In the News
October 15, 2016
By Donnelle Eller
Iowa farm and renewable fuel groups say a proposal that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released Tuesday fails to keep President Donald Trump's promise to boost the sagging market for ethanol and biodiesel.
“We had a deal with the president … but what the EPA rolled out isn’t that deal,” said Monte Shaw, the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association's executive director.
Jim Greif, president of the Iowa Corn Growers Association, said his group "is outraged" that the EPA's proposal Tuesday doesn't reflect what the administration outlined "only 11 days ago."
On Oct. 4, the EPA said it would begin accounting for the reduction in demand for corn-based ethanol and soybean-based biodiesel that resulted when the administration granted some refineries exemptions from a federal mandate called the Renewable Fuel Standard.
The law, known as RFS, outlines how many gallons of ethanol and biodiesel that oil refiners must blend into the nation's fuel supply each year.
The EPA said Tuesday it plans to use a three-year average to account for the reduction in demand for ethanol and biodiesel resulting from the waivers, using the number of gallons that the U.S. Department of Energy recommends waiving.
But the Trump administration earlier this month told farm groups it would use the average of the actual number of renewable fuel gallons that are waived, which is much larger. "Any proposal that does not account for actual waived gallons under the Renewable Fuel Standard fails to restore the integrity of the law," Greif said in a statement.
The difference between the two is significant, said Monte Shaw, executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association.
The energy department, which provides an initial review of small refinery exemption requests, most recently recommended granting waivers for 770 million gallons of renewable fuels. The EPA, however, approved waivers for 1.4 billion gallons during its last round of exemptions.
Since taking office, the Trump administration has granted 85 waivers to oil refineries, freeing them from using 4 billion gallons of renewable fuel. The exemptions have killed demand for 1.4 billion bushels of corn used to make ethanol, industry officials say.
"It's not a shock that the EPA is trying to water down" the plan the Trump administration announced earlier this month, Shaw said.
The administration in the Oct. 4 announcement said Trump had made a deal with Iowa Republicans, including U.S. Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst, and Gov. Kim Reynolds, to increase renewable fuel demand.
Grassley said in a statement Tuesday that Iowa farmers and renewable fuels plants will have to trust the EPA to adequately account for the waived gallons.
"The ethanol and biodiesel industries have a lot of cause to distrust EPA and that is understandable," Grassley said. "But President Trump brokered this deal and any attempt to undermine it from EPA would represent a betrayal of the president. I expect EPA would not do that after all the work that’s gone into this issue.”
Ernst and Reynolds said in separate statements they would do everything they could to hold the EPA accountable.
“I understand the biofuel industry’s frustration and distrust following the EPA’s announcement today,” Reynolds said. “The next 30-day comment period is crucial to making sure the EPA follows through on the president’s commitment.”
A public hearing is scheduled to be held Oct. 30 in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
Growth Energy, a Washington, D.C., ethanol association, called on the EPA to hold the public hearing in Iowa “so more Midwest families racing to complete this year’s harvest will have an opportunity to share their views.
“The farm families hit hardest by EPA exemptions deserve a seat at the table, and that can’t happen if the EPA refuses to hold a hearing in a central location, closer to millions of voices who cannot afford to leave the farm for days at a time,” said Emily Skor, Growth Energy's CEO.
The decline in demand for ethanol and biodiesel has been a double blow to farmers already dealing with depressed prices for corn and soybeans because of the administration's trade wars with China, Mexico, Canada and other countries.
The current corn ethanol requirement is 15 billion gallons.
Shaw said it will be tough for many farmers to trust EPA.
“We couldn’t trust the EPA to stick to the deal for 11 days,” Shaw said. “We haven’t been able to trust EPA for the last two years with the RFS.”
Few Iowa renewable fuels or farm groups would have supported the Oct. 4 plan if they had known how the EPA planned to implement it, Shaw said.
“We all said it has to be real numbers. It has to be accountable," Shaw said. "And it has to send a market signal.
Grant Kimberley, Iowa Biodiesel Board's executive director, said he believed the EPA's proposal would be "likely to inflict further damage on the already struggling biodiesel industry and farm economy."
Nearly 30 U.S. ethanol and biodiesel plants have closed either temporarily or permanently because of the exemptions. Four are in Iowa.
U.S. Rep. Dave Loebsack, an Iowa Democrat, said the EPA's proposed rule "is another in a long string of broken promises for our farmers and biofuel producers."
The proposal leaves “farmers and biofuel producers with no guarantee that the billions of gallons of biofuels exempted from the mandate would ever be restored, as has long been promised by the Trump Administration and EPA,” Loebsack said.
The Renewable Fuels Association called the EPA's proposal a "step backward."
"It falls short of delivering on President Trump’s pledge to restore integrity to the Renewable Fuel Standard and leaves farmers, ethanol producers, and consumers with more questions than answers," Geoff Cooper, the group's CEO, said in a statement.
"This proposal is not what was promised by the administration just over a week ago and fails to answer President Trump’s personal call for a stronger conventional biofuel requirement of more than 15 billion" gallons, Cooper said.
The Iowa Renewable Fuels Association said the EPA's proposal "reneges on the core principle" of Trump's plan earlier this month.
"It is unreasonable and counterproductive to expect Iowans to put their faith in EPA to fix the small refinery exemption problem when they were the ones who created the crisis in the first place," Shaw said.
The EPA released details of its plan as part of a supplemental document to the 2020 biofuels requirement. It was required to be filed by Nov. 30.
In a statement earlier this month, the EPA said that under its plan, it would seek comments on actions "to ensure that more than 15 billion gallons of conventional ethanol be blended into the nation's fuel supply." But it did not specify how many gallons will be restored beginning next year.
Read the original article: Farm, Renewable Fuel Groups Angered by EPA Plan to Replace Lost Demand for Ethanol, Biodiesel
September 19, 2019
News Release
A new study from energy policy expert Dr. Philip K. Verleger, Jr., has found that consumers save 22 cents on every gallon of gas thanks to the Renewable Fuel Standard. That’s a savings of nearly $5 every time you fill up, or $250 per American family every year. Additionally, the report demonstrates how renewable fuels enhance energy security and help act as a counterbalance to consolidation in the oil refining industry.
