CNN Wraps Up Biodiesel Road Trip

John Davis

Two weeks and more than 4,000 miles after they left San Francisco, CA, a CNN producer and his web developer colleague have rolled into CNN headquarters in Atlanta, GA… finishing up their cross-country, biodiesel-fueled road trip.

Along the way, the pair sent in reports from the road detailing their trials and triumphs of taking a 1978 International Harvester Scout across the nation, while learning a little more about the biofuels business. This is their final entry on the blog:

Well… here we are. We made it back to Atlanta in (mostly) one piece after a two-week journey I’ll never forget. This morning my colleague Brian Hardy and I did a little recap video interview with CNN.com Live which you can see here. We also have an iPhone review (it never left my side) that we’ll put up a little later.

Four-thousand miles later — and many gallons of bio and regular diesel — I would call this road trip a success. It wasn’t perfect — but we talked to a lot of people, saw a lot of things and learned a good deal about biodiesel fuel and long-distance travel.

Now, it can be debated how much good they really did for the image of biodiesel, driving an old vehicle without making the proper preparations for this long of a trip. My understanding is they had trouble finding biodiesel… until our friends at the National Biodiesel Board provided them with a listing of biodiesel stations that were along the way.

I agree that they could have focused more on the positive aspects of biodiesel… instead of the emphasis on their old truck. But they did prove to the novices who tuned in and logged on to their adventure that biodiesel is a viable fuel.

Biodiesel

Iowa Senator Harkin Looks at Mandating FFVs

U.S. Senator Tom Harkin is supportive of alternative fuels and would like to push for mandated flexible fuel vehicle production. He asks, “Why do we run cars on gasoline?”

According to the Iowa Independent, the Senator said he plans to introduce legislation that would require all vehicles produced in the U.S. run as flexible fuel.

Brazil has made flex-fuel cars a key part of its energy strategy, Harkin noted. “We could do the same thing here in two years,” Harkin said. “In two years we could mandate that every car sold in America be flex fuel. That would do more in two years to bring down the price of gasoline than any other single thing we could do.”

Harkin said more oil drilling is not a long-term answer — and he thinks most Americans understand this. He noted that President Bush centered a State of the Union speech around the nation’s addiction to oil and its need to break it.

“If you’re addicted to oil it would seem to me the last thing you’d want to do is go out and start drilling for more oil,” Harkin said. “That’s just feeding your addiction.”

E85, Ethanol, Flex Fuel Vehicles, Government, News

McCain Opposes Ethanol Subsidies in Iowa

Cindy Zimmerman

Republican presidential candidate John McCain visited the Iowa State Fair Friday, shook a lot of hands, but probably didn’t make a lot of friends in corn country when he clearly stated his opposition to subsidizing ethanol production.

“My friends, we will disagree on a specific issue and that’s healthy,” McCain said during a Des Moines Register forum address at the fairgrounds. “I believe in renewable fuels. I don’t believe in ethanol subsidies, but I believe in renewable fuels.”

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey and Iowa Farm Bureau Federation President Craig Lang stood beside McCain during his speech and applauded as McCain discussed his views on energy policy, despite the candidates remarks about ethanol in the nation’s top producing state.

McCain touted his “Lexington Project” strategy to achieve energy independence. “It’s got to be wind, tide, solar, nuclear,” he said of his plan, which also includes support for cellulosic ethanol and increasing the number of flex-fuel vehicles on the road.

Cellulosic, corn, Ethanol, News, politics

Mississippi State University Biofuels Conference

MSUMississippi State University (MSU) will be holding a Biofuels Conference on August 14 and 15 at McCool Hall on the campus of MSU. The conference will be presented by MSU’s Department of Chemical Engineering, Industrial Outreach Service, and the Sustainable Energy Research Center.

On day 1 (August 14, 2008) of the conference, international experts in the biofuels area will provide information on feedstock availability and cost, as well as the challenges that need to be overcome to sustainably convert these feedstocks into biofuels. At the end of the day, the audience should have the tools to understand the rate of progress of the biofuels industry, and the need to integrate the agriculture, transportation, and chemical sectors to displace large quantities of petroleum from the market. On Day 2 (August 15, 2008), the conference will highlight the state and regional efforts to increase the availability of biofuels. State leaders will inform on specific projects and strategies to reduce petroleum dependency in the region and assist on the establishment and operation of biofuels industries.

A complete agenda can be found by clicking here. To register, click here.

Biodiesel, biomass, Cellulosic, E85, Environment, Ethanol, News

Southeast Bioenergy Conference

Cindy Zimmerman

SE Bioenergy ConferenceAs ethanol industry leaders meet in the Midwest next week, biofuels will be the focus of another conference in Georgia at the same time.

The third annual Southeast Bioenergy Conference will be held August 12th-14th at the UGA Tifton Campus Conference Center. Keynote speaker for the event is Ron Fagen, president and CEO of Fagen, Inc, one of the world’s foremost ethanol plant design-builders. Other speakers include Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue and Gale Buchanan, USDA’s Under Secretary for Research, Education, & Economics.

