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Some folks building an ethanol plant in Ohio got a lesson in media relations this week in a big way. This is basic PR 101 – don’t invite the media to a meeting and then tell them they can’t record or take notes – and then tell them to leave if they don’t like it. That’s what Harrison Ethanol did last week – and then had to humbly offer an apology to the media this week, according to this article from the Times-Leader. The apology was appropriately contrite, “The support of the community and the media has been and continues to be critical to the success of the Harrison Ethanol project. We regret that several years of building relationships with the people of Harrison County and the media serving them may have been jeopardized. We sincerely apologize to the media representatives who attended the event.”
This company also has no website, even though they just broke ground on a plant that is expected to create 107 on-site jobs and 60 contract jobs will have a $7.2 million payroll and is expected to pump $85 million in annual cash flow to the region, according to this Renewable Energy Access story. According to another story I found from the Times Reporter, Harrison Ethanol LLC is an Ohio-based company composed of Ohio farmers and business owners… The proposed corn-based biorefinery facility is designed to produce 20 million gallons of fuel grade ethanol annually, human foods and animal feeds. Harrison Ethanol will consume nine million bushels of corn from area farmers and a significant portion through Coshocton Grain Co. by railroad transport. But, no website. And the domain name of harrisonethanol.com appears to be free.

The president of the Renewable Fuels Association has sent a letter to the Energy Information Administration “countering assertions concerning the availability of ethanol for those gasoline markets transitioning out of methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE).” According to a press release, RFA president Bob Dinneen wrote to EIA in response to a report entitled “Eliminating MTBE in Gasoline in 2006,” released last month which he contends “is based on 2004 data and informal discussions with refiners” and that the projections “appear to be based on tenuous, and in some cases inaccurate, supporting information.” Dinneen challenges EIA to meet with him and others in the industry “to provide a complete overview of the state of the U.S. ethanol industry and its ability to meet the challenges that lie ahead.”

Hawaii is finally making some progress in its requirement to blend 10 percent ethanol in 85 percent of the gasoline sold in the state. Chevron this week became the first energy company in Hawaii to begin blending ethanol, as required by the state by April 2, according to this story from the Hawaii Channel. As posted previously, Hawaii is running behind in plans to require ethanol in gasoline. The state made that requirement law ten years ago to help the sugar cane industry, which is now apparently non-existent, according to this story. I thought it was cute that Chevron workers gathered for a Hawaiian blessing at the new facility.

An Associated Press story on the wire about ethanol producers being encouraged by “new study” is the study that came out at the end of January (see previous post) Just want to make that clear in case someone sees the story and thinks that this is a different “new” study. It is a very positive story for the ethanol industry, so it’s good to see it resurface for another round. This story, which datelined in Iowa, interviews one of the University of California-Berkeley researchers who did the study. Alex Farrell, co-author of the latest study, said previous research didn’t take into account ethanol byproducts such as distiller grains and corn oil. Corn turned into ethanol also feeds animals and is used for other purposes, he said, which displaces competing products that require energy to make. “Studies with a negative impact ignored that,” Farrell said. Since the latest research wasn’t funded by any special interest group and used the most up-to-date data, Farrell said his group’s information is the most accurate.

Good story in USA Today about the ethanol plant construction boom. I like these quotes from the article: “It’s a little bit of a dot-com atmosphere,” says John Skelley, president of Arizona Grain” and “It’s a gold rush right now,” CEO Jeff Broin (of Broin Companies) says.

Most people never heard the word “switchgrass” before it was immortalized by President Bush in his State of the Union address, but someday we could be running our cars on fuel made from the stuff. USDA’s Agricultural Research Service just released a new study on the feasibility of switchgrass for energy production, focusing specifically on the economics of growing the crop and how to get the most yield per acre. According to an ARS report, “two switchgrass plants per square foot the first year ensures a successful bioenergy crop harvest in subsequent years.” The studies were done on farms in Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota, since switchgrass is a native prarie grass in those states. Normally the grass is used for conservation purposes or cattle feed. The guy in the picture is Ken Vogel, a geneticist at the ARS Grain, Forage and Bioenergy Research Unit at Lincoln, Neb. who led the study. Here’s a link to the report on “Establishment Stand Thresholds” reported in the January issue of Crop Science magazine, if you’re into that.
A big plus for switchgrass is that as a perennial plant, switchgrass has the advantage of not needing annual planting and tillage. Skipping these can save soil and energy. It can also reduce sediment and other pollutant losses to waterways.
By the way, research into switchgrass for energy production has been going on for at least a decade. I know that because I remember doing a story about it when I still worked at Brownfield Network – and I left there in 1997!