The Renewable Fuel Standard Program: Measuring the Impact on Crude Oil and Gasoline Prices looks at the impact of the Renewable Fuel Standard program (RFS) on crude oil and gasoline prices over the last four years (2015-2018). The findings highlight how the RFS has helped keep prices down at the pump by requiring oil refiners to blend a certain amount of renewable fuel into the fuel they produce.
Key Report Findings:
-The RFS program has provided economic benefits to consumers in the United States and worldwide. Retail gasoline prices are lower thanks to the program. The findings from an econometric analysis show that the savings to consumers resulting from the RFS averaged $0.22 per gallon from 2015 through 2018.
-The blending of approximately one million barrels per day of ethanol into U.S. motor fuels under the RFS over the 2015 through 2018 period has lowered the average price of crude by $6 per barrel.
-Because gasoline demand is price inelastic, consumers have been able to allocate a smaller percentage of their total consumption budget to fuel purchases. This has allowed them to expend more on other goods. Over four years, U.S. consumers have been able to spend almost $90 billion per year more on other goods because of gasoline prices being pulled down by renewable fuel use.
-If ethanol were eliminated from the fuel supply, as some opponents of renewable fuels have advocated, gasoline prices would surge by more than $1 per gallon.
-There have been 19 oil market disruptions over the last 46 years, starting with 1973’s Arab Oil Embargo. A modest amount of renewable fuels can significantly moderate the price impact of market disruptions. Renewable fuels can limit the process that pushes product prices higher. The suppliers of products, especially gasoline, can and will increase the amount of ethanol blended into motor fuels if the regulations allow and ethanol can be obtained at a favorable price.
-Consumers would likely pay even higher prices if the mergers that created the large oligopolistic independent refiners had not been accompanied by a second trend: the creation of an aggressive, competitive petroleum marketing sector.
-The procedures used for introducing renewable fuels into gasoline allow the competitive petroleum marketing sector to counter the market power enjoyed by U.S. refiners. This independence allows the marketer to vary the amount of ethanol blended depending on the price.
-Consumers will see increasing benefits from lower prices as marketers are allowed to blend additional ethanol into gasoline (or other renewables into motor fuels) when the ethanol can be acquired at a discount to the price of the petroleum-based blendstock. The benefit results from the high level of competition in gasoline marketing and the absence of refinery control over marketers.
Read the original article: New Study: Renewable Fuel Standard Saves Consumers at Pump, Enhances Energy Security
September 13, 2019
By Lisa Gibson
Minimizing feedstock cost is one rule for a successful cellulosic ethanol project, according to Mark Yancey, chief technology officer for D3Max. “That can be a very large component of your project costs.”
Yancey spoke Sept. 13 at Lallemand Biofuels & Distilled Spirits’ Alcohol School, held this week in Montreal. The final day of the event focused on cellulosic ethanol.
D3Max partnered with Ace Ethanol in Stanley, Wisconsin, to construct a cellulosic ethanol plant, which is expected to start up in October. Yancey said the D3Max development plan has always been to colocate with an existing ethanol plant.
In a cellulosic project, Yancey continued, avoid feedstock harvest and transportation, make sure it’s available year-round and has a high coproduct value.
Other rules Yancey shared from his experience included those in pretreatment: ensure high solids loading, a low-cost catalyst, and minimize inhibitor production. In Enzymatic hydrolysis, minimize enzyme cost, avoid dilution after pretreatment, and use hemicellulase and cellulase enzymes. In fermentation, ensure both C5 and C6 sugar fermentation, use a robust and low-cost yeast, and aim for a high product yield.
Yancey said issues a cellulosic ethanol plant might face include: feedstock supply, feedstock cost, capital cost per gallon of ethanol, ethanol yield, coproduct value, wastewater and project financing.
The feedstock for the D3Max system is wet cake, making a pretreatment step crucial. The wet cake goes into a reactor, then a clash tank, then to fermentation, beer column, and to dehydration or decanters to recover ethanol or produce feed.
“This is considered separate processing,” Yancey said. “There’s no mixing of the starch or sugars between the two plants. That makes us what EPA calls separate processing.” The separate processing status makes permitting much easier, he added.
Corn oil yield is expected to be 1.2 pounds per bushel, with a dried distillers grains with solubles yield of 10.5 pounds per bushel. That’s an improvement of DCO yield from 0.7 pounds per bushel from a standard dry mill ethanol plant, Yancey said, and a decrease of DDGS from 14 pounds per bushel, but an increase in protein of 27 percent.
“Ace is very happy with the results,” Yancey said.
Key players in the project include Ace and D3Max, as well as Fagen Inc., AdvanceBio, Fluid Quip Process Technologies, DSM, Lallemand and Whitefox Technologies.
The D3Max plant is expected to produce about 3.4 MMgy, increasing Ace’s overall yield of 2.9 gallons per bushel to 3.1 gallons per bushel, Yancey said.
In response to questions about starch in feedstock and the effects of nutrients, Yancey said, “when this is all up, we’ll need to reoptimize the whole facility.
“Everyone is waiting for our plant to start up. The proof will be in the actual commercial demonstration.”
Read the original article: Alcohol School: Yancey Delivers D3Max Project Update
Governor Tim Walz
Press Release
September 16, 2019
Today, Governor Tim Walz signed Executive Order 19-35, establishing the Governor’s Biofuels Council to advise the Governor and Cabinet on policy and budget proposals to foster the growth of the Minnesota biofuel industry. Recent action at the federal level has led to an increasing number of renewable fuel plants closing or idling production, including the Corn Plus ethanol plant in Winnebago, Minnesota.
“Minnesota farmers endure a lot of uncertainty when it comes to the weather and the economy. They shouldn’t face that uncertainty from their government,” said Governor Walz. “The Governor’s Biofuels Council demonstrates our commitment to supporting the agriculture and biofuels industries and seizing the opportunity to move Minnesota toward a cleaner, greener transportation sector.”
The Council will be tasked with creating a report advising the Governor and Cabinet on how to best expand the use of biofuels, increase the carbon efficiency of biofuels, and implement biofuels as part of Minnesota’s larger goal to reduce greenhouse gas production in the transportation sector. The Council will be made up of 15 members including representatives of agriculture, biofuels, and transportation industries, as well as environmental, and conservation groups. The Executive Order mandates that the report be completed by November 2020.
Governor Walz is the Chair of the Governors’ Biofuels Coalition. On September 4, 2019, he and Republican South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, Vice Chair of the Coalition, sent a joint letter to President Donald Trump urging him to support Minnesota farmers and renewable fuel producers. The Governor also published an op-ed emphasizing the need for urgent action.
