn and soybeans.

This month’s 2020/21 U.S. corn outlook is for lower production, reduced feed and residual use, larger exports, and smaller ending stocks. Corn production is forecast at 14.507 billion bushels, down 215 million with a reduction in yield to 175.8 bushels per acre. Corn exports are raised 325 million bushels to 2.650 billion, which if realized would be record high. Projected feed and residual use is lowered 75 million bushels based on a smaller crop and higher expected prices. With supply falling and use increasing, corn ending stocks for 2020/21 are down 465 million bushels to 1.7 billion, which if realized would be the lowest since 2013/14. The corn price is raised 40 cents to $4.00 per bushel. Corn use for ethanol was left unchanged at 5.05 million bushels.

The U.S. soybean outlook for 2020/21 is for lower production and ending stocks. Soybean production is forecast at 4.17 billion bushels, down 98 million on lower yields. Lower yields are reported for several major producing states, including Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, and Nebraska. With reduced production, soybean ending stocks are projected at 190 million bushels, down 100 million from last month. If realized, soybean ending stocks would be at the lowest level in the past seven years.

corn, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Soybeans, USDA

RFA Congratulates President-Elect Biden

Cindy Zimmerman

RFA LogoThe Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) is congratulating President-Elect Joe Biden on his victory, as projected by the Associated Press and others.

RFA President and CEO Geoff Cooper says they look forward to working with the Biden administration on issues important to the ethanol industry. “Mr. Biden made it clear as he was campaigning that he would put a stop to the abuse at EPA of the small refinery exemption program on day one,” said Cooper. “We’ve got a promise, we have a pledge from Mr. Biden that he will put a stop to these exemptions.”

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler confirmed last week that the agency will delay action on dozens of outstanding SRE petitions until after the Supreme Court rules on an appeal from refining companies over EPA’s waiver policy, which will be December 14. “That’s incredibly frustrating for us because we’ve been at this for 10 months now,” since the court decision in January, said Cooper.

At the same time, EPA has not released a proposed 2021 Renewable Volume Obligation (RVO), which means it will likely not get done until next year now. “It could be as late as May before we see a final rule,” said Cooper. “So we’re right back in the mess that we were in several years ago when EPA missed its deadlines.”

RFA also congratulates the House and Senate members who won their races and Cooper says the ethanol industry has plenty of allies on the Democrat side in Congress who will have the ear of the new president.

Listen to comments from Cooper on a Biden presidency.
RFA CEO Geoff Cooper comments on Biden presidency (4:07)

Audio, EPA, Ethanol, Ethanol News, RFA, RFS

Ethanol Report 11-6-20

Cindy Zimmerman

While some of the 2020 election results have yet to be decided, Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) president and CEO Geoff Cooper says the ethanol industry will be ready to work with whoever ultimately wins the White House.

In this edition of the Ethanol Report podcast, Cooper discusses how ethanol has support from both candidates and bipartisan support in Congress, as well as the latest developments with the EPA and small refinery waivers.

Ethanol Report 11-6-20 (17:21)

The Ethanol Report is a podcast about the latest news and information in the ethanol industry that has been sponsored by the Renewable Fuels Association since 2008.

Choose an option to subscribe

Audio, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Ethanol Report, RFA