Renewable Fuels Association

Today, the American Petroleum Institute unveiled anti-biofuel results from a new Harris Poll.

Renewable Fuels Association President and CEO Bob Dinneen had the following response:

“It’s no surprise that API, an organization which has made its top priority to get rid of the RFS, is trotting out a phony faux poll to support its antediluvian narrative about biofuels. This push poll, which uses opinionated statements to elicit a negative response to biofuels, is not reflective of reality. For example, the renewable fuel standard (RFS) has not raised food prices 25 percent, as API claims, but instead food prices have risen by an average of just 2.7 percent per year since 2005, the year RFS was adopted. In fact, only 17 cents of every dollar spent on food pays for the raw farm ingredients in the food item. The other 83 cents pay for processing, transportation, labor, packaging, advertising and other costs.

“If you want to know what the American public really thinks, with direct questions and no spin, look no further than a Morning Consult poll conducted April 1–3, on behalf of RFA, in which nearly six in 10 registered voters (57 percent) support the RFS. Conversely, only 19 percent oppose the RFS. Additionally, 64 percent of those polled have a favorable opinion of biofuels and two-thirds (66 percent) have a favorable opinion of corn-based ethanol. This data is consistent with the findings from the approximately 18,000 registered voters we have polled over the past year.

“With these growing levels of support for biofuels, it’s no wonder that API President Jack Gerard told Politico’s Morning Energy last month that the organization was pivoting its strategy toward reforming, rather than repealing, the RFS. API can’t continue to support repeal because Americans want more fuel choice, not less.”

The Morning Consult poll included results from 2,004 registered voters, with a margin of error of +/-2 percent. To view a copy of the poll results, click here.

Read the original story: Push Poll Push Back

Business Wire

April 5, 2016

Today, six biofuel trade associations sent a letter to House and Senate leaders asking Congress for a multiyear extension of advanced biofuel tax credits. The Advanced Biofuels Business Council, Algae Biomass Organization, Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), Growth Energy, National Biodiesel Board and Renewable Fuels Association sent the request in a letter to Senate and House leaders, Senate Committee on Finance leaders, and House Ways and Means Committee leaders.

Congress granted a two-year extension to the Second Generation Biofuel Producer Tax Credit, the Special Depreciation Allowance for Second Generation Biofuel Plant Property, the Biodiesel and Renewable Diesel Fuels Credit, the Alternative Fuel and Alternative Fuel Mixture Excise Tax Credit, and the Alternative Fuel Vehicle Refueling Property through the Protecting Americans From Tax Hikes Act of 2015, which became law on Dec. 18, 2015. While other energy production tax credits were extended through 2019, these provisions expire at the end of 2016.

The letter sent today states, “This short-term expiration of tax incentives is jeopardizing the long-term investment necessary for advanced biofuels. This creates uncertainty for investors and industry about the availability of these credits in the future. As leaders in a critical innovation sector in the United States, we are well aware of the financial constraints facing this country. However, as Congress works on developing energy tax extenders legislation, we urge you to ensure that advanced biofuels are part of the package. Extending some 2016 expiring energy tax provisions and not others creates a piecemeal approach and investment uncertainty across the energy sector and distorts the playing field for biofuel producers.”

Tom Buis, Co-chair of Growth Energy, stated, “These incentives are important in providing certainty for investment into second-generation biofuels.”

Brooke Coleman, Executive Director of the Advanced Biofuels Business Council, added, “There is no good rationale for letting temporary tax breaks for advanced biofuels expire against the backdrop of ongoing, permanent and substantial subsidies to fossil fuels. Congress must extend advanced biofuel tax incentives as long as our competitors in the sector – oil and gas – continue to receive special allowances from the federal government. To do otherwise would be to further distort private investment toward oil and gas.”

Renewable Fuels Association President and CEO Bob Dinneen said, “Short-term tax incentives are akin to new drivers in a stick shift vehicle. The cars haltingly lurch forward for a time, but suddenly stall. The advanced biofuel industry needs certainty if it is to remain commercially viable, as it continues to bring new facilities and technologies online. Longer term incentives would go a long way to making sure the industry continues its growth, and don’t leave consumers stalled along the way.”

Brent Erickson, Executive Vice President of BIO’s Industrial & Environmental Section, added, “For several years now, policy uncertainty at the federal level has undercut investment in cellulosic and advanced biofuels even while pioneering companies proved the technology and started up the first commercial-scale production facilities. It will take several more years for companies to plan, finance and build the next wave of advanced biofuel facilities. Stable policy in the form of a multiyear extension of these advanced biofuel tax credits is necessary to help companies secure capital for these projects.”

Anne Steckel, Vice President of Federal Affairs at the National Biodiesel Board, said, “Biodiesel producers across the country are ready to expand production and hire new workers, but they can’t do it when they don’t know what their tax liability will be in nine months. We need to end this cycle of on-again, off-again incentives and replace it with stable, long-term policy for clean fuels that encourages economic growth and innovation.”

A copy of the letter is available at here.

Read the original release: Biofuel Trade Associations Ask Congressional Leaders to Extend Advanced Biofuel Incentives

Hastings Tribune

March 27, 2016

By Amy Roh

Improving efficiency in the ethanol industry has been crucial to its survival during economic downturns. 

Todd Sneller, administrator of the Nebraska Ethanol Board in Lincoln, pointed to a recent study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that highlighted the improvements in efficiency. 

When the ethanol industry started, the energy put into processing at a plant was barely less than the energy created. For every unit of fossil energy put into a plant, 1.2 to 1.5 units of energy was produced.

“Now the latest USDA study says that for every unit of fossil energy going into a plant, there are four units of energy that come out of that,” Sneller said. “That’s a terrific increase over time.”

