Ethanol Market Reports

Cindy Zimmerman

Fall is bringing in a bumper crop of stories about ethanol earnings, corn prices and whether the gold rush is over.

Associated Press, NEW YORK — Makers of ethanol, an alternative fuel derived from corn, witnessed a third-quarter retreat from the strong industry conditions that characterized the second quarter: peak oil and ethanol prices, and rapid demand growth for ethanol as a gasoline additive.

Resource Investor Blog – As oil prices retreated, so did ethanol….

Zacks.com – Senior analyst Paul Cohen says the overall impetus for ethanol is strong and will continue to be strong.

Toledo Blade – Investing in ethanol was a high-octane activity this year, especially when the price of regular gasoline surpassed $3 a gallon. “There’s huge interest in ethanol,” said Charlie Rentschler, a 30-year agribusiness analyst now with Wall Street Access, a New York firm.

UPI – WASHINGTON — The rising cost of corn amid increased demand and sliding oil prices may hurt the burgeoning ethanol industry.

Forbes – Everything has been going right for ethanol, the corn-mash moonshine that began getting the country truly giddy earlier this year. But now that giddiness is gone.

Ethanol, News

Political Ethanol

Cindy Zimmerman

Corn Politics Ethanol has become a campaign issue in many areas, with political candidates often trying to outdo each other in proving how supportive they are of domestic fuels.

Take Missouri, for example. This story from the Columbia Missourian reports: There’s consensus on ethanol among the candidates for state representative seats in two rural Missouri districts: It’s good for farmers, good for the country and good for the economy, they say, but there’s not much more the state can do — at least for now — to encourage its use.

In the Missouri Senate race, Republican incumbent Jim Talent and Democrat Claire McCaskill both say they support alternative fuels such as ethanol, but McCaskill has raised objections to last year’s federal energy legislation that includes a renewable fuels standard. Talent is a strong supporter of the RFS and was instrumental in getting it included in the final energy bill passed by Congress. Both have traded barbs in campaign ads over who has done more or less for the ethanol industry, with the McCaskill camp claiming Talent voted against ethanol for 18 years.

Ethanol, Government

Third Alternative Energy Plant Announced

Cindy Zimmerman

Alternative Energy Kansas City-based Alternative Energy Sources Inc. has announced plans to build a 110-million-gallon ethanol plant in Greenville, Ill., 45 miles east of St. Louis.

According to a company release, this follows announcements in August that the company plans to build ethanol plants in Central Iowa and Northern Illinois.

Ethanol

Buy American

Cindy Zimmerman

American American Ethanol has broken first ground on its way to a planned two billion gallons of annual ethanol production.

The Chicago-based company broke ground last week on the first of 15 planned 100+ gallon-per-year facilities in Nebraska and Illinois. Sutton, Nebraska was the site for the ceremony on Thursday, according to this story from the Lincoln Journal-Star. Another groundbreaking is expected shorly on a similar plant by the same company in Wahoo, Nebraska.

According to the American Ethanol website, they have three additional Nebraska sites in permitting, as well as four sites in Illinois in the permitting process, with six other Illinois sites currently under negotiation.

Ethanol, Facilities

Confusion Over E85 Pump Certification

Cindy Zimmerman

E85 Reports from the Detroit Free Press about E85 pumps losing their safety rating from Underwriters Laboratory are causing quite a bit of confusion in the ethanol world.

Justin Hyde of the Free Press Washington Bureau followed up his first report yesterday with another one today giving further information, as well as an article in USA Today.

The initial report had no comment from UL, the nation’s largest product safety testing group, but today’s story quotes UL’s manager of consumer affairs John Drengenberg and says it was on October 5 that “the UL said it was suspending its listings for any fuel system that handles E85, a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline.”

The articles claim this “means that most of the roughly 1,000 stations that carry it likely violate fire codes. It also means that in most states, stations that want to install E85 pumps will need waivers from local or state fire marshals.”

Two stations in Columbus, Ohio have been closed so far, but each state has its own jurisdiction regarding safety approval ratings.

The story quotes Michelle Kautz, a spokeswoman for the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition, as saying stores that offer E85, a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline, are “allowed to sell it until they’re told not to.”

Although there is no official information about the UL decision on the company’s website, UL reportedly said in a statement that it had no reports of problems with E85 systems, but withdrew its certification due to concerns about how ethanol can corrode parts of the fueling system. The issue concerns pumps that have been converted from regular gasoline with up to 15 percent ethanol additive, to up to 85 percent ethanol.

UL is reportedly moving quickly to examine the pumps for ethanol use and set new standards.

Ethanol

ILFB Creates Ethanol Blog and TV Spots

Cindy Zimmerman

ILFB Illinois Farm Bureau is trying to get the good news about ethanol out in two ways – a new blog and some cute and corny TV spots posted on YouTube.

Illinois Farm Bureau News Service Director John Hawkins says they started the new ethanol blog “to provide the latest information on renewable energy and ethanol for Illinois Farm Bureau members. In the near future, we will include some IFB research on the renewable fuels issue, plus FarmWeek stories pertinent to energy issues.”Capt Corn

Today’s post on the blog is about the ethanol television spots that ILFB has produced.

One, called “Kids Say the Darndest Things,” has a bunch of cute little kids saying nice things about ethanol.

The other one features ethanol super hero Captain Cornelius, who has been around for years promoting corn. In this very “corny” 30-second spot he saves the world with the power of corn in ethanol to make us less dependent on foreign oil.