September 16, 2019
By Jarrett Renshaw, Stephanie Kelly
U.S. President Donald Trump has tentatively approved a plan to increase the amount of biofuels that oil refiners are required to blend each year to compensate for exemptions handed out to small refiners by the Environmental Protection Agency, two sources familiar with the matter said.
The plan is intended to address a major source of anger in U.S. farm country as Trump seeks to hold favor in the Midwest ahead of next year’s election, but it is likely to upset the oil industry, another important political constituency, underscoring the pitfalls of U.S. biofuel policy.
Under the plan, the U.S. EPA will calculate a three-year rolling average of total biofuels gallons exempted from the mandates under its Small Refinery Exemption program and add that figure to its annual biofuel blending quotas each year, the sources said. For 2020, that figure would be 1.35 billion gallons, according to a Reuters calculation.
That would come in addition to a tentative agreement to boost next year’s blending volumes by 1 billion gallons, including 500 million gallons for conventional biofuels like corn-based ethanol and 500 million gallons for advanced biofuels like biodiesel, the sources said.
A court in 2016 ruled that the Obama administration illegally lowered the mandate by 500 million gallons, and part of the current proposed addition would satisfy the decision.
As a result, if the Trump administration followed through on the plan, next year’s total blending mandate would come out to about 22.4 billion gallons, from just over 20 billion in the EPA’s current proposal, according to the Reuters calculation.
The EPA has until the end of November to finalize its 2020 biofuel volumes mandates.
Under the Renewable Fuel Standard, oil refiners are required to blend increasing volumes of biofuels like corn-based ethanol into their fuel each year, to help farmers and reduce imports, but small refining facilities in financial straits can seek waivers.
Trump inserted himself into negotiations between the rival oil and corn industries after his administration recently granted 31 oil refiners exemptions to their blending requirements, infuriating corn farmers and ethanol producers who say the program undermines demand for ethanol at a time the industry is already suffering from a loss of foreign markets.
He and senior administration officials have held a series of meetings with biofuel company officials, chief executives from Marathon Petroleum Corp and Valero Energy Corp, and lawmakers from key farm states including the Republican senators Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley.
Trump was expected to meet with senators representing oil-producing states on Monday to continue discussions on the issue, sources said.
It was unclear if Trump would secure the backing of the oil industry for the plan without granting it any concessions.
One idea that Trump discussed during the meeting with Marathon and Valero last week to help refiners was to potentially cap the price of blending credits refiners must earn or purchase to comply with the RFS, sources familiar with the matter said.
Senators including Pennsylvania’s Pat Toomey and Texas’s Ted Cruz sent a letter to Trump on Thursday, asking any increase to biofuel volumes be accompanied by safeguards against higher credit prices.
Read the original article: Trump Backs Plan that Would Boost Biofuel Quotas 10% in 2020
September 16, 2019
By Jarrett Renshaw, Stephanie Kelly
U.S. President Donald Trump has tentatively approved a plan to increase the amount of biofuels that oil refiners are required to blend each year to compensate for exemptions handed out to small refiners by the Environmental Protection Agency, two sources familiar with the matter said.
The plan is intended to address a major source of anger in U.S. farm country as Trump seeks to hold favor in the Midwest ahead of next year’s election, but it is likely to upset the oil industry, another important political constituency, underscoring the pitfalls of U.S. biofuel policy.
Under the plan, the U.S. EPA will calculate a three-year rolling average of total biofuels gallons exempted from the mandates under its Small Refinery Exemption program and add that figure to its annual biofuel blending quotas each year, the sources said. For 2020, that figure would be 1.35 billion gallons, according to a Reuters calculation.
That would come in addition to a tentative agreement to boost next year’s blending volumes by 1 billion gallons, including 500 million gallons for conventional biofuels like corn-based ethanol and 500 million gallons for advanced biofuels like biodiesel, the sources said.
A court in 2016 ruled that the Obama administration illegally lowered the mandate by 500 million gallons, and part of the current proposed addition would satisfy the decision.
As a result, if the Trump administration followed through on the plan, next year’s total blending mandate would come out to about 22.4 billion gallons, from just over 20 billion in the EPA’s current proposal, according to the Reuters calculation.
The EPA has until the end of November to finalize its 2020 biofuel volumes mandates.
Under the Renewable Fuel Standard, oil refiners are required to blend increasing volumes of biofuels like corn-based ethanol into their fuel each year, to help farmers and reduce imports, but small refining facilities in financial straits can seek waivers.
Trump inserted himself into negotiations between the rival oil and corn industries after his administration recently granted 31 oil refiners exemptions to their blending requirements, infuriating corn farmers and ethanol producers who say the program undermines demand for ethanol at a time the industry is already suffering from a loss of foreign markets.
He and senior administration officials have held a series of meetings with biofuel company officials, chief executives from Marathon Petroleum Corp and Valero Energy Corp, and lawmakers from key farm states including the Republican senators Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley.
Trump was expected to meet with senators representing oil-producing states on Monday to continue discussions on the issue, sources said.
It was unclear if Trump would secure the backing of the oil industry for the plan without granting it any concessions.
One idea that Trump discussed during the meeting with Marathon and Valero last week to help refiners was to potentially cap the price of blending credits refiners must earn or purchase to comply with the RFS, sources familiar with the matter said.
Senators including Pennsylvania’s Pat Toomey and Texas’s Ted Cruz sent a letter to Trump on Thursday, asking any increase to biofuel volumes be accompanied by safeguards against higher credit prices.
Read the original article: Trump Backs Plan that Would Boost Biofuel Quotas 10% in 2020
September 12, 2019
News Release
U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) led a letter to President Donald Trump today strongly urging him to help rural Americans, and the environment, by rescinding the 31 recently approved small refinery exemptions (SRE) for biofuels. They also urged his Administration to uphold the intent of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). The letter follows recent news reports indicating that the Administration is considering changes to the RFS that would boost biofuel volumes following backlash from farmers after 31 additional SREs were approved on August 8. SREs, or so-called “hardship” waivers, are intended to help small refineries by exempting them from the RFS, but the EPA has issued dozens of waivers, including for some of the most profitable oil companies in the world. The abuse of these waivers has resulted in lost jobs in rural communities and lost markets for farmers at a time when they are already struggling with low commodity prices and ongoing trade disputes. Under the Trump Administration, 85 SREs have been approved, contributing to a reduction in the use of billions of gallons of renewable fuel.
