Claremont, Nov 7 - Fifteen students from Blooming Prairie High School toured Al-Corn Clean Fuel on Nov 5 to learn more about the ethanol production process.

“We were pleased to welcome students from Blooming Prairie High School’s Ag Science class today. Since 1996, we have been in the business of sustainable energy, producing renewable fuel from local corn. In addition to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and prices at the pump, our business positively impacts our rural and state economies and reduces our reliance on foreign oil,” said Thomas Harwood, CEO of Al-Corn Clean Fuel.

During the tour, the students learned about the various stages of ethanol production such as incoming grain grading and handling, fermentation, grain storage, ethanol storage and shipment and dried distillers grains with solubles production and storage.

The students that visited the plant were from grades nine, 11 and 12. 

Abby Bohlen, agriculture teacher at Blooming Prairie High School, accompanied her students for the tour. 

"My hope is that students learned more about different opportunities that the Ag industry offers,” she said.

The tour was organized by the Minnesota Bio-Fuels Association (MN Bio-Fuels). Al-Corn Clean Fuel is a member of MN Bio-Fuels.

Claremont, Nov 13 - Fourty-one students from an Integrated Science class at Triton High School toured Al-Corn Clean Fuel yesterday to learn more about the ethanol production process. 

During the tour, the students learned about the various stages of ethanol production during their tour including incoming grain grading and handling, fermentation, grain storage, ethanol storage and shipment and dried distillers grains with solubles production and storage.

The tour was organized by the Minnesota Bio-Fuels Association (MN Bio-Fuels). Al-Corn Clean Fuel is a member of MN Bio-Fuels. The students that participated in the tour were from grades nine and 10. 

“We were pleased to welcome students to one of our member plants – Al-Corn Clean Fuel. The best way to learn about the importance of the ethanol industry to Minnesota’s economy and environment is by visiting a production facility up-close and in-person,” said Brian Werner, executive director of MN Bio-Fuels.

Yesterday’s tour at Al-Corn Clean Fuel follows a recent visit of 15 students from Triton High School’s agriculture economics class at the plant in late October. 

Brian Felton, science teacher at Triton High School, accompanied his students for the tour.

“The goal was to make students aware of the biofuels industry, potentially leading to an interest in working in the industry and support of policies that encourage the production and use of biofuels. Showing students that there are good jobs and potential growth in our rural areas will keep our communities strong and thriving,” he said.

Fergus Falls Journal

Jan 14, 2014

By Chris Reinoos

Minnesota Department of Agriculture Commissioner Dave Frederickson addressed a sympathetic audience Monday in Fergus Falls as part of a state tour supporting biofuel energy, namely ethanol.

More than 20 people, including area farmers and politicians, packed a conference room at the Green Plains Otter Tail plant Monday morning to hear Frederickson address what he sees as the negatives of a proposed Environmental Protection Agency plan to lower the national Renewable Fuel Standard.

The RFS is the amount of renewable fuel that must be found in all transportation fuel sold in the United States. In a draft rule released in November, the EPA said it would require about 15 billion gallons of renewable fuels to be used for transportation in 2014, as opposed to the roughly 18 billion gallons set in the 2007 legislation that introduced RFS requirements.

Frederickson said his department has seen plenty of opposition to the proposed changes.

“We think we have a chance to reverse this whole idea,” he said.

Several farmers in attendance voiced displeasure at what they saw as an extreme shift if the changes were to be made. Having bought equipment and set up their operations with the understanding that renewable fuels like ethanol would be used a certain way, they said it would hurt their businesses drastically if the RFS was lowered.

Rep. Bud Nornes said the best approach for these farmers to make their voices heard would be to write personal letters or make phone calls to the EPA.

“Whatever can be done to reverse this needs to be done,” Nornes said.

To that end, Frederickson and MDA Assistant Commissioner Charlie Poster handed out draft letters and envelopes to those in attendance, urging them to “step up to the plate.” Frederickson stressed that people should also write messages on the back of the letters about how the reductions would impact them.

“We would be proud if this rule was reversed and it was because of a flood of letters like this,” Poster said.

After their meeting in Fergus Falls, MDA officials also made stops in Morris and Benson Monday as part of the tour. The EPA is accepting written comment on the RFS proposal until Jan. 28.

Read the original story here Ag Tour Designed To Drum Up Support For Fight Of Planned RFS Reductions

Agriculture.com

Jan 19, 2014

By Daniel Looker

When Senator Al Franken (D-MN) walked into the Four Daughters Vineyard & Winery near Spring Valley, Minnesota Saturday afternoon, he was the only one wearing a suit. He told some 30 farmers waiting for him that he had just come from a memorial service in Plainview and joked that he was wearing "rural business casual."

