Retailers Urged to Act Fast on Ethanol HBIIP Grants

Cindy Zimmerman

The deadline to apply for USDA’s Higher Blends Infrastructure Incentive Program (HBIIP) is less than a month away, and the Renewable Fuels Association reminds retailers and other interested parties to move quickly to complete the registration and application process before August 13.

Among the important tools available to interested retailers are: 1) application assistance from grant-writing experts; 2) equipment compatibility analyses and site surveys; and 3) assistance related to pursuing additional funding opportunities for equipment upgrades. These services are provided to retailers by RFA and the National Corn Growers Association.

RFA is hosting a free webinar this Thursday for all interested parties to provide details on the profram. This webinar is in conjunction with the Georgia Association of Convenience Stores, and takes place at 10 a.m. EDT Thursday, July 16. Click here to register.

HBIIP is a $100 million retailer grant program designed to expand the availability and sale of higher blends of ethanol like E15 and E85/Flex Fuel, as well as other renewable fuel blends. To expand ethanol fuel infrastructure, approximately $86 million will be made available to transportation fueling facilities including fueling stations, convenience stores, hypermarket fueling stations, fleet facilities, and similar entities. Awards to successful applicants will be in the form of cost-share grants for up to 50 percent of total eligible project costs, but not to exceed $5 million per applicant. Importantly, applications must be submitted, online only, by 11:59 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 13.

Click for more information on HBIIP

Ethanol, Ethanol News, Retailers, RFA

Ethanol Report 7-15-20

Cindy Zimmerman

U.S. ethanol production is slowly clawing its way upward to more normal levels after reaching record lows in April, but it remains significantly lower than a year ago and the industry is hoping Congress will soon get a new stimulus bill passed to provide some aid.

Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency is not making decisions on important ethanol issues, such as the 52 gap-year small refinery waiver requests and 2021 Renewable Volume Obligations.

In this edition of The Ethanol Report, Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) president and CEO Geoff Cooper provides an update on these and other important ethanol issues.

Ethanol Report 7-15-20 (16:23)

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

July WASDE Lowers Corn Production

Cindy Zimmerman

USDA’s July World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) for the 2020/21 U.S. corn outlook is for sharply lower supplies, reduced feed and residual use, increased food, seed, and industrial use, and lower ending stocks.

For 2020/21, corn production is forecast 995 million bushels lower based on reduced planted and harvested areas from the June 30 Acreage report. Corn beginning stocks are raised 145 million bushels, based on lower use forecasts for 2019/20. Feed and residual use for 2019/20 is lower based on the June 30 Grain Stocks report. Corn use for ethanol for 2019-20 is lowered 50 million bushels based on reported use to date and weekly ethanol production data reported by the Energy Information Administration during the month of June and into early July.

The national average corn yield for 2020/21 is unchanged at 178.5 bushels per acre, stocks are lowered 675 million bushels to 2.6 billion and the season-average corn price received by producers is raised 15 cents to $3.35 per bushel.

corn, Ethanol, Ethanol News, USDA

Corn and Ethanol Groups Challenge EPA to Correct Study

Cindy Zimmerman

A coalition including the Urban Air Initiative (UAI), 10 state corn grower organizations and the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) are pressuring the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to correct its recent “Anti-Backsliding” study. The coalition says the study is based on faulty modeling data that fails to recognize the role of ethanol in reducing pollution.

The study is required under the Clean Air Act and the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) to ensure the influx of renewable fuels into the nation’s gasoline pool is not adding to poor air quality. EPA claims there are in fact adverse emission impacts resulting from ethanol blends, contrary to numerous studies refuting that finding.

The basis of the agency’s work is a modeling system called the Motor Vehicle Emissions Simulator (MOVES) that states must use to meet emission standards. The coalition argues that because the emissions generated by the MOVES model are unsound, the anti-backsliding study’s air quality conclusions are also unsound.

Read more

ACE, corn, EPA, Ethanol, Ethanol News

RFA Comments on EPA Anti-Backsliding Measure

Cindy Zimmerman

The Renewable Fuels Association supports for the EPA’s proposal to determine that no additional measures are necessary to mitigate “potential adverse air quality impacts” associated with the Renewable Fuel Standard. At the same time, RFA’s comments on the Proposed Anti-Backsliding Determination for Renewable Fuels and Air Quality challenged the flawed air quality modeling and analysis conducted by EPA to inform the proposed determination.

“We agree that no additional ‘fuel control measures’ are necessary, but we reach this conclusion for a different reason than EPA,” wrote RFA President and CEO Geoff Cooper. “We believe no additional measures are necessary because the scientific evidence demonstrates that increasing the concentration of ethanol in gasoline generally improves air quality and does not cause ‘adverse air quality impacts.’”

Earlier this year, EPA completed an “anti-backsliding study” to determine whether the RFS would adversely impact air quality. After considering the results of the study, the Clean Air Act requires EPA to either promulgate new regulations to mitigate any adverse impacts on air quality or to determine that no such measures are necessary.

Read more from RFA.

EPA, Ethanol, Ethanol News, RFA

Video Spotlights Ethanol’s Important Co-Products

Cindy Zimmerman

A new educational video from the Renewable Fuels Association and Kansas Corn spotlights all of the important co-products that come from ethanol production.

