Nebraska Ethanol Board Offers E15 Workshop

Cindy Zimmerman

The Nebraska Ethanol Board is holding a workshop Nov. 13 in Norfolk for fuel retailers from across the state to learn more about the benefits and ease of offering E15 ethanol blended fuel.

This one-day workshop will provide attendees with a myriad of takeaways and dispel misconceptions about the cost of offering E15. Attendees will hear a keynote from Sara Brenden, Manager of Market Development with Growth Energy; best practices from a fuel retailer and guidance from a terminal representative. Presenters will provide resources to make implementing and labeling infrastructure easier and affordable. Speakers also include the Nebraska State Fire Marshal, and Nebraska Weights & Measures.

There is no cost to attend the workshop but registration in requested by November 12.

E15 Workshop registration and information

E15, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Retailers

Groups Ask President Trump to Uphold Biofuels Promise

Cindy Zimmerman

A broad coalition of biofuel and farm advocates today sent a letter to the White House calling on President Trump to uphold his commitment to accurately account for refinery waivers and support the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).

The letter was signed by 60 organizations, including ethanol, biodiesel, corn and soybean groups on the state and national level.

“Mr. President, we share a common vision regarding the RFS. We want to reopen biofuel plants and restore demand for America’s farm products. We are asking for SRE accountability based on a rolling average of the actual volumes exempted by the EPA during the three most recently completed compliance years. This simple fix will provide the market and regulatory certainty necessary to bring back rural jobs and restore demand. The proposal – as written – will not provide the relief we believe you are seeking,” the groups wrote.

National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) Ethanol Action Team member and Minnesota farmer Brian Thalmann testified on behalf of the corn farmers last week gave the same message to EPA regarding the agency’s inadequate proposal that would account for waivers based on Department of Energy’s (DOE) recommendations, rather than the actual gallons waived by EPA. “I have a simple message – when it comes the Renewable Fuel Standard, we need EPA to follow the law. As farmers, we follow rules put in place by state and federal agencies, including the EPA. We are simply asking EPA to do the same for us,” Thalmann said.

Listen to Thalmann’s testimony here:
EPA Hearing Thalmann Testimony

Audio, corn, Ethanol, Ethanol News, NCGA

RFA Backs Up Claims of Waiver Damage to Ethanol Demand

Cindy Zimmerman

As Mark Twain once said, “Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are pliable.”

During last week’s House Energy & Commerce Committee subcommittee hearing on the impact of small refinery exemptions, Renewable Fuels Association President and CEO Geoff Cooper and American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers President and CEO Chet Thompson sparred over the interpretation of recent Energy Information Association (EIA) data as to what it shows as far as ethanol consumption.

According to Thompson, “EIA data demonstrate consumption and blending are at or near all-time highs.” Cooper says it shows ethanol consumption is “falling since the massive outbreak of SREs in early 2018.”

Not only is ethanol’s share of the gasoline pool falling in the wake of SREs, but the absolute volume of ethanol blended is decreasing as well. Domestic ethanol consumption peaked a 14.49 billion gallons in 2017, fell for the first time in 22 years in 2018, and is projected by EIA to fall again in 2019.

Cooper gets into more detail about his differences with Thompson’s testimony in this blog post.

Listen to Cooper and Thompson answering questions from Rep. Buddy Carter of Georgia about their conflicting testimony.
House hearing exchange

Audio, Ethanol, Ethanol News

Ethanol Report on Hearing Highlights

Cindy Zimmerman

Back to back hearings on topics related to small refinery exemptions under the Renewable Fuel Standard brought ethanol supporters out to explain how EPA’s abuse of the waivers is hurting farmers and producers and how the new proposed rule is insufficient to fix the problem.

In this edition of The Ethanol Report, we hear from some of those who testified at a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing and the public hearing in Michigan on EPA’s proposed supplemental rule to address the waivers, including Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) president and CEO Geoff Cooper, Iowa farmer and ethanol plant president Kelly Nieuwenhuis, Rep. Dave Loebsack (D-IA), Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig, and Show Me Ethanol general manager Brian Pasbrig.

Ethanol Report on Hearing Highlights (18:45)

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Audio, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Ethanol Report, RFA

Ethanol Opportunities in West Africa

Cindy Zimmerman

U.S. Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Steve Censky is on a trade mission to West Africa this week to help United States exporters unlock new opportunities in a region where strong economic growth is driving demand for imported food and farm products, including ethanol.