Biofuels are a key pathway toward decarbonizing the transportation sector while lowering gas prices, driving economic growth, and creating jobs. Every gallon of biofuels we use displaces a gallon of oil and cuts carbon emissions. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) found that first generation biofuels cut greenhouse gas emissions by between 39 and 43 percent.
Klobuchar and Duckworth were joined on the letter by Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, and Senators Tina Smith (D-MN), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Gary Peters (D-MI), and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI).
“In recent months, the biofuels industry has seen an increase in the number of plant closures, and many other plants are beginning to reduce overall production, resulting in thousands of lost jobs in rural communities and lost markets for farmers at a time when they are already struggling with low commodity prices and ongoing trade disputes. We have previously expressed our serious concerns to the EPA about the impact of your Administration’s policies on the rural economy as a result of the improper issuance of SREs. Since that time, the approval of additional SREs and the worsening economic conditions facing biofuel producers and farmers have only exacerbated those concerns,” the senators wrote.
“The EPA’s continued issuance of SREs is undermining the statutory intent of the RFS to the detriment of rural communities and farmers. It is for this reason that we ask you to ensure that any plan negotiated with the EPA and USDA rescinds the 31 recently granted SREs and upholds the intent of the RFS by accounting for future SREs in the calculation of the 2020 RVOs.”
In June, Klobuchar and Duckworth led a letter, signed with 11 other senators, urging EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler to cease issuing SREs and requesting that the EPA immediately reallocate the remaining gallons and make public the information regarding any recipients of these exemptions.
The full text of today’s letter can be found below:
Dear Mr. President:
We understand that your Administration has convened meetings to consider proposals related to the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and the continued issuance of small refinery exemptions (SRE), based on recent reports. As you continue to deliberate on a final package, we strongly urge you to rescind the 31 SREs that were approved on August 8, 2019, and to prospectively account for any future SREs when calculating Renewable Volume Obligations (RVO) for 2020.
For the compliance years of 2016, 2017, and 2018, the EPA has approved 85 SREs, all of which have contributed to a reduction of over 4 billion gallons of renewable fuel blending volumes and 1.4 billion bushels of corn. The abuse of SRE authority by the EPA is negatively impacting the rural economy, and the consequences resulting from the continued misuse of these exemptions are becoming more apparent by the day.
In recent months, the biofuels industry has seen an increase in the number of plant closures, and many other plants are beginning to reduce overall production, resulting in lost jobs in rural communities and lost markets for farmers at a time when they are already struggling with low commodity prices and ongoing trade disputes. We have previously expressed our serious concerns to the EPA about the impact of your Administration’s policies on the rural economy as a result of the improper issuance of SREs. Since that time, the approval of additional SREs and the worsening economic conditions facing biofuel producers and farmers have only exacerbated those concerns.
According to reports, the latest proposal under discussion would increase blending requirements for some categories of renewable fuels including biodiesel, but would fail to rescind the recently granted SREs and delay the reallocation of prospective exemptions until the 2021 compliance year.
The EPA’s continued issuance of SREs is undermining the statutory intent of the RFS to the detriment of rural communities and farmers. It is for this reason that we ask you to ensure that any plan negotiated with the EPA and USDA rescinds the 31 recently granted SREs and upholds the intent of the RFS by accounting for future SREs in the calculation of the 2020 RVOs.
Thank you for your attention to this issue.
Sincerely,
Read the original news release: Klobuchar, Duckworth Lead Colleagues in Urging President to Help Rural Americans, and the Environment, by Upholding the Intent of the Renewable Fuel Standard
September 11, 2019
By Dion Cheney
The recent closure of the Corn Plus plant in Winnebago has many wondering about a major industry here in southern Minnesota.
Earlier in the month, POET told KEYC that the three main reasons for the volatility in the ethanol markets that caused the shutdown include: Challenging farming weather this year, trade tensions with China and EPA Small Refinery Waiver’s.
U.S. Senator Tina Smith says ethanol is a vital part of Minnesota's economy.
"Renewable fuels like ethanol and other biofuels are a key part of Minnesota’s economy and Minnesota has real strength in ethanol, so I have been strongly opposed to the Trump administration’s secret waivers to refineries that let them off the hook for blending in what they’re required to blend into their regular fuels with ethanol,” Sen. Smith said.
Sen. Smith says the trade disputes are a crisis for Minnesota farmers involved in both plant and animal agriculture.
Read the original article: Sen. Tina Smith Weighs In On Volatile Ethanol Economics
More...
May 15, 2019
Press Release
A Midwest consumer advocacy group is imploring automakers to stay committed to flex-fuel vehicles, which offer American car buyers real choice—on the lot and at the pump. Seeking 20,000-plus signatures, the grassroots group has launched a petition in response to a noticeable downtick in the number of FFVs being manufactured and model types available to prospective car buyers.
Chris Schwarck, of Mason City, Iowa, kicked off the campaign after hearing about General Motors’ apparent retreat from FFVs in favor of other powertrain priorities. “It became apparent to many of us that car manufacturers, in particular General Motors, are moving away from flex-fuel vehicles as we know them today,” Schwarck explained in an e-mail to ethanol producers and corn growers last week. “Many of you have probably had as difficult a purchasing experience as I have in trying to buy a flex-fuel vehicle in a size vehicle you would like. It appears they do not really care what you want; it’s more of “this is what we have” type of thing. In my view, if we are to achieve our goal of selling more gallons of alcohol, we must have more flex-fuel vehicles to do it.”
Schwarck expects a groundswell response from the consumer public and has already gathered nearly 1,000 signatures. “We need everyone’s hands on the rope to pull this off,” he said. “We hope to garner 20,000 or more signatures when we deliver the petition to the vehicle manufacturers. It will take a lot of coordination to do this.”
While the ethanol industry has been especially supportive of the petition, Schwarck said the entire ag community needs be concerned about FFV production. “Every corn grower has a lot at stake here, whether they use ethanol or not; a lot of their corn is ground to make the product,” he said. “In addition, if you are a livestock or poultry producer, I’m sure you want a reliable, dependable supply of distillers grains available to you. The time has come when we must do some of the heavy lifting ourselves and cannot look to Washington or anyone else to do it for us.”
