With the Environmental Protection Agency considering 39 pending petitions for 2018 Small Refinery Exemptions (SREs), the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) has helpfully provided the agency with 39 reasons to turn them all down.
The list starts with 53 – The number of refinery waivers EPA granted for the 2016 and 2017 compliance years since early 2018, and ends with 1 – The number of days it takes EPA to reverse course and stop granting waivers.
Southwest Iowa Renewable Energy (SIRE) is one step closer to providing monarch butterflies with a new place to fill up on their cross-country journey. The ethanol plant seeded their Monarch Fueling Station this week with the help of local farmer Rick Frost.
Habitat Establishment Coordinator Kevin Reynolds helped SIRE established the Monarch Fueling Station last year. “The first year there are a few species of plants that will sprout rapidly,” he said. “However, the majority will spend this first growing season developing strong roots.”
“This is an exciting next step for our Monarch Fueling Station,” said SIRE CEO Mike Jerke. “We can’t wait to see green sprouts in this field and watch it flourish over time to provide much-needed habitat for Iowa’s monarch butterflies.”
The Monarch Fueling Station Project was established by the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association (IRFA) in partnership with the Iowa Monarch Conservation Consortium in December 2017.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is seeking comment on the current process for issuing Small Refinery Exemptions (SREs) that would allowing names of refineries who have applied for and received waivers to be made public in an effort to expand transparency.
EPA has reopened the comment period for 15 days on one aspect of a 2016 proposal “that basic information related to EPA actions on petitions for Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) small refinery and small refiner exemptions may not be claimed as confidential business information (CBI).”
National Biodiesel Board (NBB) Vice President of Federal Affairs Kurt Kovarik called the move a step in the right direction. “The agency should make this information public when the petition is submitted, not just when it is granted,” said Kovarik. “NBB will continue to aggressively advocate for a solution to the demand destruction resulting from retroactive small refinery exemptions.”
Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor challenged EPA to go even further. “Any move by EPA to increase transparency is long overdue but always welcome by this industry,” said Skor. “For years, we’ve been trying to navigate these exemptions in the dark, all while over 2.6 billion gallons of ethanol demand has been lost. It is imperative that EPA and the Department of Energy reveal the methodology behind granting these exemptions, and for EPA to fully recognize that every time they grant an exemption, they are taking away critical demand from our already struggling rural economy.”
Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) sent a letter to Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Rick Perry this week asking for clarity about the department’s review process concerning Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) Small Refinery Exemption (SRE) requests.
“EPA has granted an unprecedented number of small refinery hardship exemptions for 2016 and 2017 and even more small refineries are seeking exemptions from the RFS for 2018,” Grassley wrote. “With Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) at multi-year lows, it’s hard to comprehend the alleged disproportionate economic hardship that any refinery could face.”
Renewable Fuels Association President and CEO Geoff Cooper said they are grateful to Senator Grassley for raising the issue with DOE. “The simple fact is that the criteria for evaluating small refinery exemptions hasn’t changed, but the number of exemptions granted has skyrocketed. The situation demands transparency. Senator Grassley is right to ask DOE for these details and he continues to be a tireless and effective advocate for renewable fuels.”
EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler told Reuters this week that the agency may be granted less waivers now because RIN prices are lower but that “final decisions on the petitions were to be made after receiving the DOE input.” There are currently about 40 waiver petitions pending.
American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) Senior Vice President Ron Lamberty was back in Mexico teaching retailers about ethanol this week, this time in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, the capital and largest city of the southeast Mexico state of Chiapas.
This is the third time Lamberty has traveled to Mexico so far this year to speak at ethanol technical information forums for Mexican petroleum equipment installers and retailers, a joint effort of the U.S. Grains Council and the Mexican Association of Service Station Suppliers (AMPES), to inform Mexican petroleum marketers about opportunities in sourcing, marketing, and retailing ethanol-blended gasoline, as Mexico’s transportation fuel sector evolves.
“Chiapas shares a border with Guatemala to the east, the northwest part of the state touches Mexico’s largest oil fields, and Tuxtla Gutiérrez is only a few hours from PEMEX’s headquarters. For all practical purposes, it’s oil country,” Lamberty said. “It’s also an area of amazing natural beauty, and we’re helping these marketers understand ethanol can help make gasoline cleaner and more friendly to their environment while also making it more affordable.”
Lamberty has presented at 10 events in Mexico since the fall of 2017 to share his experience as an ethanol splash blender and retailer and demonstrate how marketers can make money as distributors of ethanol. Fuel equipment companies in Mexico report increased interest from retailers and prospective wholesale distributors of ethanol since the workshop series began.
