Missouri Corn Providing More Dollars For Ethanol Infrastructure

Cindy Zimmerman

The Missouri Corn Merchandising Council (MCMC), in conjunction with recently announced federal and state programs, has announced it will provide matching funds to increase the availability of higher ethanol blends in the state.

To qualify, fuel retailers must first be approved for the USDA Rural Development’s Higher Blends Infrastructure Incentive Program (HBIIP), followed by approval of the MASBDA BIP program. The state BIP program has dedicated up to $2 million in grant funds that may be used to fulfill up to 25 percent of the cash match obligation required for the HBIIP. The maximum MASBDA grant award is $200,000 for each business entity selected for funding by HBIIP. MCMC will then match the grant funds up to a total of $500,000 statewide to increase access to ethanol blends above 10 percent.

“The Missouri Corn board of directors enthusiastically voted to match existing resources with the goal of increasing statewide demand for locally produced corn-based ethanol,” said MCMC Chairman Greg Schneider, a corn grower from Warrenton. “This creates a three-step process for fuel retailers to upgrade their pumps by first utilizing federal grant dollars through HBIIP, then at the state level through the MASBDA BIP program, and finally additional funding through MCMC. However, applications must be received by July 1, 2020, so we are encouraging station owners to act quickly.”

Eligible entities for the BIP grants and MCMC funding mirror federal HBIIP requirements and include fueling stations, convenience stores, hypermarket retailer fueling stations, fleet facilities, and similar entities with capital investments.
Learn more from MO Corn.

corn, Ethanol, Ethanol News

Farm & Biofuel Groups Challenge Retroactive RFS Waivers

Cindy Zimmerman

Nine leading biofuel and farm organizations sent a letter to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler Tuesday asking him for answers on what is seen as a new effort to undermine the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).

During a Senate hearing last month, administration officials confirmed their consideration of retroactive small refinery exemptions (SREs) covering previous years. The “gap-filings” are designed to reconstitute a continuous string of exemptions for select oil companies “to be consistent with the Tenth Circuit decision,” thus circumventing court limits on new oil industry handouts at the expense of farmers and biofuel producers.

“These ‘gap filings’ appear to be little more than the latest in a string of oil industry tactics designed to subvert the law and sidestep a court order to uphold the RFS,” wrote the Renewable Fuels Association, Growth Energy, the National Biodiesel Board, the National Corn Growers Association, the American Farm Bureau Federation, the American Soybean Association, the National Farmers Union, the American Coalition for Ethanol, and Fuels America.

The letter notes the devastating impact coronavirus restrictions have had on both the biofuels industry and farmers. “Backfilling SREs to circumvent a court decision would exacerbate market uncertainty at a time when rural communities already face unprecedented economic challenges.”

Read the letter.

ACE, AFBF, Ag group, ASA, Biodiesel, biofuels, corn, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Fuels America, Growth Energy, NBB, NCGA, NFU

Farm Journal Hosting Ethanol Future Webinar

Cindy Zimmerman

Farm Journal will be hosting a panel of industry experts June 11 for a live Farm Country Update webinar discussion about the current state and future of America’s ethanol industry.

AgriTalk host Chip Flory will moderate the discussion with Dan Basse, AgResource Company; Doug Berven, POET; and Renewable Fuels Association president and CEO Geoff Cooper.

Click here to register for the live webinar to be held Thursday, June 11 at 3:00 pm Central time.

Ethanol, Ethanol News, RFA, Webinar

Members of Congress Defend RFS

Cindy Zimmerman

A bipartisan list of Congressional representatives sent a letter to President Trump today in support of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).

“We urge you to stand with our farmers and rural economies during this challenging time and deny any request for blanket statewide or nationwide waivers from the 2020 RFS blending requirements under the Clean Air Act,” the letter from 44 representatives stated, in response to governors asking the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to grant waivers from the RFS. “In addition to the economic harm waiving the RFS would cause rural America, these requests are unjustified and run contrary to the EPA’s well-established precedents.”

The letter was spearheaded by Reps. Abby Finkenauer (D-IA), Dave Loebsack (D-IA), Roger Marshall, MD (R-KS), Collin Peterson (D-MN), and Rodney Davis (R-IL).