Pleading with automakers to stay the course on FFV manufacturing, the petition states: “We are consumers of your vehicles and we request that you manufacture cars and trucks of all models, engines and trim levels that will allow the use of higher ethanol blends such as E15, E20, E30 and E85. This would make our purchasing experience more enjoyable and less cumbersome than it is today. Many of us can simply not find the vehicles we wish to purchase. In addition, this would be beneficial to your sales presentation to offer environmentally friendly vehicles that burn clean, high-octane American made fuel, while supporting rural America and U.S. agriculture. We wish to support and promote the automakers that choose to produce quality cars and trucks that run on higher ethanol blends.”
The petition can be found here.
September 9, 2019
By Jerry Perkins
Exports of U.S. ethanol could set another record this year, according to Mike Dwyer, chief economist for the U.S. Grains Council.
U.S. ethanol exports during the current marketing year that ends August 31, 2019, are on track to hit between 1.8 billion gallons and 2 billion gallons, Dwyer predicts. If achieved, that amount of ethanol exports would top the current record of 1.62 billion gallons set during the marketing year that ended August 31, 2018. During that 12-month period, U.S. ethanol was exported to 74 countries, according to the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service.
The U.S. Grains Council and its ethanol export market development partners – the Renewable Fuels Association and Growth Energy – have set a goal of boosting U.S. ethanol exports to 4 billion gallons a year by 2022, Dwyer states. The Grains Council believes that by 2022, 75% of U.S. ethanol exports will go to six countries: China, India, Japan, Brazil, Canada, and Mexico.
The U.S. Grains Council is a Washington, D.C.-based organization that promotes the exports of U.S. corn, sorghum, and barley and value-added products made from those commodities.
Dwyer says the Grain Council’s global strategy includes selling ethanol to China despite trade disputes between the U.S. and China that have roiled the markets there for U.S. crops and other products such as ethanol.
China currently imposes a 70% duty on U.S. ethanol, Dwyer says, but it will have to find a way to import foreign ethanol if it aims to fulfill the mandate it has imposed to use a blend of 10% ethanol and 90% gasoline (E10) by 2020. If trade issues between the U.S. and China are resolved, Dwyer says, ethanol imports by China in 2020 could hit between 300 million gallons and 1 billion gallons.
Kelly Nieuwenhuis, a farmer from Primghar, Iowa, who traveled to China last year on a U.S. Grains Council trade mission, says that he was told by Chinese gasoline retailers that they want to do business with the U.S. ethanol industry. The Chinese also expressed a desire to use more ethanol because it knows that will improve the air quality, Nieuwenhuis says.
Ron Lamberty, senior vice president and market development director for the American Coalition for Ethanol in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, has made seven trips to Mexico to advise the transportation fuels industry there on how it can integrate the use of E10 into Mexico’s fuel supply.
Mexico has made the use of E10 legal in the country, Lamberty says, however, a Reid vapor pressure (RVP) waiver or the use of a lower RVP blendstock would be required for E10 to be used in the nation’s three largest cities: Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey. Small quantities of ethanol are currently being sold in Mexican cities on the U.S.-Mexico border, Lamberty says.
Lamberty has participated in technical workshops on ethanol that have been held for Mexico’s petroleum equipment installers and retailers. The workshops were a joint effort of the U.S. Grains Council and the Mexican Association of Petroleum Equipment Suppliers, and they were intended to inform Mexican fuel marketers about sourcing, blending, distributing, and retailing ethanol-blended gasoline.
Mexico’s potential annual use of E10 totals 1.2 billion gallons, Lamberty says.
Read the original article: Future of Ethanol Exports
September 6, 2019
Governor Tim Walz
Farmers are used to dealing with unpredictability when it comes to the weather, commodity prices, even equipment and animal health. But one thing they shouldn’t have to plan for is unpredictability from their government.
Yet that’s exactly what ethanol producers in Minnesota and the Midwest are rightly expressing anger over, as the federal government issues an increasingly large number of small-refinery exemptions from requirements of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), releasing those refineries from their obligations to blend biofuels.
The law sets forth annual amounts of renewable fuel of various types to be blended into the nation’s transportation fuel supply. Fuels such as corn starch ethanol, biodiesel and other advanced biofuels provide an important market for farmers in a rough agricultural economic cycle. They also help improve air quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the Donald Trump Administration has granted “hardship” exemptions to 85 oil refineries since 2016, including 31 granted in early August, reducing the volume of renewable fuels blended into the nation’s transportation supply by a whopping 4.04 billion gallons. This is a dramatic increase over the previous administration, which granted a total of 23 exemptions over three years, representing 690 million gallons.
The hardship created by these exemptions has been equally dramatic, depressing demand and prices for biofuels. The damage is adding up, and, as a result, 14 ethanol and eight biodiesel plants have shut down or been idled nationwide, including the announced closing of the Corn Plus ethanol plant in Winnebago, Minnesota.
The impact has not only forced ethanol plants offline, it has been a kick in the gut to corn and soybean farmers who provide the grain for ethanol and biodiesel production, especially when they had planned for growth in the use of renewable fuels. Each time one of these plants idles production, farmers for hundreds of miles in all directions are affected.
That is why South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and I sent a letter to President Trump this week expressing our deep concern. We told the president that these waivers undermine the integrity of the Renewable Fuel Standard and harm agricultural communities that are already spinning from the administration’s tariffs. We called on him to take immediate action to mitigate the effects of small refinery waivers and laid out concrete steps for how he could support farmers and renewable fuel producers.
As chair of the bipartisan Governors’ Biofuels Coalition, I urge the president to make good on his promise to “support our ethanol industry and to fight for the American farmer like no other president has ever fought before.” It has been reported that the president has been considering revoking some of these recently granted exemptions. While this would be a positive step, farmers and the ethanol industry need certainty that the administration will apply the law fairly and consistently. This should be a promise that farmers can depend on.
Tim Walz is governor of Minnesota and chair of the Governors Biofuels Coalition.
Read the original article: Tim Walz: Exempting Refineries From Biofuel Requirements is a Kick in the Gut to Farmers
Press Release
August 26, 2019
U.S. Senator Tina Smith (D-Minn.)—along with Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio)—is standing up for the nation’s rural economy by urging the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to end the harmful abuse of small refinery hardship waivers under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).
