In the News
Aug 5, 2015
By Richard Childress
As a former NASCAR driver and current team owner, I know a thing or two about engines, performance and fuel. My team’s success depends on using the best technology to get the best results. I would never turn my back on a competitive advantage. That’s why I support the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and the use of E15, a higher blend of ethanol fuel, in NASCAR racing.
My team didn’t win six Sprint Cup championships, six Nationwide Series championships and two NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championships by not paying attention to the performance details of our race cars. So when NASCAR decided to switch to a 15 percent ethanol fuel in 2011, we did our homework.
We didn’t listen to the empty rhetoric surrounding ethanol. We did our own testing and proved that higher blends of ethanol deliver. Since switching fuels, NASCAR has experienced an increased horsepower from a higher-octane ethanol fuel blend and decreased emissions. After five years and over seven million miles, E15 has proven its merit. It has met and exceeded the performance requirements for the most demanding driving situations imaginable.
I’m passionate about winning each week on the track. I’m equally passionate about my country, its sustainability, economic health and security. That’s why I support the RFS. After sitting on the Board of Directors at Growth Energy, the country’s leading trade association of ethanol and renewable fuel producers, I’ve come to understand the important role ethanol plays in America and its amazing potential as we begin producing the next generation of fuels.
The RFS has been the most successful energy policy this nation has adopted in the last 40 years.
The RFS has created American jobs, revitalized rural America, reduced our dependence on foreign oil, made our nation more energy independent and improved our climate security. Renewable fuel has reduced our dangerous dependence on foreign oil by nearly two thirds. It has opened up the vehicle fuels market by injecting competition and providing drivers with savings. Currently, the RFS supports nearly 400,000 American jobs and generates nearly $53 billion in economic activity.
Besides, no beaches have ever been closed because of an ethanol spill.
But now, on the 10-year anniversary of this bipartisan policy, our nation finds itself at a crossroads. Recently, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a proposed rule that would drastically cut back the production of ethanol and other biofuels. Not only would this affect production of ethanol, but it would severely hinder innovation and investment in next generation fuels made from sources like biomass and farm waste.
Americans have made their voices heard, telling America’s leaders to move the RFS forward not backward. After all the great strides we have made and the exhaustive testing of E15 and other higher blends – with truly exceptional results – it is time to take the next step in biofuels production. But we can’t if EPA blocks the path moving forward.
If E15 can handle the Daytona 500, Talladega or the Brickyard, it will definitely meet the needs of daily drivers. It is finally time to break through the mythical “blend wall.” It is time to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, step up our efforts to improve our environment and ensure America’s rural economy stays robust. It is time to give consumers the choice of a less expensive, higher performing fuel.
Most importantly, it is time for the EPA to follow the law and help move our nation forward on the development of renewable fuel.
Read the original story here : Why The EPA Must Move Forward With Biofuels
Aug 3, 2015
WASHINGTON — Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) President and CEO Bob Dinneen applauded a recent decision by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to recalculate its ethanol export estimates for 2014. In a memorandum, which was placed on the RVO docket on July 24, EPA acknowledged that it made an error in determining the 2014 available supply of Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs), which are credits used to keep track of the amount of ethanol.
“Kudos to the EPA for recognizing this important error and reassessing the 2014 ethanol export data,” said Dinneen. “This is a critical issue because it affects the estimate of how many RINs generated in 2014 will remain available for compliance with biofuel obligations required by the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). It also has implications for estimates of RIN carryover stocks.”
The memo comes after RFA and member biofuel companies raised the issue in correspondence with the EPA in early June and again at a public hearing on June 25 on the RFS in which dozens of commenters took issue with the agency’s proposal to slash the renewable blending volume obligations (RVOs) for 2014–2016.
