energy.agwired.com

Two Boulder, Colorado residents are on a mission to promote E-85 by bus.

Self-described dedicated environmentalists Jason and Tracey Keeley have “organized Buy the Bus to fund an eight-month tour of key locations in the United States, during which they will spread the word about E85.”

Tracey and Jason’s combined passion for the great outdoors has culminated in Buy the Bus, an advertising campaign designed to help spread the word about E85. Starting in April of 2007, Jason and Tracey will tour the United States for eight months, educating the American people about ethanol fuel. The Volkswagon Bus they will use will also be converted so that it can run on E85, which Jason and Tracey will use religiously.

Buy the Bus allows businesses to buy advertisement space on the Volkswagen Bus in which they will make the trip. The bus will see about 8,000 miles of highway, guaranteeing broad exposure for the advertisements it carries with it. Additionally, the ads will remain on the Buy the Bus website, as well as the real bus, for three years. Advertising space costs $1 per pixel, sold in blocks of 100, which translates to 3” by 3” blocks on the real bus.

Read more here and at BuytheBus.com.

The job of lieutenant governor is rarely noticed, but when the running mate of the challenger in the Minnesota governor’s race appeared to show ignorance of ethanol this week, the current holder of the position did get some attention.

And no one can say that Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau is ignorant when it comes to ethanol. As a corn farmer from near New Ulm, part of Molnau’s income depends on the renewable fuel, according to this story from the Austin Daily Herald.

Molnau, who farms with her husband east of New Ulm, said during a campaign visit to Austin Friday that they finished harvesting their corn last week, and that some of their yield will be going into ethanol.

“The best part of E-85 is there’s a lot of demand for the corn,” Molnau said, which drives prices paid to farmers up. “This morning my husband told me the delivery price is $2.81, and that’s what E-85 has done for rural Minnesota.”

Here’s another story on Molnau from the Albert Lea Tribune.

The Wall Street Journal reports on the rising price of corn due to ethanol production.

The price for corn — the nation’s No. 1 crop and one of the most ubiquitous ingredients in the American food supply — has jumped nearly 55% since mid-September, when U.S. corn farmers began harvesting their third-biggest crop ever. Grain prices usually slump to their lowest levels of the year during the harvest season. Yet the price of corn in recent weeks has shot through the rarely breached $3-a-bushel mark and appears headed higher.

“The consequences of ethanol are the biggest thing going on in agriculture today,” says Keith Collins, chief economist of the U.S. Agriculture Department. “We are talking about a higher new benchmark for corn.”

Biofuels are helping to create more jobs in rural areas, according to a Des Moines Register report. The story features some of the people working for Lincolnway Energy near Nevada, Iowa and notes that “the industry promises job growth in a wide array of fields, including crop genetics, engineering, life sciences and construction.”

A shorter version of the article was picked up by the Associated Press.

More Iowans are finding themselves in a field they never knew existed when they were in school.

The expanding ethanol industry is attracting people from a variety of professions — and more are expected as another 10 ethanol plants are planned for Iowa.

The candidate for Lieutenant Governor in Minnesota got a quick lesson in ethanol politics this week when she failed what she called a “college quiz bowl” question about E85.

When a reporter asked Democratic candidate Judi Dutcher a question about the fuel blend, she answered, “It’s like you’ve asked me the college quiz bowl question. What is E-85?”

Minnesota is one of the nation’s largest ethanol producing states and has over 300 E-85 pumps, more than any other state in the country. So, Dutcher’s lack of knowledge about the fuel has become a big issue in the Minnesota governor’s race between GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Democrat Mike Hatch.

Read the AP report here.

Texas-based White Energy Holding Company, LLC has acquired a 100-million-gallon-per-year ethanol plant, located in Plainview, Texas.

According to a company release, the plant will be a “near twin” of White Energy’s other ethanol facility under construction in Hereford, Texas. The Plainview facility is fully permitted and construction is underway, with completion targeted for early 2008. White Energy also owns an operating 45-MGPY plant in Russell, Kansas, which, when combined with output of the two Texas plants, will bring White Energy’s total production capacity to 245 MGPY.

Mid-Missouri Energy, a farmer-owned ethanol plant, is the topic of a New York Times article on local plant investors resisting the lure of big money.

According to the story, the farmer-investors in the small town of Malta Bend, Mo are being courted by “offers — some as high as $275 million” to buy the plant which opened in 2005.

So far, however, the plant owners have said no. To them — and to many other farmers who have invested in ethanol around the country — the ethanol plants represent more than a winning lottery ticket. Instead, they signify an emotional investment in the future of their farms and communities, a chance for greater independence and a sense of pride that they are helping make America less dependent on foreign oil.

The article talks about one potential investor who visited the plant claiming to “represent a pool of $11 billion aimed at ethanol investments, and outlined a bid of about $275 million.”

“He didn’t really know what ethanol was,” said Ryland Utlaut, a veteran of 40 years of corn farming who is the president of Mid-Missouri’s board. “That bothers me. We built this plant.”

The full story from the NY Times requires registration to view but it is an interesting look at what this investment in America’s domestic fuel future really means to the farmers who are making it happen.