Those products include distillers grains for livestock feed, distillers oil used to make biodiesel, and captured carbon dioxide for the food and beverage industries.

With fuel ethanol demand experiencing a significant reduction during the COVID-19 pandemic, which kept many people at home and off the roads, numerous news stories arose over the hit these other products were taking as well. The need to educate consumers and others about ethanol co-products led to this video project, so the public and policymakers alike would understand how the ethanol industry makes more than ethanol and serves so many markets.

The video will benefit the Kansas Corn STEM program which provides K-12 teachers with lessons and materials to teach science with topics like growing corn, ethanol production, biotechnology benefits, and water and soil conservation.

At just under five minutes, the video is ideal for community meetings and briefings with policymakers, as well as to supplement education curricula, such as the Kansas program mentioned above and RFA’s Ethanol in the Classroom program.

Distillers Grains, Ethanol, Ethanol News, RFA

Groups Challenge EPA on SAFE Rule

Cindy Zimmerman

A coalition of agriculture and biofuels groups are challenging the Trump administration’s recent fuel efficiency rulemaking, on that grounds that it downplays the harm from reduced emission standards, ignores the efficiency and health benefits of higher ethanol blends, and fails to realize the promise of increased octane in gasoline.

The rule in question, known as the Safer Affordable Fuel Efficiency Vehicle Rule (SAFER), was finalized on April 30, 2020, reversing an Obama-era rule that called for significant improvements in vehicle efficiency. Issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), it established a 1.5 percent increase in efficiency each year for light-duty vehicles, far short of the 5 percent increase in the existing rule. In the notice of proposed rulemaking, EPA requested information on octane levels and how they could be increased in accordance with the Clean Air Act, but ultimately failed to address these concerns in the final rule.

The legal challenge is being led by National Farmers Union (NFU), and includes the Governors Biofuel Coalition, the Clean Fuels Development Coalition, the Environment and Energy Study Institute, several NFU state and regional divisions, Glacial Lakes Energy, Siouxland Ethanol, and the Urban Air Initiative. Previously, the group filed comments focused on octane and related issues. In response to EPA’s failure to credibly consider and advance mid-level ethanol fuel blends as an alternative to conventional fuels, the groups filed a petition for review in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.

Ethanol, Ethanol News, NFU

Ethanol Production Coming Back

Cindy Zimmerman

U.S. ethanol production is slowly clawing its way upward to more normal levels after reaching record lows in April.

According to EIA data analyzed by the Renewable Fuels Association for the week ending June 26, ethanol production rose 0.8%, or 7,000 barrels per day (b/d), to 900,000 b/d—equivalent to 37.80 million gallons daily. Production remains tempered due to COVID-19 disruptions, coming in 16.7% below the same week in 2019. The four-week average ethanol production rate rose 4.1% to 868,000 b/d, equivalent to an annualized rate of 13.31 billion gallons.

Ethanol stocks diminished for the tenth consecutive week, down 4.1% to 20.2 million barrels and 11.7% below year-ago volumes. Inventories tightened across all regions and are at their lowest level since the first week of 2017.

Ethanol, Ethanol News, RFA

Ethanol Exports Decline in May

Cindy Zimmerman

Exports of U.S. ethanol declined 32 percent in May to the smallest monthly volume in four years, according to Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) analyst Ann Lewis.

Most of the drop was due to Brazil, which imported just 1.7 million gallons of U.S. ethanol, down from almost 24 million. Exports to India were down six percent in May, but it was the top global market for U.S. ethanol at 14.9 million gallons.

Shipments picked up to Canada as 14.5 mg crossed the border (+34%), although tracking at a volume roughly half of recent norms. Export sales slowed to Mexico (9.0 mg, -35% from a surge in April) and South Korea (4.9 mg, -61%), but lifted to the Netherlands (6.7 mg), United Kingdom (4.2 mg), and Nigeria (3.1 mg). An annualized export pace of 1.57 billion gallons would be implied by prorating year-to-date sales, but seasonal factors and the lingering impact of the COVID-19 pandemic could result in 2020 exports being below this level.

Ethanol, Ethanol News, Exports, RFA

ACE Launches Video Series on USDA HBIIP

Cindy Zimmerman

The American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) has launched a series of short fuel marketer-focused videos, along with a broader digital advertising campaign, to help fuel retailers understand and navigate the application process for USDA’s Higher Blends Infrastructure Incentive Program (HBIIP).

The series on flexfuelforward.com is hosted by ACE Senior Vice President Ron Lamberty, a former convenience store owner who breaks down the application process with Tony Crooks and Kelly Bogle of the USDA office running the HBIIP program, to create content tailored for retailers and giving them the best chance at being awarded a grant.

“The HBIIP application can look pretty daunting to busy operators of single c-stores and small chains that don’t have departments or staff to handle this sort of thing. Retailers need to know they can complete the application process themselves, with a little help from us when they need it.” Lamberty said. “The goal of this video series is to break the HBIIP application into bite-sized pieces, so marketers can finish it off a little at a time.”

All thie month,leading up to the August 13 application deadline, retailers will be directed to the HBIIP resources through paid advertising on social media and in print and online convenience store industry publications and websites. Following the HBIIP push, the campaign focus will turn to E15 station conversions.

ACE, Retailers, USDA