According to the memo, “… public commenters indicated that they believed it was an error to treat the reported amounts of undenatured ethanol as being part of the 2014 supply of RINs. Ethanol that is exported in undenatured form would not have generated RINs, and thus should not have been subtracted from the total number of RINs generated for fuel ethanol in 2014 for purposes of calculating the available supply of RINs for 2014 in the proposal. EPA intends to account for this…in the determination of the appropriate volume requirements in the final rulemaking.”
As a result of EPA’s error, the agency will likely revise the 2014 RVO. This revision could increase the blending obligation for renewable fuel from a proposed level of 13.25 billion gallons to more than 13.6 billion gallons.
“We applaud the EPA for responding to stakeholder feedback and committing to make the requisite change regarding exported ethanol in the final rulemaking,” said Dinneen. “However, as underscored in the comments we submitted to the EPA last week, we continue to urge the Agency to consider carryover RIN stocks in determinations of ‘available supply.’ We hope and trust that EPA will make other changes consistent with the facts on the ground—and the law—prior to issuing a final rule in November.”
- See more at: http://www.ethanolrfa.org/news/entry/rfa-applauds-epa-for-recalculating-2014-ethanol-export-estimates/#sthash.pFOxH1Wu.dpufWASHINGTON — Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) President and CEO Bob Dinneen applauded a recent decision by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to recalculate its ethanol export estimates for 2014. In a memorandum, which was placed on the RVO docket on July 24, EPA acknowledged that it made an error in determining the 2014 available supply of Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs), which are credits used to keep track of the amount of ethanol.
“Kudos to the EPA for recognizing this important error and reassessing the 2014 ethanol export data,” said Dinneen. “This is a critical issue because it affects the estimate of how many RINs generated in 2014 will remain available for compliance with biofuel obligations required by the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). It also has implications for estimates of RIN carryover stocks.”
The memo comes after RFA and member biofuel companies raised the issue in correspondence with the EPA in early June and again at a public hearing on June 25 on the RFS in which dozens of commenters took issue with the agency’s proposal to slash the renewable blending volume obligations (RVOs) for 2014–2016.
According to the memo, “… public commenters indicated that they believed it was an error to treat the reported amounts of undenatured ethanol as being part of the 2014 supply of RINs. Ethanol that is exported in undenatured form would not have generated RINs, and thus should not have been subtracted from the total number of RINs generated for fuel ethanol in 2014 for purposes of calculating the available supply of RINs for 2014 in the proposal. EPA intends to account for this…in the determination of the appropriate volume requirements in the final rulemaking.”
As a result of EPA’s error, the agency will likely revise the 2014 RVO. This revision could increase the blending obligation for renewable fuel from a proposed level of 13.25 billion gallons to more than 13.6 billion gallons.
“We applaud the EPA for responding to stakeholder feedback and committing to make the requisite change regarding exported ethanol in the final rulemaking,” said Dinneen. “However, as underscored in the comments we submitted to the EPA last week, we continue to urge the Agency to consider carryover RIN stocks in determinations of ‘available supply.’ We hope and trust that EPA will make other changes consistent with the facts on the ground—and the law—prior to issuing a final rule in November.”
July 29, 2015
Many gas stations are promoting E0, or gasoline with zero percent ethanol. It not only costs more than regular gasoline that contains 10 percent ethanol, new data shows it also burns dirtier in your engine which then puts more toxic emissions into the air.
Urban Air Initiative tested every E0 in Wichita, Kansas, and compared them to regular gasoline that contains 10 percent ethanol. The testing found toxic aromatics such as benzene and toluene were about 45 percent higher with E0. Benzene and toluene, which are known carcinogens, are added by oil refineries to boost octane in vehicles. However, these toxins create harmful emissions that cause air pollution which impact public health.
Click here for short video demonstrating UAI’s findings
UAI knows this isn't just a problem in Kansas. A recent study by the group Clean Fuels Omaha also found higher toxic emissions in Omaha, Nebraska with E0 compared to regular gasoline or E10.
The data is clear; adding ethanol to gasoline reduces toxic emissions, improves air quality and our health.