In a letter sent to EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, Sen. Smith and her colleagues pointed out that under the Trump Administration, the granting of waivers has increased by 370 percent with “small refinery” waivers going to large oil companies. While the president has signaled he wants federal agencies to reverse course on this practice, Sens. Smith, Klobuchar, Stabenow, Durbin, Peters, Baldwin and Brown want actions that live up to this promise.
“This pattern of demand destruction is wreaking havoc on our nation's rural economy. In recent months, more than 13 ethanol plants and 8 biodiesel plants have idled production or shut down across the country,” wrote Sen. Smith and her colleagues to Administrator Wheeler. “Not only did these biofuel plants support thousands of rural jobs across the country, they served as important markets for farmers, processing millions of bushels of corn, soybeans, and other commodities. At a time when farmers are already struggling after years of low prices and a chaotic trade agenda, this Administration chose to destroy more markets for farmers and harm rural communities across the country.”
The senators continued, “to add insult to injury, recent reports indicate that President Trump personally made the decision to grant these 31 waivers, despite numerous promises to support renewable fuels. EPA continues to undercut the integrity of the RFS by misusing its waiver authority, which in turn has a direct adverse impact on farmers and jobs in rural communities. We write to urge you once again to end the abuse of these small refinery exemptions, immediately reallocate the remaining gallons, and make public information regarding any recipients of these exemptions.”
You can access text of the letter here or below:
The Honorable Andrew Wheeler
Administrator
Environmental Protection Agency
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20460
Dear Administrator Wheeler,
We are extremely concerned that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues to abuse the use of small refinery hardship waivers under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). On Friday, August 8, 2019, the EPA issued another 31 such waivers, effectively reducing demand for renewable fuels by over 1.4 billion gallons. This is on top of the 54 refinery waivers already approved by this Administration over the last two years, which eliminated demand for more than 2.6 billion gallons of biofuels. Comparing the last three years of the previous administration to the first three years of the current administration, the Trump Administration has increased the granting of waivers by an astounding 370 percent, with "small refinery" waivers going to some of the world's largest oil companies.
This pattern of demand destruction is wreaking havoc on our nation's rural economy. In recent months, more than 13 ethanol plants and 8 biodiesel plants have idled production or shut down across the country. Not only did these biofuel plants support thousands of rural jobs across the country, they served as important markets for farmers, processing millions of bushels of corn, soybeans, and other commodities. At a time when farmers are already struggling after years of low prices and a chaotic trade agenda, this Administration chose to destroy more markets for farmers and harm rural communities across the country.
To add insult to injury, recent reports indicate that President Trump personally made the decision to grant these 31 waivers, despite numerous promises to support renewable fuels. EPA continues to undercut the integrity of the RFS by misusing its waiver authority, which in turn has a direct adverse impact on farmers and jobs in rural communities. We write to urge you once again to end the abuse of these small refinery exemptions, immediately reallocate the remaining gallons, and make public information regarding any recipients of these exemptions.
Thank you for your attention to this critical issue.
Sincerely,
Read the original press release: Senators Smith, Klobuchar, Stabenow, Durbin, Peters, Baldwin, and Brown Call for Stronger Renewable Fuel Standard
August 20, 2019
By James Lynch
Democratic U.S. Reps Abby Finkenauer and Dave Loebsack are calling for a review of the Environmental Protection Agency’s granting of waivers that exempt small oil refineries from complying with the nation’s biofuel law.
Finkenauer and Loebsack want the Government Accountability Office to investigate how the waiver program is being applied under the Renewable Fuel Standard, which generally requires refineries to blend renewable sources — including corn-based ethanol — into the nation’s fuel supply or to buy credits instead.
“Our concerns stem from the economic consequences to our rural communities created by exempting nearly 4 billion gallons of fuel from the RFS, a standard intended to expand the nation’s renewable fuels sector,” they wrote in a letter to Gene Dodaro, the U.S. comptroller general. “By 2016, the ethanol industry has grown to support over 339,000 U.S. jobs and driven $41 billion in economic activity by supporting corn and soy markets and reducing gasoline prices.”
Finkenauer, Loebsack and other members of the bipartisan House Biofuels Caucus, including Iowa Democratic U.S. Rep. Cindy Axne, have joined Republican U.S. Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst in criticizing the waivers they say hurt the renewable fuel industry in the state.
“They screwed us,” Grassley said last week when asked about the latest round of waivers — 31 — granted by the EPA. In addition to the number of waivers, “it’s that it is being granted to people that really aren’t (experiencing) hardship, and that is where it ought to be identified.”
The fuel standard allows the EPA to provide waivers to small refineries that demonstrate compliance with the rule would create significant economic hardship for the facility. Between 2013 and 2015, the EPA granted no more than eight waivers in a year, according to Loebsack and Finkenauer. But the EPA retroactively approved 19 waivers for 2016, then proceeded to grant 35 waivers in 2017, which is equal to removing a total of 1.82 billion gallons of renewable fuel in 2017 alone.
“With the recent approval of 31 waivers for 2018, it is imperative that we fully understand how EPA is reaching these conclusions despite (the Department of Energy’s) viability analysis,” wrote Finkenauer, who represents the 20-county northeast Iowa 1st District. Loebsack represents the 24-county southeast Iowa 2nd District.
Illinois Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth asked the inspector general’s office to launch an independent investigation into whether top EPA officials violated the law by inappropriately exempting a number of oil refineries from having to use legally required levels of biofuel.
In granting waivers, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler has suggested that the EPA follows the recommendations of the Energy Department. However, a letter from the department to Grassley admitted that the EPA granted at least one waiver in conflict with the agency’s recommendation.
Due to the process used by the EPA to review waiver applications, it’s unknown how many of the recent 31 exemptions are being granted to large and profitable oil companies.
ExxonMobil and Chevron are among those that received these economic hardship exemptions.
Read the original article: Finkenauer, Loebsack Call for Probe of EPA Biofuel Waivers
August 23, 2019
By Jennifer A. Dlouhy and Mario Parker
President Donald Trump, seeking to tamp down political fallout in U.S. farm states essential to his re-election, has ordered federal agencies to shift course on relieving some oil refineries of requirements to use biofuel such as corn-based ethanol.
Trump and top cabinet leaders decided late Thursday they wouldn’t make changes to just-issued waivers that allow small refineries to ignore the mandates, but agreed to start boosting biofuel-blending quotas to make up for expected exemptions beginning in 2021. The outcome was described by four people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named before a formal announcement could be made.
