ACE Conference 2026

Hybrids, EVs Causing States to Ponder New Road Taxes

Joanna Schroeder

According to an article on Fox News, several states, with the latest being North Carolina, are looking at how to tax hybrid and electric vehicle (EV) owners. The states are trying to recoup road funding, earned via taxes at the pump.

Politicians are taking the stance that all drivers, no matter what they drive, are responsible for helping to maintain the roads they use as well as build new ones. Whereas hybrid and Nissan_LeafEV drivers along with other alternative fuel vehicles say this is the wrong approach to promoting U.S. energy independence with sustainable infrastructure funding.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), gas taxes comprise nearly 40 percent of all state highway revenues and more than 90 percent at the federal level. However, the Institute on Taxation on Economic Policy says revenues are not keeping up with rising construction costs, falling 41 percent in real value at the federal level since they were last increased 18 years ago. State are facing the same problems.

Some say the solution is to overhaul the gas tax system to miles traveled but this approach has not been well received.Read More

Alternative energy, Electric Vehicles

CRFA: Gov’t Inflating Renewable Diesel Numbers

John Davis

CRFA1The Canadian government says imports are flooding its renewable diesel mandate, but a group that works for renewable diesel and biodiesel says those numbers are being overblown in an attempt to hurt that mandate. This article in The Western Producer says the government believes the country’s renewable fuel content will consist of 90 percent imports, buoyed by imported soybean and canola biodiesel from the U.S. and hydrogenation-derived renewable diesel (HDRD) from overseas. But the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association says those numbers are a bogus attempt to water down and are intended to water down the two percent renewable diesel mandate:

“We’re seeing Canadian-based canola being shipped into the United States for upgrading and then sent back into Canada. They are describing that as an import,” said CRFA president Scott Thurlow.


Once Archer Daniels Midland’s Lloydminster canola biodiesel plant starts in September the flow of imported canola biodiesel from the U.S. will slow. 


The ADM plant will be capable of producing 265 million litres of the alternative fuel annually, bringing Canada’s total biodiesel capacity up to 450 million litres. 


The existing federal mandate requires about 600 million litres of renewable diesel per year.


The CRFA also questions the charge that HDRD is going to be such a large chunk of renewable diesel in the eastern part of the country. While the association acknowledges the high quality of the imported fuel, Thurlow makes the case that it will be not cost-effective to use that imported fuel.

“Its disadvantage is that it is ruinously expensive,” he said.


“More and more biodiesel is pushing the HDRD out of the marketplace and that’s being done almost entirely because of price.”


Biodiesel, Government, International

U.S. Firms Sign Climate Declaration

Joanna Schroeder

Twenty-two American investment firms with nearly $240 billion in assets under management have signed a Climate Declaration, calling on U.S policymakers to seize the American economic opportunity of addressing climate change. The move was timed with the start of the Global Investor Forum on Climate Change that took place this week in Hong Kong. The declaration asserts. “Tackling climate change is one of America’s greatest economic opportunities of the 21st century … There must be a coordinated effort to combat climate change—with America taking the lead here at home.”

Jack Ehnes, chief executive officer of CalSTRS, one of the organizations who signed the Climate Declaration said, “As the global economy moves toward a low-carbon future, governments that act aggressively to enact strong, long-term climate and energy policies will reap the biggest rewards. In order to tackle the global climate crisis, we must realize the strength of our combined efforts. That is why CalSTRS signed the Climate Declaration. U.S. policy leaders need to step up on this issue and embrace climate change policies as an economic opportunity.”

Investors have been an important force in supporting policy changes related to clean energy and efficiency. Last year, investors managing $800 billion in assets called on Congress to renew the Production Tax Credit for renewable energy, which was ultimately extended for another year. Investors have also been outspoken proponents of state Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPSs) that more than two-dozen states have enacted to boost sourcing of wind, solar and other renewable energy. RPSs have catalyzed billions of dollars of investment, thousands of new projects and hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs, including 30,000 new jobs in 2012 alone.

“Being smarter when it comes to climate change is the right thing to do for all of our families, and it also will translate into economic and investment opportunities,” said Oregon State Treasurer Ted Wheeler, who has previously called for better disclosure of climate-related opportunities and risks and who also signed the declaration. “I am proud to stand with Oregon’s largest employers and premier ski destinations to recognize that a cleaner future will also be a more profitable one.”

Read More

Alternative energy, Climate Change, Environment, Video

API Still After RFS

Joanna Schroeder

The American Petroleum Institute (API) is still after the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and E15, a blend of 15 percent ethanol, 85 percent gasoline by filing yet another waiver. Bob Dinneen, president and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) responded by Dont Mess with RFSsaying this is another example of oil companies unnecessarily scaring people and “it’s just flat out wrong.”

