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The House will be forming a new agricultural energy subcommittee in response to the role farming will play in reducing America’s dependence on imported oil, according to Representative John Salazar, a Democrat from Colorado.

The (CO) Summit Daily News reports that Salazar addressed a renewable energy symposium Saturday and said that in the new Democrat-controlled Congress there will be a strong focus on renewable energy and increased energy independence.

“If America were energy-independent, politics in the Middle East would be totally different,” Salazar said. “The only way I can ever see peace is to devalue the only resource they have in the Middle East, which is oil. The only way we can is to develop alternative energy and we must encourage other countries like China to do so, too.”

Salazar sponsored a bill earlier this year that would ensure key provisions of the 2005 Energy Bill pertaining to renewable fuels production would apply to U.S. production only. He is a member of the House committees on Transportation and Agriculture.

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The December edition of “Ethanol Today” is a celebration of the biggest year yet for the ethanol industry.

The American Coalition for Ethanol publication provides a snapshot of the year in ethanol with some nice graphs and charts to show the industry’s growth.

Ethanol’s expansion in 2006 is an extension of a several-year growth trend. It took 20 years for the U.S. to grow its first billion gallons of ethanol capacity; since 2001, however, the industry has grown by an average 23 percent annually, adding more than three billion gallons of capacity in that time.

In terms of production, Iowa is way out front as 2006 draws to a close with over 1.5 billion gallons a year and Illinois is ranked second with about half that amount. However, that may change by this time next year as number 3 Nebraska has enough plants and expansions on the drawing board to more than double the state’s existing capacity and launch Nebraska to the position of the nation’s second largest ethanol producer.

The article also highlights the Indy Racing League switch to ethanol and pays tribute to ethanol advocate and Indy racer Paul Dana “the person who almost singlehandedly made this possible.”

Read more here.

For corn growers, ethanol means markets as usual. In other words, up and down.

That was the word from the senior agricultural economist for Wells Fargo Michael Swanson, who spoke at the Farm News Ag Show at Iowa Central Community College, according to this story by Bill Shea from the Ft. Dodge Messenger.

The economist said he’s ‘‘bullish’’ about the future of ethanol. But in nearly the same breath he cautioned that ethanol production will be a ‘‘real roller coaster.’’

Sounds like what farmers are used to already.

Messenger photo by Hans Madsen.

Every month there’s a new record set for ethanol production and the bar has now been raised to 333,000 barrels a day. That’s a 55,000 barrel per day increase since the beginning of the year, according to the latest figures released by the Renewable Fuels Association.

RFA says demand for ethanol remained strong in September at 380,000 b/d.

Here’s a story out of Malaysia on using sap from “nipah,” or mangrove palm, to make an ethanol-like biofuel.

The substance is similar to ethanol from Brazil’s sugar cane or Europe’s sugar beet but nipah would have higher yield per hectare.

The state government, after studying a proposal from a KL-based company on Wednesday, agreed to allow the company to extract “nira” or nipah sap from 10,000ha of nipah area along the state’s coastal area.

A plant to be built in Malaysia would be the first in the world to produce ethanol from palm.

Read more.