The one-time Saturday Night Live comedian hasn't lost his sense of humor, but his mood these days is one of frustration. Franken is among a bipartisan group of Senators trying to convince the EPA and the White House that a proposed rule to trim ethanol and biodiesel blending mandates in the Renewable Fuel Standard for 2014 is a mistake.

Franken brought up the subject when a group of Democrats met with President Barack Obama last Wednesday.

"I told him, he's from Illinois, a state that has a big corn crop, that the RFS rules are going in the wrong direction," Franken told the group gathered at one end of vineyard's wine tasting room. "This is exactly the wrong time to send the message we're not going to extend the RFS for ethanol and biodiesel."

Franken is also pointing out that ethanol is a greener fuel with a smaller carbon footprint than gasoline.

"I made the argument to the President that you're never going to have an ethanol spill in the Gulf," he recounted, drawing laughter from the farmers.

Franken didn't share Obama's response, but during his discussion with the farmers he said that he has also talked to the President's new senior adviser, John Podesta.

"Podesta gets it. He's going to be inside pressing on that," Franken said.

Franken was also one of 16 Democrats and Republicans from the Senate who met with EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy in mid-December to explain that the EPA's proposal to trim the RFS drastically ignores the intent of the law.

Franken said on Saturday that McCarthy agrees that biofuels produce fewer greenhouse gases than fuels from petroleum.

"What was weird about the meeting with Gina McCarthy -- she acknowledged all of our points. You kind of wonder where this decision is being made," Franken said.

EPA justifies its decision by citing the so-called blend wall, the lack of capacity to blend more than about 10% of motor fuel with ethanol.

Franken doesn't accept that.

"The infrastructure isn't there for ethanol because the franchisees are getting punished for putting in a blender pump," said Franken. "This is incredibly frustrating."

Bruce Peterson, a Northfield, Minnesota farmer and vice president of the Minnesota Corn Growers, told Peterson that there are a lot of farmer-owned co-ops and independent gas stations that would like to begin selling higher ethanol blends like E15 (15% ethanol), but are concerned about EPA's lowered RFS. "This certainly doesn't give them the confidence to move forward and make that switch," Peterson told Franken.

The Corn Growers organized the meeting, which also drew other farm leaders, including Dodge County Farm Bureau President Jim Checkel and another farm bureau member, Kathy King, who is from a farm north of Rochester, and Al Hein, Denny King and several other farmers on the board of the POET ethanol plant at nearby Preston, MN.

Eunie Biel, a Minnesota Farmers Union board member was there, to share a letter she had written to the EPA describing the 150-cow dairy farm that she and her husband, Robert, run in Harmony, Minnesota. They feed distiller's grains to their cows and have invested in a local ethanol plant.

And Tim Gerlach, Minnesota Corn Growers' Executive Director, told Franken that 7,000 of his group's members have written EPA.

Franken encouraged more letters, and letters like those from the Biel family that describe their farm.

"You need to say I'm a corn grower and this means a lot to our economy in Minnesota," Franken said. "It really means something if you have your handwriting on there, telling your story.

The deadline for EPA to take comments on it's proposed rule is January 28. Franken insisted that the more letters sent to the EPA and the White House, the better chance for a final rule that's more favorable.

"It isn't like Gina McCarthy is going to take 60,000 letters to bed at night," he added. But someone on her staff will read them, he said. And even the President reads 10 letters from Americans each night. Franken also suggested using email. It's faster than paper letters, since it doesn't have to be screened for anthrax.

EPA's decision to trim almost 3 billion gallons of biofuels from the target of 18.15 billions gallons set by a 2007 energy law worries Franken, who told Agriculture.com in an interview later that it will discourage investment in advanced biofuels. Franken is a strong supporter of cellulosic ethanol, and with Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) he introduced language for the new farm bill that will provide support for such advanced biofuels. He also joined 28 senators who wrote EPA leader McCarthy to oppose freezing the biodiesel mandate at 1.7 billion gallons next year, well below the industry's current production.

If EPA sticks with its smaller blending targets for 2013, "then you're going to disincentivize the kind of capital you need to do the research of scaling up," Franken said.

When asked if sending letters to EPA will mean much when the agency's decisions are supposed to be based on science, Franken suggested that decision to roll back the RFS wasn't science based. "The acknowledgment by EPA is that this [blending biofuels] make sense environmentally--and they are the environmental agency," he said.

"There's always politics in this stuff," he said of the decision to reduce the mandate. "When people write letters, it makes a difference."

Read the original story here : Franken Urges More Letters To EPA, White House