“The Renewable Fuel Standard has created jobs, helped the economy and saved consumers money at the pump. It’s ironic that the industry that brought us MTBE, benzene, tar sands, fracking chemicals, Deepwater Horizon, Exxon Valdez, and other environmental disasters is suddenly concerned about ‘consumer safety’.

Dinneen continued by asking the question, “How many times is API going to trot out the same tired study? They have pointed to their self-sponsored NERA study over and over again. But as we have noted in the past, that study ignores the flexibility of the RFS to make it easier for refiners to meet their RFS obligation. API is simply misleading people in suggesting the RFS will increase gasoline costs. The opposite is true. Ethanol is less expensive than gasoline today. It lowers prices at the pump. That’s the fact.”

“API is being irresponsible in suggesting ethanol harms vehicles. API points to the Coordinating Research Council (CRC) study on E15 that has been widely criticized by the Department of Energy and many others. Ten percent ethanol is safe and approved for all vehicles on the road today. E15 is safe for all vehicles for which EPA has approved its use, 2001 and newer,” added Dinneen.

Click here to see a review of the facts.

E15, Ethanol, RFA, RFS

Ethanol Veterans Honored During FEW

Joanna Schroeder

few13-schwartzkopf and hicksTwo 30-year ethanol veterans were honored during the Fuel Ethanol Workshop in St. Louis, Missouri this week. Kevin Hicks, research leader for the Sustainable Biofuels and Coproducts Research Unit of the USDA’s Eastern Regional Research Center, received the Award of Excellence. And long-time friend of DomesticFuel, ethanol dragster, and true ethanol champion Dan Schwartzkopf with ICM, was presented with the High Octane Award.

Listen to Kevin Hicks’ remarks here: Award of Excellence

Listen to Dan Schwartzkopf’s remarks here: High Octane Award

Visit the 2013 FEW Photo Album.

Audio, Ethanol, FEW

Study: Alt Fuels Developing Faster Than Expected

Joanna Schroeder

According to a new study commissioned by a coalition of investors, utilities and makers of alternative fuels, the alternative fuels market has developed faster than anticipated. Electric vehicle sales are beating early projections, the surge in natural gas supply is helping decrease the carbon intensity in trucking, and consumption of biodiesel and renewable diesel supplies are growing rapidly, according to the report. The coalition includes CalETC, Ceres, E2, the California Natural Gas Vehicle Coalition, the National Biodiesel Board, and the Advanced Biofuels Association.

Screen Shot 2013-06-17 at 9.43.40 AM“The Low Carbon Fuel Standard is exceeding our expectations and driving us towards a clean fuels future,” said Eileen Tutt, executive director of the California Electric Transportation Coalition (CalETC). “The standard is doing exactly what it was designed to do – open the way for new fuels and technologies to compete fairly in the marketplace.”

The report analyzes recent developments in the transportation sector and presents three scenarios that ratchet down the carbon intensity of transportation fuels 10 percent, to meet the goal of California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard by 2020. All three projections point to an increasingly diverse fuel supply, with more innovation leading to more renewable fuels and advanced vehicles.

Emerging as the report’s biggest surprise is the promise of substitutes for diesel, including biodiesel, renewable diesel, and natural gas – all of which can be produced from waste materials, including animal fats, corn oil, and the gas that would otherwise escape from landfills. The report stated, “2013 promises to be a banner year for biodiesel consumption in California.”

The report also highlights the benefits in terms of greenhouse gas reductions from two additional low-carbon fuel strategies: the addition of off-road electrification (such as electric locomotives and battery-powered forklifts), and improvements to California’s fuel-recovery and extraction processes (using solar energy in crude oil extraction or installing carbon capture and storage technologies at oil and gas wells).

advanced biofuels, Alternative energy, Electric Vehicles, Research

Report Shows Biodiesel, Natural Gas Promise

John Davis

CalETCBiodiesel and its close cousin, renewable diesel, along with natural gas show the most promise in the alternative fuels arena… that’s according to a report from the California Electric Transportation Coalition (CalETC). The report says the alternative fuels sector in California has developed faster than expected, and recent developments indicate the state’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) and its goal to decrease fuels’ carbon footprint by 10 percent by 2020 is helping drive that.

Emerging as the report’s biggest surprise was the promise of fuels that substitute for diesel, including biodiesel, renewable diesel, and natural gas. These fuels, which can all be used in trucks, are produced from waste materials, including animal fats, corn oil, and the gas that would otherwise escape from landfills. California drivers are rapidly increasing their consumption of biodiesel, up from the range of 20-­‐25 million gallons in 2010. In fact, “2013 promises to be a banner year for biodiesel consumption in California,” the report declared.

The group points out that biodiesel and renewable diesel don’t require any modifications to engines or infrastructure, and natural gas supplies and vehicles able to burn it are increasing.