He pointed to companies using different seed varieties that improve oil extraction or starch conversion and other improvements to develop the ethanol sector over time. He said the companies that invested the large amounts of money they made at the beginning were able to lower production costs to help sustain themselves through economic downturns in the industry.

“I’ve been interested in seeing those trends because they speak to a maturing of the sector as time has gone on,” he said. “In times of marginal profitability, like we’re in now, the focus really has evolved to recognize if you’re sloppy during those periods, you’re probably going to have a tough go of it.”

With stricter carbon emission regulations being enacted around the globe, Sneller said, ethanol has become more popular in the world market. 

“A lot of this is going to places in the world where low carbon fuel standards have been embraced to a bigger extent than they have in the U.S., so those really become the emerging markets in the ethanol sector,” he said. 

Besides a lower cost, he said, ethanol needs to leave its mark with its other added values, including lower carbon intensity and lower toxicity. Given its higher octane and cleaner burning components, ethanol has a competitive advantage over gasoline when one is looking to comply with carbon emission and greenhouse gas regulations. 

But Sneller said he is concerned about the Environmental Protection Agency’s undermining of the Renewable Fuel Standard requirements set out by Congress in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.

The bill set out to increase the volume of renewable fuel product to be blended into transportation fuel from 9 billion gallons in 2008 to 36 billion gallons by 2022. At this point, however, the EPA has lowered the associated incremental increases several years in a row. 

Instead of the robust growth expected, he said, the ethanol sector has seen policy languish in oil industry lawsuits. Investors are ready to support new technology being developed in the emerging market, but it’s being hampered by the EPA’s actions.

“Because the EPA has insisted on undermining the standards that Congress has set, it’s caused a lot of hesitation so you see delays in rolling out new technology,” he said. “That sort of uncertainty really puts the brakes on investment.”

While oil lobbyists try to cast aspersions on the ethanol industry, Sneller said, people need to examine the real price of oil, including money spent protecting shipping lanes, cleaning up oil spills and tending to public health and the environment. 

And it doesn’t just affect the ethanol sector. 

Sneller said automakers need a higher-octane fuel to meet the carbon emission standards imposed on them. Automakers have developed small engines that operate at a lower cost but require a higher octane fuel. But before they can produce vehicles that perform best at E25 or E30, they need to be assured those biofuels will be available. 

He said promoting a variety of ethanol blends would also give consumers options. 

“What we’re trying to do is make sure that when you pull up to a gas pump, you have a choice other than 100 percent hydro-carbon product,” he said. “You have a choice of ethanol blends that may range up to 85 percent. That’s been the real push — to give consumers a choice.”

Read the original story: In Lean Market, Efficiency Improvements Key for Ethanol

Ethanol Producer Magazine

March 22, 2016

By Erin Voegele

A recent study has shown that while the renewable fuels industry continues to be a strong driver of Iowa’s economy, its impact took a small step backwards in 2015 due to reductions in renewable fuel standard (RFS).

The study, authored by John Urbanchuk of ABF Economics and commissioned by the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, four that Iowa’s renewable fuels industry, including ethanol and biodiesel, supported nearly 43,000 jobs throughout the state economy last year while generating nearly $2.3 billion in household income. The industry also accounted for approximately $4.6 billion, or 3.5 percent of Iowa GDP. When compared to 2014, GDP was down 5.6 percent, with jobs down 8.8 percent and income down 11.6 percent.

The ethanol industry alone supported approximately 39,592 jobs, nearly $2.07 billion in household earnings, and nearly $4.3 billion in GDP, along with $7.05 billion in purchases. The biodiesel industry supported an estimated 3,059 jobs, $198.1 million in household earnings, $344.3 million in GDP, and $689 million in purchases.

According to the report, the Iowa ethanol industry currently takes in 1.4 billion bushels of corn, which equates to 57 percent of the state’s corn crop. At 2015 Iowa farm gate prices, this amounts to $5.2 billion of revenue for Iowa corn farmers. The report indicates that expenditures for corn feedstock by Iowa ethanol producers fell 7.6 percent when compared to 2014 levels due to lower prices.

The report also notes Iowa’s ethanol industry posted a 3.8 percent increase in output last year, with the state’s 43 operating ethanol plants producing at an annual rate of slightly more than 4 billion gallons. The state accounted for 27 percent of total U.S. output.

“The U.S. ethanol industry experienced another record-breaking year in 2015, despite a challenging economic and regulatory environment,” Urbanchuk said.

“Iowa is the leading producer of ethanol in the United States,” said Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad.  “We have been disappointed by the EPA’s unwillingness to restore a robust renewable fuel standard.  This study shows how important renewable fuels are for the future of our Iowa economy.”

“Renewable fuels continue to be a bedrock of our Iowa economy, as this study shows,” Iowa Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds added.  “However, the drop in farmland values, farm income and commodity prices is directly being impacted by a reduction in the renewable fuel standard.  Gov. Branstad and I have called on the EPA to take action repeatedly to provide consumers choices at the pump, create jobs and increase income for Iowa families and reduce our dependency on foreign oil.”

“While Iowa’s ethanol and biodiesel industries continue to power the state’s economy, it’s disappointing that those impacts took a small step backwards last year,” stated Iowa Renewable Fuels Association Executive Director Monte Shaw. “What may be as equally frustrating is the missed opportunity to really grow Iowa’s economy. When the EPA reduced the statutory RFS levels, it reduced our ability to grow ethanol and biodiesel production, to grow forward-looking investments into new technologies, to grow farm income and to grow Iowa jobs.”

Read the original story here : Report Highlight's Impact Of Iowa's Ethanol Industry