In the latest Long Term Energy Outlook report issued by the Energy Information Administration, higher oil prices are expected to increase demand for “unconventional sources of transportation fuel, such as ethanol and biodiesel.” The report revises projections for world oil prices upward based on the “volatility” of world oil markets. They are now calling for oil to be $54 a barrell in 2025, $21 more than the previous forecast, and be up to $57 a barrell by 2030. Production of “renewable energy” is projected to increase 1.8 percent by 2030 – but that category includes “grid-connected electricity from conventional hydroelectric; wood and wood waste; landfill gas; municipal solid waste; other biomass; wind; photovoltaic and solar thermal sources; non-electric energy from renewable sources, such as active and passive solar systems, and wood; and both the ethanol and gasoline components of E85, but not the ethanol components of blends less than 85 percent.” Consumption of “renewable products” is expected to increase the same amount during that time period, while consumption of “petroleum products”, which includes ethanol blended with gasoline at lower levels than 85 percent is expected to increase just over one percent. (Link to full report)
Cornhusker State Ethanol
More corn from the Cornhusker State will be going into ethanol production. In the past week, at least three ethanol plants have been announced in Nebraska, prompting Renewable Fuels Association president Bob Dineen to comment, “It seems not a week goes by that the state of Nebraska is not adding a new ethanol plant to its growing roster.” Today, Abengoa Bioenergy Corporation will celebrate the official groundbreaking of its ethanol facility in Ravenna, Neb., Abengoa Bioenergy of Ravenna. Last Friday it was Advanced Bioenergy, LLC near Fairmont, Nebraska. And earlier this week, Val-E Ethanol began construction on its new plant near Ord, Nebraska. All together, the three plants would produce 233 million gallons of ethanol a year using 84 million bushels of corn!
FTC Finds Ethanol Industry Competitive
The ethanol industry has been exonerated of charges that it is too highly concentrated in the hands of too few companies. Under the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the Federal Trade Commission was required to “perform a market concentration analysis of the ethanol production industry using the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index to determine whether there is sufficient competition among industry participants to avoid price-setting and other anticompetitive behavior.” I guess that’s because the energy bill provides incentives for increasing ethanol production and they don’t want to give all that money to a small handful of companies. Maybe there were fears by some in Congress that the ethanol industry was just like Big Oil? Anyway, the bottom line of the FTC’s pretty straightforward 17-page report is that “The level of concentration in ethanol production would be unlikely to provide the opportunity or incentive for one or more firms to act anticompetitively.” (Link to full report)
USDA Energy Strategy Supports Domestic Fuels
Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns today announced a strategy to help farmers and ranchers deal with higher energy costs and increase production of domestic fuels. As part of the plan – USDA is intensifying efforts to support the development, production and use of renewable fuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel, through an array of research, loan and grant programs. The Secretary has directed Rural Development to maximize the use of approximately $1.4 billion available this year in various business and electric loan and loan guarantee authorities. More specifically, Johanns directed these funds be used to help farmers, ranchers and rural communities efficiently create renewable energy systems and businesses. Since 2001, USDA Rural Development has awarded nearly $290 million in renewable energy funding. These funds support renewable energy projects such as ethanol plants, wind and solar power units that create jobs and spur growth in rural communities. The Forest Service and other USDA agencies will intensify their support of renewable fuels research, development and use. Click here to listen to Johanns’ comments about ethanol and biodiesel made during Wednesday’s tele-conference from Washington DC.
AG SECRETARY TO DISCUSS ENERGY TODAY
Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns will hold a tele-news conference on Wednesday, December 7th at 2:30 p.m. EST. Secretary Johanns will discuss a comprehensive energy strategy to help farmers and ranchers mitigate the impact of high energy costs, create long-term resiliency, and promote renewable fuels. The press conference will be available live via webcast from the USDA website www.usda.gov.