You can read the full report here.

Biodiesel, Natural Gas

Global Wind Day Puts Pressure on G8 Summit

Joanna Schroeder

This Saturday, June 15, is Global Wind Day, and this year the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) is asking people globally to put pressure on world leaders leading in to the G8 summit to keep their commitment to phase out fossil fuels and adopt renewable energy.

According to EWEA, the level of fossil fuel subsidies has increased nearly 30 percent to $620 billion since 2010. Today, fossil fuels receive six times more subsidies than renewable energy. Simultaneously, global carbon dioxide (CO2) levels have reached a record high of 400 ppm, a level that climate change experts say is hindering efforts to bring human-produced emissions under control.

“While world leaders pay lip service to combating climate change, what they are actually doing is subsidizing CO2 emissions to the tune of US$110/tonne. Fossil fuel energy GWDAppsubsidy reform could take us a long way towards protecting the climate,” said Steve Sawyer, Secretary General of the Global Wind Energy Council.

EWEA says wind energy has become a mainstream technology: it is already cheaper in Australia and Brazil than conventional energy sources and directly competes with them in an expanding number of markets including Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa and parts of China and the U.S. Wind power is turning into the power technology of choice as utilities, energy planners and governments seek to diversify their energy mix, reduce CO2 emissions and air pollution, protect their economies from volatile fossil fuel prices and benefit from increased investment and job creation. EWEA says with the right policy support wind could reach 1,000 GW by 2020 avoiding over 9 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions per year.

Opinion polls and surveys across the markets show overwhelming public support for wind power providing an important signal to decision-makers: According to a Eurobarometer survey 89 percent of EU citizens are in favor of wind energy, compared to 43 percent for coal and 36 percent for nuclear. In 2012 a survey conducted in the U.S. showed that 71 percent of Americans want to see more wind power development and in Canada a research poll found that 78 percent of Ontarians say that wind is one of the safest forms of electricity generation. In a recent survey in the UK, two-thirds of the Britons voted in favor of wind energy.

Alternative energy, Carbon, Climate Change, Renewable Energy, Wind

NACS Survey Shows Good News for E15

Joanna Schroeder

A recent survey conducted by the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) has very good news for E15 and the ethanol industry. The survey found that 59 percent of surveyed drivers would by E15 (15 percent ethanol, 85 percent gasoline) if it was priced the same as regular fuel. This, according to Ron Lamberty, senior vice president for the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) demonstrates there is public interest in E15 blended fuel.

zarco-ethanol pump“I think this shows that despite all of Big Oil’s misinformation and scare tactics, consumers are interested in purchasing E15 as an alternative to gasoline, even if the price were the same as gas. It’s especially encouraging when you consider the fact that at current prices, E15 would be 15 to 20 cents less than gasoline, and two to five cents under E10,” said Lamberty. He noted the survey results “mirror what we have been hearing from the marketers that are selling E15. In most cases, E15 becomes one of the top sellers in stations that add it.”

Howerver, Lamberty called NACS’ announcement of the survey “puzzling”. “NACS calls demand for E15 ‘insufficient’. I’ve been working in the convenience store industry for over 30 years and don’t think I’ve ever seen a product – much less a fuel product – that three out of five customers say they want. If there was, I can’t imagine that NACS would call that kind of demand ‘insufficient’. Most stations don’t sell one-tenth that much premium gasoline, and that has always been enough for oil companies to mandate it’s sale in their customers’ stations.”

NACS also said consumers need to be “educated about the positive attributes of these new fuels.” Lamberty responded by pointing out, “ACE, RFA, and our joint BYO Ethanol campaign hope that NACS will take us up on our standing offer to assist with E15 education. Over the past few years, most of the “education” marketers have received about E15 have been recycled ghost stories from the oil industry – which stands to gain the most if E15 is stopped before it even starts.”

Lamberty concluded, “Marketers that we have been able to educate on the real risks and real rewards of E15 and E85 have seen incredible benefits, especially this year, as control of RINS have added literally tens of thousands of profits to their bottom line. This survey shows EXACTLY why we want consumers to have the option of E15 and why Big Oil is fighting so hard against E15.”

ACE, E15, Ethanol

Texas Company to Recycle Tires into Biodiesel

John Davis

harlingenA city on Texas will be turning old tires into biodiesel. KGBT-TV reports that the City of Harlingen will send the old tires to The Tire Recycling and Processing LLC facility where they’ll be turned into the green fuel:

“This effort will result in fewer tires being disposed of in landfills effectively decreasing the volume of debris in our landfills,” the city said in a statement.

The Tire Recycling and Processing LLC facility will use a pyrolysis process to convert the recycled tires into biodiesel.

They believe the company is the only one in the nation using the process to create biodiesel.

The program will run through the end of April next year.

Biodiesel