For the seventh consecutive year, the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) has received a TRANSCAER® National Achievement Award for its industry-leading ethanol safety program. RFA hosted numerous ethanol safety training events in 2018, giving more than 1,800 emergency responders the tools and information they need to effectively respond to any incidents involving fuel ethanol.
The TRANSCAER® National Achievement Award is given in recognition of extraordinary achievement by an individual person, company, organization or a team in support of the TRANSCAER® initiative.
In 2018, RFA held 32 ethanol safety seminars in 13 locations, four Train-the-Trainer webinars and an online ethanol safety training initiative, which trained emergency responders on how to properly respond to an ethanol incident. Collectively, these events trained more than 1,800 individuals last year.
So far this year, RFA has held 20 ethanol safety seminars and two Train-the-Trainer events, with more planned throughout the year.
For more information on ethanol safety events, visit EthanolResponse.com or contact Missy Ruff at RFA.
Gas prices are up, but ethanol is not to blame, according to an analysis by the Renewable Fuels Association.
Gas prices at the pump have been steadily increasing since the end of January, and some have speculated that it is due to ethanol transportation issues following the Midwest floods in March. But RFA found that it is mainly because of a surge in crude oil prices since the start of the year, combined with normal seasonal gasoline pricing, as well as refinery maintenance and unplanned outages.
Ethanol prices are at a steep discount to gasoline prices (and to other sources of octane), and inventories have recently been at record levels. While transportation challenges caused issues with delivery to isolated locations in the immediate aftermath of the floods, production was not significantly affected. In the vast majority of the country, ethanol has been helping to hold down gasoline prices for consumers.
Read the analysis.
The lead researcher of a USDA study on the improving greenhouse gas benefits of ethanol compared to gasoline has shared more details about the agency’s findings.
Dr. Jan Lewandrowski of USDA’s Office of the Chief Economist said the study grew out of September 2017 report released by the USDA regarding 11 different emissions categories related to corn ethanol production and combustion originally studied by the EPA in 2010. Earlier numbers showed a 21% reduction in emissions relative to gasoline. New numbers from the USDA show a 39 percent improvement over gasoline on average. Other factors can raise that number to anywhere from 42 to 46 percent or more. One area addressed in the study is international land use change.
“As U.S. corn ethanol production increases, we divert more corn to ethanol. It raises pressure on prices and commodity markets, and in some international markets, world farmers respond by bringing new land into production. That’s the logic behind the numbers in the EPA. And that happens a little bit,” said Lewandrowski. “But what we have found is over time, the main reaction of global agriculture was not bringing new land into production, but using existing cropland more intensely – double cropping, triple cropping, bringing fallow and other idle land back into production. And when you use existing land more intensely, your land use change emissions are going to be a lot less than if you’re converting new land like forest or wetlands into agriculture production.”
In addition, the USDA study found that ethanol plants continue to become more efficient. Most have switched from using coal to natural gas as their process fuel. Many are investing in more efficient energy use technologies. Plants are getting more ethanol out of each bushel of corn, and corn yields per acre continue to rise.
Hear more from Dr. Lewandrowski here: Dr. Jan Lewandrowski, USDA (Audio courtesy of Gary Crawford, USDA Radio)
Consumers have driven more than 8 billion miles now on E15, also known as Unleaded 88, according to Growth Energy, which credits the milestone to rapid retail adoption and more terminal availability of the fuel across the nation.
“Supply of E15 into the fuel marketplace is a crucial step in further expansion, and our success with Prime the Pump has led to a steep growth in terminals offering E15 across the country,” said Growth Energy Vice President of Market Development Mike O’Brien. “Our work with the nation’s leading independent retailers has put pressure on terminals to follow suit, causing a domino effect in their offering of E15 at their locations across most of the country.”
Consumer demand from retailers like Kwik Trip, RaceTrac, Casey’s, Cumberland Farms, and others has pushed open the doors to a ready supply of E15 at terminals. Working with Prime the Pump, Growth Energy has focused its efforts on establishing partnerships with the largest, independent players in the fuel space, which in turn has spurred a significant increase in E15 availability at terminals across the country – from five in 2017 to more than 100 today.
The Environmental Protection Agency continues to be a major source of frustration for the ethanol industry, as the agency gives with one hand and takes away with the other as it keeps granting waivers for refineries from their obligations to blend ethanol while it works toward allowing year round sales of E15.
Renewable Fuels Association president and CEO Geoff Cooper has been spending a lot of time in Washington D.C. lately, along with Senior Strategic Advisor Bob Dinneen, as they keep the pressure on EPA to be fair to the ethanol industry as farmers continue to struggle. In this edition of the Ethanol Report podcast, we hear from Cooper and Dinneen who dropped by the American Coalition for Ethanol Fly-in reception to visit with ethanol advocates taking their stories to Capitol Hill.
Ethanol Report from Washington D.C.