“Here in West Africa they are using another product as an octane enhancer rather than ethanol,” said Censky during a press briefing from Accra, Ghana on Wednesday. “It is a product that has some corrosive effects, not only on gas tanks and in engines, but also has some health and environmental issues similar to what our own MTBE had in the United States.” Censky says that offers a great opportunity for ethanol in that market for U.S. ethanol producers.

The United States already accounts for nearly 48 percent of Nigeria’s ethanol imports, making that country our 15th largest market for exports. As the auto fleet expands and demand for clean fuel increases, the market for U.S. ethanol is expected to grow.

Listen to Censky’s comments here:
USDA Deputy Censky ethanol comments from West Africa (:48)

Audio, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Exports, USDA

Biofuels Groups Express Concerns at EPA Hearing

Cindy Zimmerman

Representatives from multiple ethanol and biodiesel stakeholder organizations and companies delivered basically the same message to the Environmental Protection Agency during a hearing Wednesday on the proposal to make up for volumes lost under the Renewable Fuel Standard due to small refinery waivers – nice try, but you still need to follow the law.

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig testified to the sense of betrayal experienced by the industry when the proposal was announced:
“On Oct. 4, we celebrated when the EPA announced that it would reallocate waived gallons based on a three-year rolling average of actual exemptions. This would ensure the future RFS levels would be met, and I was proud to support this deal,” said Naig. “A week later, we were astonished to learn that the EPA had rebuffed President Trump’s commitment to Iowa’s leaders and proposed a rule which offered no accountability or transparency, and fell short of the 15 billion gallon commitment. The proposed rule is eroding the public’s trust and creating even more uncertainty in the market.”

EPA Hearing Naig Testimony

Renewable Fuels Association President and CEO Geoff Cooper – “This proposal fails to reflect the letter and spirit of the president’s commitment to restore integrity to the RFS, fails to assure that the statutorily-required 15-billion-gallon level for conventional biofuels will be met, and fails to restore stability in the marketplace by definitively ending the practice of allowing small refinery exemptions from eroding RFS biofuel demand.”

EPA Hearing RFA Testimony

American Coalition for Ethanol CEO Brian Jennings – “While this proposal is not going to make renewable fuel producers whole for EPA’s prior abuse of SREs, we urge the Agency to take a small step in the right direction by issuing a final rule which reallocates the actual average volume waived from 2016 through 2018 and ensures at least 15 billion gallons for the 2020 compliance year.”

EPA Hearing ACE Testimony

National Biodiesel Board Director of Regulatory Affairs Kate Shenk – “EPA should change how it accounts for small refinery exemptions in the final rule in order to ensure that the renewable volume obligations are achieved. EPA could do so by taking further steps to limit the number of exemptions it grants in the future. Or, it could base its estimate for the number of small refinery exemptions in 2020 on the number of exemptions it has actually granted in recent years.”

EPA Hearing NBB Testimony

ACE, Audio, Biodiesel, biofuels, corn, EPA, Ethanol, Ethanol News, NBB

EPA Hearing in Michigan Today

Cindy Zimmerman

Ethanol and biodiesel producers and industry representatives are back in Ypsilanti, Michigan for the second time in three months to provide comments on an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) proposed rule. On July 31, it was the rule to set 2020 renewable volume obligations (RVOs) and the 2021 RVO for biomass-based diesel, where the majority of comments focused on whether EPA should account for small refinery exemptions (SREs).

This time, the topic is how EPA has proposed it will account for those waivers.

Specifically, the agency is seeking comment on projecting the volume of gasoline and diesel that will be exempt in 2020 due to small refinery exemptions based on a three-year average of the relief recommended by the Department of Energy (DOE), including where DOE had recommended partial exemptions. The agency intends to grant partial exemptions in appropriate circumstances when adjudicating 2020 exemption petitions. The agency proposes to use this value to adjust the way we calculate renewable fuel percentages. The proposed adjustments would help ensure that the industry blends the final volumes of renewable fuel into the nation’s fuel supply and that, in practice, the required volumes are not effectively reduced by future hardship exemptions for small refineries.

The hearing will begin at 9:00 a.m. EST and end when all parties present have had a chance to speak. EPA has provided call-in information for interested parties to listen to the hearing.