The conference will focus on the potential for the southeast to be a leader in biofuels production.

Biodiesel, conferences, Ethanol, News

POET Will Provide Cellulosic Update at Conference

Cindy Zimmerman

ACE 08An update on POET’s cellulosic ethanol Project Liberty is on the agenda for next week’s American Coalition for Ethanol conference in Omaha.

Larry Ward, Vice President of Project Development for POET, will provide the update during the general session on Wednesday afternoon. Range Fuels and ICM will also update the session on their own cellulosic projects.

Project LIBERTY, the transformation of a 50 MGPY grain-to-ethanol plant in Emmetsburg, Iowa into an integrated corn-to-ethanol and cellulose-to-ethanol biorefinery, is jointly funded by POET and the United States Department of Energy. Once complete, the facility will produce 125 million gallons of ethanol per year, of which 25 million gallons will be from the cellulose in corn fiber and corn cobs.

Cellulosic, conferences, Ethanol, News

Ethanol Hearing to be Held in Omaha

Cindy Zimmerman

Ben NelsonThe role of ethanol in rising food costs will be at the heart of a Senate Agriculture Committee field hearing August 18 in Omaha.

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE), who is a member of the committee, says the event will be a “pro-fact” hearing, not a pro-ethanol hearing. The committee decided to hold the hearing in the face of what Nelson called an ongoing “smear campaign” against ethanol.

“Food, Feed and Fuel Production: Today and Tomorrow” will be held on Monday, August 18 from 9:00 am until noon at the University of Nebraska in Omaha.

The hearing is being held just days after the nation’s ethanol industry meets in Omaha for the American Coalition for Ethanol’s 21st Annual Conference & Trade Show, which will be August 12-14 at the Qwest Center.

Ethanol, Government, News

Natural Gas Measure to Face California Voters

John Davis

Besides the contest between Sens. McCain and Obama to see who will lead this country over the next four years, voters who go to the polls in California this November will decide if the state will fund some hefty rebates to people who buy cleaner-burning, natural gas-powered vehicles.

This story from CNNMoney.com says the proposal could help put a million vehicles on the roads running on the clean fuel:

Natural gas providers are spending millions of dollars on advertising to convince Californians to pass a ballot initiative allowing the state government to invest in the now-tiny market for natural gas-fueled cars and trucks. The push comes as gas producers, emboldened by a windfall of domestic production, press federal lawmakers to help expand the market for gas as a means for reducing dependence on foreign oil and cutting greenhouse-gas emissions.

So far no opposition has been organized against the proposal, which would authorize the state to sell $5 billion in bonds to fund rebates of $2,000 to $ 50,000 each to people who purchase natural gas-powered cars and trucks. Some of the money would be earmarked for research, development and production of renewable energy technology, and education. The plan would cost the state $9.8 billion over 30 years.

The proposition has some pretty powerful friends, including billionaire Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens, who, as you might remember from my July 8th, 2008 post, is backing a plan to ramp up the nation’s wind energy production. He believes that the wind energy will replace natural gas burning in utilities’ generators… freeing that natural gas to be burned in vehicles… freeing the U.S. from its oil addiction.

Government, Legislation, Miscellaneous

ICB, Inc. Inks Long-Term Biodiesel Deal

John Davis

Pretty good deal when you’ve got someone who will buy your entire inventory for three years. That’s what Virginia-based International Coastal Biofuels is facing with a letter of intent from Eco-Energy, Inc. to buy a total 90 million gallons of biodiesel over the next three years from ICB’s Wilmington, NC biodiesel plant… a refinery hasn’t even started producing yet!

This press release posted on MarketWatch.com has details:

In the Letter of Intent, Eco-Energy, Inc. states that it will purchase 30 Million gallons of biodiesel per year, for a length of three years from the first day of actual biodiesel production. Additionally, Eco-Energy, Inc. will be responsible for all logistics and transportation.

“This relationship with Eco-Energy, Inc. provides us with an additional certainty that our revenues are only limited by how fast we can get our production plant operational,” stated Jim Cooper, CEO of International Coastal Biofuels, Inc.

Now, I might be a little off when I say it will be all of ICB’s production for the next three years. The company is in negotiations to build a second refinery in South Carolina. Pretty good idea to look at expansion when you’ve already got your projected production sold.

Biodiesel

Ethanol Decision is a Win for Consumers

Cindy Zimmerman

Ethanol producers say the EPA decision to maintain the current level of biofuels blending required under the Renewable Fuels Standard will benefit consumers.

EPICThe Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC) says the decision ensures consumers will continue to benefit from an expanding supply of domestically produced renewable fuel, which is helping to lower gas prices.

“Today’s decision is an important win for American consumers,” said EPIC Executive Director Toni Nuernberg. “People are justifiably focused on pocketbook concerns in today’s economy. Ethanol is one of the few things helping families save money.”

EPIC points out that studies by Merrill Lynch, Iowa State University and others have estimated that ethanol is saving the average family as much as $500 per year at the pump.

EPIC, Ethanol, News