The decision was reached after a flurry of White House meetings this week on the issue, which divides two of Trump’s top political constituencies: rural Americans and the oil industry. With the move, Trump is largely siding with farmers, ethanol producers and political leaders in Iowa that have accused the president of turning his back on the industry.
But the administration’s shift risks blowback in Pennsylvania and other battleground states, where blue-collar refinery workers have held rallies to push for relief from U.S. biofuel quotas they say are too expensive. The largest coalition of U.S. building trades unions on Thursday warned Trump that changing course on exemptions would betray the president’s “campaign promise to protect every manufacturing job.”
“President Trump is committed to ensuring our country not only continues to be the agricultural envy of the world, but also remains energy independent and secure,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said.
Iowa-based biodiesel producer Renewable Energy Group Inc. climbed as much as 4.5% on the news, and traded up 5.5% to $11.64 at 1:50 p.m. in New York. Pacific Ethanol Inc. and Green Plains Inc. briefly gained before resuming losses as the U.S.-China trade war showed signs of deepening with the latter announcing plans to levy additional tariffs on American-made goods and Trump promising to respond.
Administration officials agreed to the broad contours of a renewable fuel plan, including further moves to encourage the use of E15 gasoline containing 15% ethanol, beyond the 10% variety common across the U.S. E15 could be dispensed alongside conventional ethanol blends at filling stations, under the drafted changes.
Under the tentative plan, the Environmental Protection Agency also will give a 500-million-gallon boost to the amount of conventional renewable fuel, such as ethanol, that must be used in 2020. A separate quota for biodiesel, typically made from soybeans, would get a 250 million gallon increase.
Additionally, the administration will enhance a program meant to expand U.S. fueling infrastructure and get more ethanol into the system. The EPA will adopt an Agriculture Department assessment of the greenhouse gas emissions associated with renewable fuel, and will expand environmental credits encouraging automakers to produce “flex-fuel” vehicles that can run on high-ethanol gasoline.
The EPA has drawn intense criticism for its Aug. 9 decision to exempt 31 refineries from 2018 biofuel-blending requirements. Although federal law authorizes the waivers for small refineries facing an economic hardship, the number of those exemptions has surged during the Trump administration, and biofuel producers say they are being handed out too freely.
The backlash has been most severe in Iowa, the nation’s top producer of ethanol and the corn used in its manufacture. It is also critical for Trump’s re-election; the state twice voted for Barack Obama before voting to send Trump to the White House in 2016.
Trump’s Democratic challengers have seized on the issue, with frontrunner Joe Biden accusing the president of lying to farmers and abandoning a campaign promise to “unleash ethanol.”
However, EPA officials and oil industry leaders say the waivers haven’t harmed domestic ethanol demand and blame a glut of the product for suppressing prices. Trump’s trade war with China has exacerbated the industry’s economic challenges. As with U.S.-grown agricultural products, including soybeans, ethanol faces retaliatory tariffs in China.
Against the backdrop of tariffs, the exemptions delivered another blow to the U.S. Midwest, where guaranteed domestic ethanol demand helps provide a floor of support for corn farmers and buttresses swings in commodity prices. Ethanol refining accounts for about 40% of U.S. corn consumption.
American “agriculture has a problem if ethanol doesn’t do well,” Green Plains Inc. chief executive officer Todd Becker said in a telephone interview on Thursday. The Omaha, Nebraska-based company created a political action committee last month, and Becker told analysts in May that Green Plains plans to “engage” 2020 U.S. presidential candidates on ethanol policies.
Becker said he “can’t fault” Trump for getting tough on China, but the combination of the trade war and small refinery exemptions was causing too much pain. “You don’t fight China and then give out SREs,” Becker said. “Farmers are furious now.”
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue had urged the White House to rescind some of the recently issued waivers -- at least those for refineries tied to “big” oil companies -- according to an Aug. 20 memo obtained by Bloomberg.
EPA officials successfully argued that would be illegal.
Instead, Trump directed the agency to increase biofuel quotas to make up for the exemptions, a so-called “reallocation” that will effectively boost the burden for larger refineries that are not eligible to win waivers. The EPA will start incorporating expected exemptions into annual biofuel quotas beginning with 2021.
Oil industry leaders blasted the tentative agreement on Friday, saying it would do little for U.S. farmers while hurting domestic refiners.
“Reallocation would be a major hit to fuel manufacturers in Pennsylvania and Ohio -- and refinery workers across the country -- with zero benefit to ethanol,” said Derrick Morgan, a senior vice president with the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers. “Those celebrating will ultimately be foreign biofuel producers whose biodiesel is being imported to help meet mandates.”
The EPA typically sets each year’s biofuel blending requirements by Nov. 30 of the preceding year, except for biodiesel quotas, which are set two years in advance. Under the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard program, there’s a specific mandate for biodiesel, but the soybean-based product can also be used to satisfy an implied 15 billion gallon quota for conventional renewable fuel.
Frank Macchiarola, a vice president at the American Petroleum Institute, called the drafted plan a “rushed, arbitrary policy.”
“We hope the administration walks back from the brink of a disastrous political decision that punishes American drivers,” Macchiarola said. “Bad policy is bad politics.”
Although the tentative plan was meant to assuage biofuel allies, it’s not clear it was having the intended effect Friday, amid industry skepticism the EPA will follow through on the agreement. Iowa officials are preparing to visit Washington for a formal rollout of the policy changes.
Biodiesel industry advocates say they can produce more fuel -- and the Trump administration needs to take that into account.
“With a level playing field in biodiesel trade in 2018, domestic producers increased output by several hundred million gallons,” said National Biodiesel Board spokesman Paul Winters. “We can continue to do so -- as long as EPA stops using RFS waivers to destroy demand and put biodiesel producers out of business.”
Read the original article: Trump Orders Biofuel Boost in Bid to Temper Farm State Anger
August 21, 2019
by Humeyra Pamuk and Jarrett Renshaw
The agriculture and biofuel industries and their U.S. congressional allies ramped up pressure on the Trump administration on Wednesday over the relief he has given oil refiners from rules requiring use of biofuels.
Long-suffering American farmers, a constituency President Donald Trump is counting on in his campaign for re-election in 2020, have seen prices for crops hit hard by his trade war with China. This month, farmers also complained that a government crop report did not reflect damage from historic flooding this spring.