The National Biodiesel Board offered thanks to the lawmakers. “On behalf of biodiesel producers across the country, I’d like to thank Representatives Finkenauer, Loebsack, Marshall, Peterson and Davis and many others who are standing up on behalf of the industry and the RFS,” said Kurt Kovarik, NBB VP of Federal Affairs. “As they’ve noted, an RFS waiver would be unjustified and simply compound the economic challenges that biodiesel producers and farmers face. Further, it would undercut a successful environmental policy that is transitioning the United States to better, cleaner fuels.”

Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) President and CEO Geoff Cooper says biofuel producers are hurting just as badly as some refiners. “While refiners are appealing to governors in a callous effort to evade the RFS under the guise of COVID-19 relief, the law requires—and EPA has previously concluded—that waivers can only be granted when any potential hardship is being caused by the RFS, not any other factor. However, in this case, the governors correctly state the harm is caused by plummeting oil prices attributable to an international oil glut and falling demand caused by COVID-19. Those factors are also hurting ethanol. In fact, half of the nation’s ethanol production capacity was shut down over the past several months.”

Biodiesel, biofuels, EPA, Ethanol, Ethanol News, RFA, RFS

Iowa Legislature Reauthorizes Biofuel Tax Differentials

Cindy Zimmerman

The Iowa legislature this week reauthorized the Iowa biofuel tax differentials, helping boost biofuel demand and lower fuel prices, according to the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association.

Senate File 2403, which unanimously passed both chambers, extends and modernizes fuel tax differentials for E15 and higher ethanol blends and B11 and higher biodiesel blends, which are set to expire on June 30, 2020. Passage signals continued support of renewable fuels and will put millions of dollars back into the Road Use Tax Fund each year for vital infrastructure projects.

“Reauthorization of the biofuel tax differentials is a ray of sunshine during some of the darkest days Iowa biofuels have ever faced,” said Iowa Renewable Fuels Association Policy Director Nathan Hohnstein. “We thank Iowa’s elected leaders for reauthorizing a program that is working to boost biofuel demand. Iowa biofuel plants are still struggling to claw their way back from the demand destruction caused by the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and Renewable Fuel Standard exemptions by EPA.”

The new fuel tax differential modernizes the ethanol differential by applying it only to E15 and higher blends.

Biodiesel, Ethanol, Ethanol News

A Year’s Worth of Growth in E15

Cindy Zimmerman

A year ago, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, at the direction of President Donald Trump, issued a final rule allowing retailers to sell 15% ethanol (E15) gas year-round in all parts of the country. That action created an increase in sales of E15 to more than 450 million gallons in 2019.

Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) economist Scott Richman says the growth in E15 has been fueled by a more than 16% increase in retail stations offering E15. “We’ve seen stations go from about 1800 a year ago to about 2100 now,” said Richman. “We think E15 sales basically increased by close to 50 percent in 2019.”

Ethanol production continues a slow recovery, inching up another 5.7%, or 40,000 barrels per day (b/d) last week, the largest volume since March. However, production remains tempered due to COVID-19 disruptions, coming in 26.7% below the same week in 2019. Richman says they are expecting that to continue as the economy opens up and people start moving again. “The amount of fuel usage has really staged a pretty strong initial recovery,” said Richman, and while that has slowed, it is still increasing.

Learn more in this interview.
Interview with RFA economist Scott Richman 8:59

Audio, E15, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Renewable Fuels Association, RFA

ACE Meeting Plans Change Due to COVID

Cindy Zimmerman

As the coronavirus pandemic has had a devastating economic impact on the ethanol industry, meetings have also been changing to hopefully give more producers the ability to attend.

The American Coalition for Ethanol‘s Annual Conference will now be held in conjunction with the 2020 International Fuel Ethanol Workshop (FEW) & Expo in Omaha, Nebraska, on August 25. FEW had already been postponed from June 15-17, 2020 to August 24-26, and changed venue from Minneapolis to Omaha. The ACE annual meeting had been scheduled for the week of August 10 in Minneapolis.

“Due to the outbreak of COVID-19 and the economic hardship it’s brought to bear on the ethanol industry, ACE believes hosting this year’s event in association with another industry gathering is in the best interest of its members,” says ACE CEO Brian Jennings.

ACE already had to cancel its annual Washington DC Fly-in event scheduled for April, which Jennings says they are planning now for October.