Read the original story here: UAI: Removing ethanol from gasoline increases toxic emissions
July 27, 2015
By Cindy Zimmerman
The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) will once again partner with the Buffalo Chip Campground at the 75th annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, which will be held Aug. 3-9 in Sturgis, South Dakota. More than 1.5 million motorcycle enthusiasts are expected to attend the event this year for the big anniversary and RFA Vice President for Industry Relations Robert White the event offers a perfect venue to dispel some of the misconceptions about the use of ethanol blended fuel in motorcycles.
“We do that around the “Free Fuel Happy Hours,” said White. “From Sunday August 2nd through Thursday August 6 from 1 to 4 pm, any motorcyclist can come up and fuel for free with 93 octane 10 percent ethanol.” This is the fourth year that RFA has sponsored the free fuel happy hours and White says it also offers them the opportunity to talk one on one with bikers and provide them with information about ethanol.
In addition, White says messages about ethanol can be found throughout the Buffalo Chip Campground during the rally. “We have everything from banners to commercials on the Jumbotron at the main stage and we sponsor the Essentials Guide that goes out to every camper this year,” said White.
The event sponsorship has become more important in the last 2-3 years as the oil industry has worked with the motorcycle association to spread misinformation about 15% ethanol, which is not approved for use in motorcycles – a fact which is stated clearly on all pumps that sell E15. But White says the information they provide goes beyond motorcycles. “If there is 1.6 million or more people there, they all own lawnmowers, cars, trucks, SUVs, boats back at home,” he added.
Read the original story here: Ethanol to Help Fuel 75th Sturgis Motorcycle Rally
July 27, 2015
By Jim Lane
In Washington, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy addressed the Corn Congress and said that ““you might’ve heard we’re trying to shrink or kill this [RFS] program. But the truth is, we’re committed to growing it. The volumes we’ve proposed for 2015 and 2016 are designed to bust through the blend wall.” She added that “our proposed 2016 standard for total renewable fuel is about 1.5 billion gallons more — almost 10% higher — than the actual 2014 volumes,” she added. “And the proposed 2016 standard for cellulosic ethanol is six times higher than what the market produced in 2014. So EPA isn’t just promoting growth; we’re pushing the envelope.” The agency’s comments period for the RFS comes to an end today (July 27), and the EPA has committed to finalizing the 2016 Renewable Fuel Standard by November 30th.
The Administrator added, “We know the delay last year in getting these standards out was disruptive to say the least. I apologize for that.”
Read the original story here : EPA Administrator To Corn Farmers : [Our RFS] Delay...Was Disruptive To Say The Least. I Apologize For That
July 24, 2015
By David Shaffer
The nation’s first new corn ethanol plant in more than five years — in Spiritwood, N.D. — has gone into commercial operation, its owner said Friday.
Dakota Spirit AgEnergy, 78 percent owned by a Minnesota cooperative power company, is a 65 million-gallon-per-year ethanol plant built next to one of the electric utility’s coal-fired power plants. It supplies steam to produce the biofuel at significant energy savings.
The $155 million ethanol refinery, 12 miles east of Jamestown, N.D., came in on budget, with construction costs of $135 million and $20 million in financing costs and working capital, said Greg Ridderbusch, the Minnesota-based president of the ethanol operation.
“We have found a way by co-locating with industry to generate power more efficiently and with less environmental impact than an ethanol plant by itself or a power plant by itself,” said Ridderbusch, who also is a vice president at Great River Energy, the Maple Grove power cooperative that is majority owner in the North Dakota plant. “It is state of the art in the use of energy and emissions.”
The technology doesn’t reduce the release of greenhouse gases, but offers a lower rate of carbon emissions for the energy output. Roughly 60 percent of coal’s energy gets used at Spiritwood, compared to 30 to 35 percent at a typical coal generator.