Biodiesel, biofuels, EPA, Ethanol, Ethanol News, RFA, RFS

Ethanol Technical Information Forum Held in Juárez, Mexico

Cindy Zimmerman

American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) Senior Vice President Ron Lamberty returned to Mexico last week to speak at the first technical ethanol information forum to be held in Juárez, Mexico, just across the border from El Paso, Texas.

“Like Tijuana, Juárez is one of the top destinations for U.S. ethanol in the short-run because El Paso and Juárez are basically one large metropolitan area, divided into two different countries by the Rio Grande,” Lamberty said. “El Paso has a two-billion-gallon refinery and Kinder-Morgan and Magellan fuel terminals already supply stations in Juárez and other cities in the state of Chihuahua. Ethanol is already in those terminals, and some E10 has already been purchased and delivered to stations in the area.”

Lamberty has made a dozen trips to Mexico over the past two years to participate in the forums which are a joint effort of the U.S. Grains Council (USGC) and the Mexican Association of Service Station Suppliers (AMPES) to inform Mexican petroleum marketers about opportunities in sourcing, marketing, and retailing ethanol-blended gasoline. Lamberty attended four other workshops this year, including one in Tijuana, another border city minutes from San Diego’s fuel terminal.

ACE, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Exports

Biofuels Industry Testifies on Harm Done by RFS Waivers

Cindy Zimmerman

Biofuels industry representatives testified during a House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee hearing Tuesday on how the increase in small refinery exemptions (SREs) under the Renewable Fuel Standard has hurt ethanol and biodiesel producers and farmers.

“EPA’s secretive and underhanded approach to the SRE provision in recent years has destabilized the RFS, reduced the production and use of clean renewable biofuels, increased GHG emissions and tailpipe pollution, and led to lost jobs and economic opportunity in rural America,” said Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) President and CEO Geoff Cooper in his testimony.

Listen to Cooper’s opening remarks:
RFA CEO Geoff Cooper testimony on SRE damage

Testimony was also presented by Gene Gebolys, President and CEO, World Energy; Kelly Nieuwenhuis, President, Siouxland Energy Cooperative, Iowa; and Chet Thompson, President and CEO, American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers.

Nieuwenhuis told lawmakers that EPA’s abuse of small refinery exemptions under the RFS is crippling rural America. “Because of EPA’s actions to help the oil industry’s bottom line at the expense of farmers and biofuel producers, we had to make a hard decision – to idle our plant and shut off a key market for hundreds of local farmers, including myself,” he said.

Listen to Nieuwenhuis’s opening remarks:
Iowa Farmer Kelly Nieuwenhuis testimony on SRE damage

World Energy is one of America’s largest suppliers of biodiesel and CEO Gebolys told lawmakers that small refinery exemptions have destroyed demand for hundreds of millions of gallons of biomass-based diesel and nine biodiesel plants across the country have closed or cut production as a result. “On August 16, I had to tell our employees, suppliers and the communities where we work that we were shutting down production at our plants in Rome, Georgia; Natchez, Mississippi; and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania – as a direct result of the EPA’s misuse of its small refinery exemption authority,” said Gebolys who testified on behalf of the National Biodiesel Board.

Listen to Gebolys’s opening remarks:
World Energy CEO Gene Gebolys testimony on SRE damage

Audio, Biodiesel, biofuels, EPA, Ethanol, Ethanol News

Registration Open for 2020 Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit

Cindy Zimmerman

The 2020 Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit will take place at the Prairie Meadows Conference Center in Altoona, Iowa on January 16, 2020, just days before the Iowa Presidential Caucuses.

Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) President and CEO Geoff Cooper will keynote the annual event gathering biofuels industry representatives together in the Midwest with the theme Empower, Promote, and Advocate.

In the face of policy uncertainty and an ever-evolving energy landscape, biofuels advocates must unite at the 2020 Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit to empower biofuels producers toward success, promote the many benefits of ethanol and biodiesel, and advocate for the role renewable fuels are ready to play in a low-carbon, high-octane energy future.

The 2016 Summit featured four Republican presidential candidates, including Donald Trump, and considering the high profile ethanol has had on the national stage over the past two years, it is very possible there could be a few presidential hopefuls at the 2020 summit.

The Summit is free to attend and open to the public, but registration is required and now open.

Biodiesel, biofuels, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Iowa RFA