A new year has dawned and with it new opportunities for the ethanol industry. In this Ethanol Report, Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) president and CEO Bob Dinneen discusses some of the upcoming events in 2016, including the 21st National Ethanol Conference in New Orleans February 15-17, and comments on whether there may yet be a legal challenge by the industry to the EPA’s biofuels volume obligations under the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS).
ARF: Sen Cruz is Anti-Job, Anti-Farmer
America’s Renewable Future (ARF) will be following presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz around Iowa as he campaigns to let voters know “the truth” about his “dangerous” plans for the state’s farmers and economy. The ARF RV will be at each of Cruz’s 28 stops and community members and ARF staff will be speaking with Iowans about their final Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) grade report. The ARF team will also be discussing Cruz’s plan to kill their jobs and Iowa’s agricultural economy. In addition to these efforts, the organization is launching a series of newspaper, radio, and digital ads and robo-calls to coincide with the bus tour.
“Ted Cruz’s policy in the White House would be as its always been for him—devastate Iowa’s farmers and its economy in order to pad the pockets of the oil industry,” said ARF State Director, Eric Branstad, “Iowans can’t trust him and we have a duty to let them know why.”
Last week ARF released its final grading report with Cruz and Sen. Rand Paul the only two candidates the organization graded as “bad”.
“Iowa’s farmers and over 73,000 Iowans depend on a strong RFS,” added Branstad, “It’s how I pay my bills and that’s what thousands of other families pay theirs with, too, our state’s economy absolutely depends on it.”
BioEnergy Bytes
GE Renewable Energy has announced it will provide 43 wind turbines and a full services agreement for two new wind projects in eastern France. The Rougemont and Vaite wind farms are being developed by Opale Energies Naturelles on behalf of Velocita Energies, and the sites will install a combined 120 MW of GE technology over the next two years. The agreement marks GE’s largest French onshore wind deal to date and will include the largest installation of its 2.75-120 technology anywhere in Europe.- As part of a competitive bidding process, Quercus Assets Selection has successfully bid for Antin Solar Investments and its Italian photovoltaic portfolio, headed by the French infrastructure fund Antin Infrastructure Partners.
- According to a recent report from Navigant Research, total sales of NG vehicles (NGVs) are expected to reach more than 35 million from 2015 to 2025. The report analyzes the market for natural gas refueling infrastructure and the factors expected to influence its deployment, including global market forecasts segmented by fuel type, station type, and region, through 2025.
- According to an article in The Gazette- Democrat, Southern Illinois University Carbondale recently received a $50,000 GeoAlliance grant to help fund the installation of a highly energy efficient and environmentally friendly geothermal heat pump heating and cooling system for a portion of the Transportation Education Center. This is the third grant the university received from the GeoAlliance program.
Biodiesel Lone Trans Fuel Success Story of 2015
While crude oil, heating oil and even the renewable ethanol had price declines in 2015, biodiesel stands alone as the only transportation fuel ending the year on a positive trend. This article from Bloomberg Business says biodiesel prices moved up at least 10 percent in the last month of the year, aided by the announcement that more biodiesel would be blended into the nation’s fuel supply as part of the Renewable Fuel Standard and the reinstatement of the federal $1-a-gallon biodiesel blending tax credit.
“It’s doing well,” Jerrod Kitt, an analyst at Linn Group in Chicago, said by phone Wednesday. “Keep in mind, heating oil has gone in the opposite direction.”
Biodiesel in the Midwest has increased 11 percent this month to $2.80 a gallon, the highest since July 23. During that same period, regular diesel in Chicago plummeted 13 percent to $1.0292 a gallon. Last week, diesel touched 95.54 cents, the cheapest in records going back to 2006, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Futures for crude oil have dropped 12 percent in December, gasoline 8.7 percent and heating oil 18 percent on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Ethanol is down 7.3 percent on the Chicago Board of Trade.
Biodiesel’s advance has been tempered by the holidays and is likely to accelerate as traders return from vacation, said Eric De Bruin, a broker at StarFuels Inc. in Milwaukee.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s Nov. 30 Renewable Fuels Standard announcement said refiners such as Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and Valero Energy Corp. should have used 1.73 billion gallons of biodiesel this year and must consume 1.9 billion in 2016.
“Prices are going up,” De Bruin said by phone Wednesday. “It’s not the big jump over one day, but it’s very slowly going higher.”
Happy New Year from ZimmComm!
2015 was a great year and 2016 promises to be even better! In 2015, the ZimmComm team covered over 70 events in 18 states and four countries, including Australia and New Zealand. We uploaded almost 16,200 photos and 65 videos and did over 5,000 posts on our own five websites and several others. Our Flickr photo albums now have almost 14.7 million views! Thanks to our wonderful clients and friends who make our work a joy!
Look for the golden microphone to get back on the road right away in 2016, heading to Orlando and the American Farm Bureau Federation annual meeting on January 10. See you down the agriblogging highway!
Top DomesticFuel Stories for 2015
As 2015 comes to a close, it’s a perfect time to look back at the top alternative energy stories of the year on DomesticFuel using website traffic only. Things may have shaken out a bit differently if we factored in social media, but, well, we didn’t. Anything on this list surprise you? It does me. With all the controversy around the Renewable Fuel Standard (#RFS) this year I would have thought a story or two would make the top 10, but it looks like the industry and consumers are supporting biofuels through mid-level blends.