Farmers have been infuriated at the administration’s decision to grant waivers exempting 31 oil refineries from rules requiring them to blend corn-based ethanol into gasoline.
National and state trade groups along with their political allies delivered letters to the White House over the past 48 hours detailing the damage the waivers have caused the biofuel industry.
Democratic presidential hopefuls have used the refinery issue as a cudgel, echoing farm groups who say Trump has betrayed them by siding with Big Oil. Alarmed, the Republican president ordered his cabinet to find ways to boost biofuel demand.
The Iowa Soybean Association’s letter to the White House said the refining exemptions were forcing biodiesel producers to shut plants and lay off workers. Soybeans are a feedstock for biodiesel, so growers have been hurt.
“It’s becoming more difficult to understand why your administration is choosing to support higher profits for oil companies instead of providing some stability for farmers,” said the letter, signed by Lindsay J. Greiner, president of the state’s soybean association.
Iowa, the largest U.S. producer of corn and ethanol, is a swing state won twice by Democrat Barack Obama. The state switched to the Republican candidate in 2016, in part because Trump promised to support ethanol.
Cindy Axne, a Democrat who represents Iowa’s third district, wrote to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, urging its independent watchdog to investigate the small refinery waivers granted between 2016 and 2018.
“What we’re seeing with this administration is a dogged approach to allow the biggest fossil fuel players an opportunity to put more money back in the pockets of their large shareholders and take that money out of the pockets of hardworking farmers right here in Iowa,” Axne said at a news conference.
Republican Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, a Trump political ally, along with the state’s head of agriculture, said in a letter to the EPA that rural families have borne the brunt of the trade war and are now being pinched by the refinery waivers.
“Ethanol consumption fell for the first time in 20 years, commodity markets are depressed, and many biofuel plants, including several in Iowa, have already slowed or halted production,” the letter said.
The battle between Big Oil and farmers over the U.S. biofuel policy has been a headache for Trump, who campaigned in 2016 as a champion for ethanol.
U.S. regulations require refiners to blend biofuels into the nation’s gasoline pool or buy credits to fund those refiners who can. Small refiners can get exemptions from the EPA if they prove compliance causes them hardship.
But Trump’s EPA expanded the waivers significantly, granting exemptions to refineries owned by the likes of Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N), Chevron Corp (CVX.N) and billionaire Carl Icahn. This saved refiners billions of dollars, but farmers complained that it has destroyed ethanol demand and forced plants to shut down or idle. Refiners maintain the waivers have not hurt overall demand for biofuels.
Biofuel producers and farmers say increasing the annual blending obligations for 2020, to be finalized in November, is the best solution, but oil refiners oppose that.
“The president will have an opportunity to make this right in the fall,” Gene Gebolys, chief executive of biodiesel producer World Energy. The company said last week it was closing plants in Mississippi, Georgia and Pennsylvania, and putting 100 workers on furlough.
“If he doesn’t, the voters will have an opportunity to make it right next fall. He’s made a promise throughout the Midwest and he’s broken the promise,” he said.
Read the original article: U.S. Farmers, Lawmakers Dial Up Pressure on Trump Over Biofuel Policy
August 14, 2019
By Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and former Sen. Timothy Wirth (D-Colo.)
The question of how best to address environmental challenges has increasingly become a partisan flashpoint. So, when there is a green solution on which many Republicans and Democrats see eye-to-eye, as we do, it’s worth paying attention.
It’s time to take another look at biofuels.
The economic benefits to a hard-pressed farm economy are plain as day. Renewable energy – not just biofuels, but also wind and solar – are helping farmers and the rural economy survive in a year when the weather has been unkind, to say the least.
There is a lot of talk about reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but what’s needed are practical strategies to get there. Transportation is now the single greatest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, making it critical to any carbon reduction strategy. But public policy to date has put almost the entire burden of the sector’s transformation on the nation’s vehicles. Shouldn’t the fuels they burn get equal attention?
Look at the numbers: Even a rapid transition to electric vehicles will leave hundreds of millions of conventional cars and trucks on U.S. roads for the next 30 years. According to a review of the relevant studies by USDA, Ethanol reduces carbon emissions by 40 percent or more compared to gasoline. Increasing ethanol blends from the 10 percent used today by most vehicles to 15 percent, now approved by the EPA, is an important start – but we can do more.
There are also major public health benefits. Today, the octane in your gasoline is supplied by a class of toxic chemicals called aromatics, which make up roughly 25 percent of every gallon of gasoline. Breathing in these toxins from car exhaust can cause cancer. Moreover, Frederica Perera, head of the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health, has shown through more than a decade of research that the worst emissions from those chemicals – polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs – have effects on pregnant women and small children comparable to airborne lead: low birth weight, diminished IQ and cognitive and behavioral disorders. In addition, fine particle pollution from aromatics causes thousands of premature deaths each year.
Higher ethanol blends reduce the need for aromatics in gasoline. The reason is that ethanol has higher octane than gasoline and improves engine performance – with lower emissions. NASCAR vehicles run on 15 percent ethanol. Those blends should become standard nationwide.
We should also give more attention to the potential of higher blends of ethanol for engine performance. With wider availability, automakers could tune their engines to perform even better than they do today. Research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has shown that mid-level blends of 25-40 percent, despite the lower energy content of ethanol, can match the vehicle fuel efficiency of cars running on today’s blends. Indeed, a multiyear study by the Department of Energy points to such blends as the best way to optimize vehicle and fuel performance. Blends of 30 percent are being used by the city fleet in Watertown, S.D,, with great success, and Nebraska is testing them in its state fleet. In Brazil today, every vehicle on the road (along with motorcycles and off-road equipment like boats) runs on a minimum of 27 percent ethanol.
It’s still true today that America’s national, energy and economic security is tied to our economic and consumer dependence on oil imported from volatile regions of the world. Using our farm commodities and agricultural by-products – such as corn, soybeans, switchgrass and livestock waste – and capturing natural resources – such as wind – to produce homegrown renewable energy is a winning solution to address the nation’s energy and climate challenges. Despite relentless misinformation campaigns by the oil industry and its allies, ethanol should again be seen and valued for what it is – a cleaner, healthier renewable fuel produced in the USA.
Read the original article: Environmental Advocates Should Take Another Look at Biofuels