In this interview, Jennings discusses the event changes, as well as concerns with EPA over so-called “gap year” waiver requests, the need for stimulus aid for ethanol producers from Congress, and the role E15 and higher blends can play in recovery for the industry.

Interview with ACE CEO Brian Jennings 14:11

ACE, ACE Ethanol Conference, Audio, Ethanol, Ethanol News

New Ethanol Hand Sanitizer Guidelines Fall Short

Cindy Zimmerman

Renewable Fuels Association President and CEO Geoff Cooper says revised guidance on the production of ethanol for hand sanitizer are clearer but will not help alleviate the hand sanitizer shortage in any meaningful way.

“We welcome the specificity in the new guidance, but the new interim limits for certain impurities are overly restrictive and create a roadblock for producers who could otherwise supply huge volumes of safe, clean, high-quality ethyl alcohol to hand sanitizer manufacturers,” said Cooper. “For example, FDA’s new limits for certain impurities are eight times more restrictive than what is typically found in a glass of red wine and twenty times more restrictive than what has been allowed in hand sanitizer by other countries, including Canada, during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

“Meanwhile, as hospitals, first responders, nursing homes, restaurants, retail stores, churches, and other public and private spaces seek out new sources of hand sanitizer to address the shortage, the U.S. continues to significantly ramp up imports of hand sanitizer from China and other countries. It is unfortunate that we are importing this product from China, when abundant supplies of high-purity American-made ethanol could be used instead. Still, we will continue to work with the FDA to ensure ethanol producers can do their part to combat COVID-19 and provide larger quantities of ethyl alcohol for hand sanitizer.”

The Food and Drug Administration Monday night issued revised guidelines for the ethanol industry regarding use in hand sanitizer “to ensure that harmful levels of impurities are not present if ethanol is used in these products.”

Based on careful review and consideration of available data, we are specifying interim levels of certain impurities that we have determined can be tolerated for a relatively short period of time, given the emphasis on hand hygiene during the COVID-19 public health emergency and to avoid exacerbating access issues for alcohol-based hand sanitizer.

Ethanol, Ethanol News

June is Renewable Fuels Month in Nebraska

Cindy Zimmerman

Renewable Fuels Month in Nebraska is normally held in May as a kick-off to the summer driving season. However, due to COVID-19 concerns, Renewable Fuels Month was postponed and is now being celebrated this month.

To help promote locally-produced biofuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel, Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts recently declared June as Renewable Fuels Month. Since 2006, the acting Nebraska governor has dedicated one month out of each year to serve as a public awareness campaign.

Throughout June, the Nebraska Corn Board, the Nebraska Ethanol Board, the Nebraska Soybean Board and Renewable Fuels Nebraska will be promoting facts and statistics about ethanol and biodiesel on their Facebook pages, which will also feature trivia promotions, contests and up-to-date information regarding upcoming fuel promotions.

Biodiesel, corn, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Soybeans

Biodiesel Board Wants Transparency on “Gap” SRE Petitions

Cindy Zimmerman

The National Biodiesel Board is asking EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler to disclose any small refinery exemption petitions for RFS compliance years preceding 2019 that the Environmental Protection Agency received this year. In a letter to Wheeler, NBB also requests that EPA apply the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit’s ruling in Renewable Fuels Association v. EPA to all petitions submitted to the agency since January 24th of this year.

“The U.S. biodiesel and renewable diesel industry values and relies on your commitment to transparency regarding small refinery exemptions,” NBB writes, referring to Administrator Wheeler’s creation of the EPA Small Refinery Exemption dashboard. Noting that both Wheeler and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Under Secretary Mark Menezes responded to questions about “gap” petitions in May 20 testimony before two Senate committees, NBB writes, “It is concerning that no record of any of these petitions exists on the Agency’s dashboard.”

NBB further writes, “EPA’s first step upon receiving any petition for a small refinery exemption should be to evaluate its timeliness and validity before transmitting it to the Department of Energy.” The letter lays out arguments that considering “gap” petitions would be inconsistent with the 10th Circuit’s ruling, the Renewable Fuel Standard statute, and EPA’s own regulations and guidance. “Indeed, allowing gap filings would render the program entirely unpredictable for renewable fuel producers,” NBB writes.

Biodiesel, EPA, NBB