Mary Beth Stanek, GM’s director for Environment and Energy, has been making the midwest rounds recently talking about ethanol and the auto industry. This week she was in Des Moines at a biofuels forum sponsored by Successful Farming magazine.
Last month she hit the Jackpot – Jackpot Junction, that is – in Morton, Minnesota where she attended the Minnesota Ag Expo. She is pictured here at that event with Kelly Marczak of the American Lung Association of Upper Midwest and Rich Gunther, also with GM.
After a couple of unsuccessful attempts to connect for a telephone interview, I finally emailed a few questions to Ms. Stanek and got her responses.
DF: GM and the other main car manufacturers have already pledged to make at least half of your cars flex fuel by the year 2012. How will the emphasis on revving up production of ethanol even more impact that goal – any chance that might increase?
MBS: Ethanol production is increasing and so is flex fuel vehicle production. These combined activities are sending positive signals to the biofuel and other supporting industries. The hope is to support current biofuel production and to spur commercialization of gen 2 ethanol from biomass. Grain-based ethanol producers such as Abengoa are moving into biomass ethanol. We are also continuing with our VeraSun partnership and they are developing remarkable efficiencies and fuel alternatives
DF: There has been talk that another way to displace more foreign oil would be to increase the manufacturers’ recommendations for the amount of ethanol that can be used in non-flex fuel vehicles to perhaps 15 or 20 percent from the current 10. What are the chances that might happen, assuming it could also be approved by the EPA?
MBS: Much more e20 study is required. As you know, there are over 240 million vehicles on the road and many are over five years old. We do not want to prematurely retire vehicles due to unforseen vehicle performance and fuel issues. Emission certification is key to higher blends initiatives.
DF: Tell us about the potential at this point for plug-ins like the Chevy Volt or hybrids that can run on a number of different fuel types.
MBS: The Volt plug in concept that debuted at the Detroit Auto show has the ability to have battery charge extended through the use of recharging. Ethanol and biodiesel will be compatible, adding greater distance ranges between grid charges
DF: What about biodiesel? What is GM doing in that realm?
MBS: GM is very active in the bio diesel segment. Our vehicles are certified for B5 and we are involved in ASTM specification development for higher blends. A robust spec is needed with retail adherence to spec in order to grow the consumer market.
I want to thank our sponsor for my coverage of this year’s National Biodiesel Conference, John Deere, represented here by Don Borgman. The conference is winding down with the NBB Board meeting and a few workshops still taking place. I’m headed home but have a number of posts that I’ll add within the next day, including all the Eye on Biodiesel award winners.
At our general session this morning here at the National Biodiesel Conference we got the political perspective from both sides of the aisle. On hand were Mary Matalin and James Carville.
I’ve got the recorded audio of the press conference for you here. The questions aren’t on microphone but the answers are very clear. The first question to kick it off is whether they think biodiesel as part of an energy solution is on the radar screen inside the beltway in Washington, DC.
This new industry, so critical to our economy, our national security, and our environment is already setting up shop in Michigan. With other states clamoring for this opportunity, Michigan cannot afford to wait.
Willett Kempton, Richard Garvine and Amardeep Dhanju at the University of Delaware and Mark Jacobson and Cristina Archer at Stanford, found that the wind over the Middle Atlantic Bight, the aquatic region from Cape Cod, Mass., to Cape Hatteras, N.C., could produce 330 gigawatts (GW) of average electrical power if thousands of wind turbines were installed off the coast.
“The production of renewable fuels is one of Missouri agriculture’s greatest success stories,” Blunt said. “In the same way that Missouri’s family farmers rose to a great challenge and fed the world in the last century, this century’s family farmers will answer another noble calling and fuel America. This study shows that renewable fuels will not only help reduce our dependence on foreign oil, but also create jobs and economic growth.”
“Most companies go to New York in order to do this type of ceremony,” said US BioEnergy CEO Gordon Ommen. “Since we are a midwest company, really founded on the American farmer and those relationships, we thought we’d have New York come to rural America and meet us on our ground.”
US BioEnergy is the largest “pure play” ethanol producer in the country. “The largest producer of ethanol in the U.S. is ADM,” said Ommen. “We are the second largest producer of ethanol and the largest ‘pure play’ producer, which means ethanol is our primary product.”
The theme for 
Here’s your chance to hear a new song from Emily Richards and her new band –