#10 USDA Applauded for Biofuel Infrastructure Report
#9 BIO Applauds Renewable Chemicals Bill
#8 Gevo’s Biojet Fuel Catches Air
#7 Lallemand Makes #FEW15 Fashion Statement
#6 BIO to Put Innovation in Name
#5 Biofuels Capacity to Grow 61B Gallons by 2018
#4 Soules Supports Ethanol Ethanol & Ag @American Ethanol 200
#3 Novozymes Partnering for Profitability at #FEW15
#2 The Novozymes Strategy
#1 Solar Net Metering Ending in Cali
ARF Releases Final Prez Candidate Report
As the year comes to a close, Americas Renewable Future (ARF) has released its final 2016 presidential candidate Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) report card. Candidates are given a “good” or “bad” grade based on their statements and actions related to the alternative energy legislation. ARF plans to send the report card to more than 50,000 pledged caucus-goers so that “Iowans know which candidates will protect the state’s economy or which will be job killers”.
Both Senator Ted Cruz and Senator Rand Paul once again received a “bad” grade while the remaining Republican and Democrats have received a “good” grade. Jeb Bush, Carly Fiorina, John Kasich and Marco Rubio have been upgraded from “needs work” to “good”.
Out of the race is Lindsey Graham, Bobby Jindal George Pataki, Rick Perry and Scott Walker.
During the past few weeks, Sen. Cruz has made pro biofuel statements but ARF calls him a liar and hypocrite and has been funding campaigns across Iowa to enlighten voters to his true position on biofuels – against them.
“Ted Cruz is dangerous to Iowa and thousands of Iowa jobs,” again stresses ARF State Director, Eric Branstad. “Our economy depends on a strong RFS and Iowans count on $5 billion in wages thanks to it, Ted Cruz wants to kill their jobs and we are going to make sure every Iowan knows that.”
Vote For Top Ag Story in 2015
Our latest ZimmPoll asked the question, “What’s your favorite food/drink gift?”
I am still stuffed from all the holiday food I consumed and still unpacking a plethora of gifts. Food and drinks are always great gifts to give and receive. It looks like fruit and wine topped this poll.
Here are the poll results:
- Fruit – 33%
- Candy – 0%
- Cookies – 1%
- Bread – 11%
- Popcorn – 0%
- Wine – 33%
- Other alcohol – 11%
- Variety baskets – 0%
- Other – 11%
Our new ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, What was your top ag story for 2015?
We are about to wrap up a very busy 2015 when it comes to agriculture news. We have compiled a list of some top stories we have been busy covering throughout the last 12 months. Which one do you feel topped your list? Was it some involving trade, animal ag, crops, policy, etc?
ADM to Develop North Carolina Ethanol Hub
Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) will develop a new ethanol hub in Selma, North Carolina. The company says the project with Kinder Morgan, Inc. and Bailey Feed Mill will be to build a new unit train rail facility and ethanol offloading system.
KMI will invest in and construct the new facilities, which will be located at the Bailey Feed Mill and will have the ability to offload up to 96 railcar-long unit trains in a 24-hour period. KMI will also build a new pipeline, approximately 2.6 miles in length, to connect the unit train offload system to their vast tank farm in Selma, allowing ethanol to be distributed to blending terminals in Selma and the surrounding markets.
“This project will help us improve the efficiency of our ethanol delivery in this market with added unload capacity, quick-turn time on railcars and a pipeline connection to tankage,” said Craig Willis, president of ethanol for ADM. “And by working with KMI and Bailey Feed Mill on this project, we will achieve the benefits in a cost- and capital-efficient manner. ADM has been a long-time supplier in this market, and we are excited to work with KMI and Bailey Feed Mill to bring a more flexible, reliable and efficient solution to customers in the Selma area.”
ADM and KMI anticipate having inter-terminal connections in service as early as the third quarter of 2016, with the remainder of the project expected to be complete by the end of 2016.
“We are pleased to work with ADM and Bailey Feed Mill on this transportation solution for ethanol deliveries,” said David Halphen, vice president of business development for KMI’s Products Pipelines. “This project will reduce the ethanol delivery carbon footprint through a more efficient use of rail capacity and pipeline transportation.”
Iowa Tops 4 Billion Gallons of Ethanol in 2015
It’s been a record-breaking year for ethanol production in Iowa. The Iowa Renewable Fuels Association (IRFA) says the state’s 43 ethanol plants produced more than 4 billion gallons during 2015, up slightly from 3.9 billion gallons in 2014. Iowa continues to be the number one ethanol producing state, accounting for more than a quarter of all ethanol produced in the U.S.
“While Iowa took a modest step forward in production this year, we have the corn supplies to really expand ethanol production,” said IRFA Executive Director Monte Shaw. “What we don’t have is access to the market for higher ethanol blends. The USDA blender pump grant program will help move the needle forward in 2016 and we hope the EPA will get the RFS back on track when they propose the RFS levels for 2017. If we can crack the petroleum monopoly on fuel choice, it will benefit consumers, farmers and the environment.”
IRFA credits the increase to efficiency gains and debottlenecking at existing plants, as well as ethanol production from cellulosic feedstocks such as corn stover and corn kernel fiber.