In terms of views, cute is beating corny with over 1800 views for “Kids” and less then 250 for “Capt. Corn.”

Ethanol

Support for Biofuels Investment

Cindy Zimmerman

BIO A new survey from the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) shows strong support for government investment in biofuels research.

According to a press release:

Four in five U.S. adults (80%) strongly or somewhat agree that national and state governments are not doing enough to promote production of biofuels.

The survey, conducted by Harris Interactive®, also found that 82% of adults say national and state governments should provide financial incentives to biofuels producers to encourage the production and availability of biofuels. More than two out of three adults (69%) would use American-made biofuels even if these fuels cost slightly more than conventional gas. And more than eight of every 10 (84%) say they would be at least somewhat likely to support federal and state political candidates who favor providing incentives to promote increased production and availability of biofuels throughout the United States.

Not seeing much on this in the general media, but the farm media has stories out on it.

Biodiesel, Ethanol, Government

Midwest Ethanol Iowa Plant Meetings

Cindy Zimmerman

MW Ethanol Meeting Public meetings are part of the process of bringing an ethanol plant to any community. Plans must be presented and concerns addressed.

Monona County Ethanol – a Midwest Ethanol Producers company – held two public meetings this week in the area where they plan to build a 100 million gallon per year facility. About 200 people attended the meetings held in Onawa and Blencoe, where the plant will be located. According to Midwest Ethanol CFO Kurt Bravo, the plant will provide 45 – 50 professional, skilled and semi-skilled employment opportunities, with compensation packages averaging $52,000.00 per year including benefits.
MW Ethanol Logo

The Iowa plant is scheduled to break ground in January of 2007, with production slated for the 1st quarter of 2008. This is the fifth plant for Midwest Ethanol Producers – the other four are located in Nebraska.

Ethanol, Facilities

What Percent Solution?

Cindy Zimmerman

Red Cavaney Back to back speeches by American Petroleum Institute CEO Red Cavaney and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla provided a stark contrast in ideas at the Advancing Renewable Energy Conference last week in St. Louis.

Cavaney discounted claims that the oil industry is “opposed to ethanol and is doing all it can to discourage its use. Nothing could be further from the truth,” he said. However, he noted that they are “concerned that some ethanol proponents are focused exclusively on E-85 fuel. While the industry does not object to E-85 in a free market, so long as it meets standardized technical specifications and is of reliable quality, a national emphasis on increasing ethanol volumes through E-85 can prove unnecessarily expensive and risky. If we are to encourage more long-term use of ethanol, we need to avoid surprising consumers with unanticipated problems.”

Cavaney noted the lack of cars on the road that can use e85, the decreased fuel efficiency, and the expense of installing e85 pumps as reasons why the ethanol industry should be promoting more e10 than e85. “It seems obvious that ethanol is a better value for most consumers as a gasoline additive than as E-85. As long as ethanol can be added to gasoline up to its legal limit of 10 percent by volume as a gasoline additive, it enhances octane, reduces toxics and is a viable approach. This approach creates market pressures preventing ethanol prices from falling below those of gasoline until its possible use as an additive is exhausted. And, with a 140 billion gallon national gasoline pool currently, there is considerable growth opportunity for ethanol.”
Listen to a segment of Cavaney’s remarks: Listen To MP3 Cavaney (5 min MP3)
(read Cavaney’s full speech)Vinod Khosla

Coming to the podium after Cavaney, Khosla totally disagreed. “That’s the additive market, that’s what the oil companies would like us to stick with. Just be a blend into gasoline, that’s a 15 billion gallon market at e10,” he said. “I suggest that the real market is much, much larger if we let an e85 future happen.”

Khosla outlined a three mandates to make that “e85 future happen.”
1. Mandate that 70 percent of all new cars made in America be flex-fuel cars to “ensure that the consumer can pick the cheapest fuel that is available.”
2. Mandate that at least ten percent of all U.S. gas stations, either “owned or branded by any of the major suppliers” offer e85.
3. Make the current 51 cent blender’s credit a variable credit to insure against drastic ups or downs in oil prices. “I’m recommending a 25 cent credit at $75 oil and a 75 cent credit for $25 oil.”

Listen to a segment of Khosla’s remarks: Listen To MP3 Khosla (6 min MP3)

Energy, Ethanol

Feed vs Fuel

Cindy Zimmerman

Keith CollinsOne question that continues to be asked in regard to corn ethanol production is how it will affect the global supply of food for both humans and animals. It was a primary topic of discussion at the Advancing Renewable Energy Conference last week in St. Louis.

During a press conference, US Department of Agriculture chief economist Keith Collins was asked to address the concerns of livestock producers. Collins noted that USDA will do everything it can “to ensure that our food, feed and fiber needs in the United States are met.”

He said that some increase in corn prices can be tolerated by livestock producers and whether corn will get too expensive depends on several factors, “the pressure on bringing land into production, the kind of yield increases that we can get in corn over the next few years, and it also depends upon what we can do with our co-product feeds.”

Collins says that while 30 percent of each bushel of corn used to make ethanol comes back out as livestock feed. The problem is utilizing that more effectively by improving the quality and distribution of those co-products. But he admits that there will be competition between livestock feed and ethanol in areas where there is a large concentration of ethanol plants.

Listen to Collins’ full remarks: Listen To MP3 Collins (2 min MP3)

Ethanol, Government