MN Corn Growers United With EPIC
The Minnesota Corn Growers Association and Minnesota Corn Research and Promotion Council have climbed aboard the EPIC bandwagon to present a unified front for the promotion of ethanol nationwide. “This is a significant milestone for ethanol promotion, to have all these different ethanol producers come together in a common cause,” said Jerry Ploehn, chair of MCR&PC. “We finally have the individual horses hooked to the same wagon and they are all pulling together. The more that join in, the more strength we can harness to achieve a name for ethanol.” EPIC’s Tom Sluneka made a presentation to the group last month.
Green News
This company is into some innovative technology for “green fuels.” Last week, GreenShift – which is a publicly traded company – announced new technology that converts agricultural waste into biofuels. Basically what it can do is take the concentrated sludge created from livestock processing, which has a high concentration of protein and fat, and make biodiesel out of it. The sludge is created as a by-product of wastewater treatment at processing facilities. Read the full story here.
GreenShift also has a subsidiary with a great name – Mean Green BioFuels Corporation – which has announced its plans to build a 30 million gallon per year biodiesel production facility in western Tennessee. The new Tennessee facility will be one of five such facilities that Mean Green intends to build, own and operate commencing in 2006. (Link to press release)
Gentlemen – Test Your Engines
On-track testing of the IRL Indy Car new ethanol-blended fuel begins next week in Florida at the Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Bryan Herta of Andretti Green Racing and Buddy Rice of Rahal Letterman Racing will use the fuel as part of a one-day test with manufacturers Honda and Firestone. In March, the Indy Racing League announced it had partnered with the ethanol industry to become the fuel supplier beginning with the 2006 season. Teams will use a 90 percent methanol and 10 percent ethanol for the test and during the 2006 season. In 2007, the fuel will be 100 percent fuel-grade ethanol in IndyCar Series cars.
Ethanol is the only proven commercial scale renewable transportation fuel currently available in the marketplace. The 2006 season will not be the first time ethanol fuel has powered a car in the famed Indianapolis 500. At the 1927 race, a car driven by Leon Duray was fueled by ethyl (grain) alcohols.
The testing will be done December 7.
Nebraska Plant Groundbreaking
I really don’t like posting stories about companies with no website that I can find. These days a website is just such a given for a company that I am surprised when I can’t find one. It’s important not only because it provides legitimacy, but also information.
ANYway, website or not, Advanced Bioenergy, LLC is breaking ground December 2 for a 100 million gallon ethanol plant in Fairmont, Nebraska. When complete, the plant will be a leading ethanol producer in the state of Nebraska. It will also produce 320,000 tons of dried distillers grains for use in livestock feed and use 36 million bushels of corn a year. The plant is being built by Fagen, Inc. of Granite Falls, MN on a 260-acre site located a mile south of Fairmont and will employ up to 50 people when completed.
Here’s a link – to the Renewable Fuels Association website where they have the release they sent out on the groundbreaking.
BioTrucking
Hey all you 18 wheeler drivers. Now there’s an earth friendly website for you. It’s the United Soybean Board funded BioTrucker.com which I guess is produced by the National Biodiesel Board.
This holiday season, thousands of gifts ship over the road in big rigs running on biodiesel. Recently, the American Trucking Associations (ATA) announced endorsement of a 5 percent blend of biodiesel known commonly as B5 as part of the trucking industry’s move toward cleaner, renewable fuel. The soybean checkoff-funded National Biodiesel Board (NBB) launched www.biotrucker.com to provide access to encourage further biodiesel use in the trucking industry. Additional support for the increased use of B5 biodiesel is evident because most major diesel engine manufacturers including Detroit Diesel, Caterpillar and Cummins, have stated that B5 can be used in their diesel engines as long as the B5 blend meets the American Society for Testing and Materials D-6751 biodiesel standard. NBB estimates biodiesel production for 2005 to reach 75 million gallons, 50 million gallons more than last year.
This is an interesting site. There’s links to other sites that truckers should be interested in and “user forums.” I think the user forum idea is a good one and kind of wish they were on more websites. Sometimes they’re the only place I can find stuff I want on a website where the company doesn’t readily provide the information I’m looking for.