US BioEnergy Corporation of Brookings, SD has announced plans for a 100 million gallon per year ethanol facility adjacent to the CN Railway in Dyersville, IA. According to a company release, the plant will be a gas fired, dry-grind ethanol facility similar to one the company is building in Albert City, Iowa.
Media Training
I have been on the road for the past two days, up in Sioux Falls, SD at the Broin Companies to help with media training for some of the industry’s ethanol ambassadors. 
It was a very interesting group of people who are proving the performance value of ethanol in different types of vehicles. In the photo, I am doing a mock interview with one of the members of the Vanguard Squadron while the rest of the team looks on. The Vanguard Squadron is a precision aerobatic team based in South Dakota that has been flying planes powered by 100 percent ethanol since 1993. Great, fun group of guys. I will be posting more about them in the future.
Also at the event was Scott Jensen (see previous post), his wife Lisa and brother Jim, all part of the Ethanol Express Pull Truck team.
All of them were learning how to be more effective spokespersons for the ethanol industry when they are out at events.
Michigan Alternative Fuel Incentives
Here’s a story that ought to rile up the people who can’t seem to understand the need to provide businesses in America with incentives to develop and use alternative fuels. These folks like to use the word subsidy as if it’s a bad word. I think incentive is a much better word and in the case of this story, it’s more accurate. This is from Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm’s website last Friday:
In her weekly radio address, Governor Jennifer M. Granholm today announced she has signed a package of legislation that will, for the first time, create incentives for consumers who buy alternative fuel vehicles and service stations that make ethanol and biodiesel available to their customers.
“The state that put the world on wheels will be the state that makes those wheels independent of foreign oil,” Granholm said. “As more E-85 and flex fuel vehicles are produced by the Big Three automakers, it is essential that we make biodiesel and ethanol products more widely available to encourage their use.”
Granholm said a portion of the $2 billion 21st Century Jobs Fund is being targeted to developing alternative energy production in Michigan. As the automotive capital of the world, Michigan is a logical choice to be the center of alternative energy research and production.
The seven-bill package reduces the gas tax by 36 percent on fuel that contains ethanol and by 20 percent on biodiesel blends. The legislation also provides grants to service station owners who want to renovate or expand their existing stations to make E-85 and biodiesel available and allows for the creation of new agriculture renaissance zones to help spur additional ethanol and biodiesel plants.
More on Sugar-Ethanol Study
Here is a link to the power point presentation used by USDA economist Keith Collins during the press conference Monday unveiling the sugar to ethanol study. Have not yet gotten the actual report from USDA, but this might help answer some questions – or generate more.
Riding the Ethanol Express
Truck pulling is another racing event that is being fueled by ethanol.
This is Scott Jensen with the Ethanol Express Pulling Team and here is an interview Chuck did recently with Scott explaining what he does and how ethanol plays a role: 
Jensen Interview (3 min MP3)
Sugar Not So Sweet For Ethanol
Producing ethanol from sugar cane or sugar beets in the U.S. would cost about 2 1/2 times more than it costs to produce it from corn. That is according to a long-awaited USDA study on the economics of producing ethanol from sugar authored by the agriculture department’s top economist Keith Collins. The detailed report compares production scenerios for sugar cane, beets, raw sugar and molasses adding the net cost of the feedstock to the processing cost to derive a total cost per gallon.
The bottom line, according to the report, is this:
Corn ……………. 1.05/gallon ethanol
Cane ……………. 2.40/gallon ethanol
Beets …………… 2.35/gallon ethanol
Raw sugar ……… 3.48/gallon ethanol
Processed sugar.. 3.97/gallon ethanol
Molasses ……….. 1.27/gallon ethanol
While the report does indicate that molasses is the only feedstock that compares favorably to corn in terms of production costs, Collins notes that molasses is a by-product of sugar production and “if you took all the molasses in the United States and you turned it into ethanol, you would have 150 million gallons. We’re going to produce five billion corn-based gallons of ethanol this year. So, academically it’s true that it’s our most cost effective option among the sugar feedstocks, but practically it doesn’t represent much of an opportunity.”
More on this report later – audio, graphics and links to come.
Mixed Marriage
We will probably be seeing more of these types of business unions take place in the near future.
Houston-based Marathon Oil Corporation and The Andersons, Inc. of Ohio have signed a letter of intent which “could lead to the formation of a 50/50 joint venture that would construct and operate a number of ethanol plants.” 
According to a press release, the formation of the joint venture and other related activities are subject to approval by each company’s board of directors and the execution of definitive agreements.
MO Governor Says E-10 Bill is a Win-Win
Here’s another picture of Missouri Governor Matt Blunt at one of the several signing ceremonies for the state’s new 10 percent ethanol standard. Here he puts pen to paper as FFA students look on at Missouri Ethanol, LLC located in Laddonia, Mo. The governor also wrote a personal opinion piece in the Kansas City InfoZine about the legislation that will take effect January 1, 2007.
The photo is courtesy of the Missouri Corn Growers Association.
Don’t Drink the Fuel
Here is a story from the Des Moines Register about a recovering alcoholic who tried to get unemployment benefits from the ethanol plant he worked for because he drank some 190-proof alcohol that spilled into a holding pond.
At the hearing, the judge asked, “Why would you drink fuel?”
“I don’t have a good explanation for that,” he replied. “Curiosity?”
At least the judge had the good sense to deny him the benefits, even on the grounds of terminal stupidity.
Cellulosic Roadmap
The U.S. Department of Energy has released an ambitious new research agenda for the development of cellulosic ethanol as an alternative to gasoline. According to a DOE release, the 200-page scientific “roadmap” cites recent advances in biotechnology that have made cost-effective production of ethanol from cellulose, or inedible plant fiber, an attainable goal. The report outlines a detailed research plan for developing new technologies to transform cellulosic ethanol—a renewable, cleaner-burning, and carbon-neutral alternative to gasoline—into an economically viable transportation fuel.