Most of the nation’s 212 ethanol plants were built in the last decade in response to federal policies encouraging blending of ethanol at the pump. But the biofuel building boom faded by the decade’s end. Three of the last corn ethanol plants were built in Minnesota in 2009. Other recently built ethanol plants are cellulosic versions that produce the fuel from corn cobs and stalks, but not the kernel.
The North Dakota plant will produce 20 percent of the motor fuel used in that state, the company said. Since motor fuel typically is a 10 percent ethanol blend, Dakota Spirit will need markets out of state. Ridderbusch said one unit train of 100 tank cars — similar to an oil train — likely will be loaded every 18 to 20 days and head to eastern markets on BNSF Railway. BNSF’s main line, the same one used by Bakken oil trains, runs through central Minnesota and the Twin Cities.
Dakota Spirit expects to purchase 23 million bushels of corn annually, the company said. Besides fuel, the plant expects to produce 198,000 tons of distillers grains used as cattle feed and 6,900 tons of industrial corn oil used mainly in feed and to produce biodiesel. The plant has 38 employees.
“The Dakota Spirit AgEnergy biorefinery is an important investment for North Dakota because it adds value to the state’s production agriculture industry, expands our renewable energy offerings, and creates jobs and economic opportunities for our people,” North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple said in a statement.
It is the second ethanol plant developed by Great River Energy, a power supplier to 650,000 Minnesota customers in 28 local co-ops that own the utility. Its other biofuel plant, Blue Flint Ethanol, is next to the company’s Coal Creek power plant near Underwood, N.D.
Both ethanol plants take waste steam from their adjacent generators. The Spiritwood coal-burner also supplies steam to a nearby malt plant owned by Cargill Inc.
For Great River Energy, the investment in an ethanol plant came largely out of necessity. As the utility planned its Spiritwood generator, it counted on steam sales to operate the power plant economically. When the $437 million generating plant was finished in 2011, another company’s plan to build an adjacent ethanol plant had fallen apart.
In an unprecedented step, Great River Energy immediately mothballed the new power plant, whose electricity wasn’t needed after a recession-driven drop in demand. When the power plant finally opened last year, the ethanol plant was under construction, with Great River Energy leading the project. The utility sold a 22 percent stake in all its ethanol operations to outside investors for $17 million in 2014.
The older Blue Flint plant produced record profits last year, adding $28 million to the utility’s bottom line. Now, the ethanol industry faces challenges because of lower fuel prices and higher corn costs. Unlike many older ethanol plants with paid-down debt, Dakota Spirit enters the market with the higher cost structure of a newly financed plant. But Ridderbusch said he has no concerns.
“In this industry, you can never time it,” he said.
Read the original story here : Minnesota Electric Co-Op Opens Ethanol Plant In North Dakota
July 24, 2015
By Cindy Zimmerman
The deadline for submitting comments to the Environmental Protection Agency on the proposed Renewable Fuel Standards for 2014, 2015, and 2016 is Monday, July 27.
EPA administrator Gina McCarthy encouraged members of the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) meeting in Washington DC last week to make their voices heard during the comment period. “Keep talking, keep communicating, take advantage of the public comment process,” she said. “This was a proposal, this was not a final rule, so tell us what you think. That way we’ll be able to produce a final standard that is based on all of the best information and data available.”
NCGA has made it a priority to get growers involved in commenting on the EPA proposal, sponsoring rallies at the EPA’s public hearing last month in Kansas City, Kansas and on Capitol Hill last week. NCGA president Chip Bowling says they are doing everything possible to help their farmers make their voices heard. “Anyone out there in the countryside can send their comments to EPA,” said Bowling, who notes that they can also send your comments to the EPA through the corn growers website ncga.com/rfs. “We don’t have a whole lot of time to get your comments in but we could really use them.”
Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) president and CEO Bob Dinneen says everyone who has a stake in the ethanol industry should send in comments on the proposal. “EPA needs to be hearing from farmers, from consumers, from renewable energy advocates across the country,” said Dinneen. “We made a difference before when we got EPA to not finalize a flawed program. We need to make a difference again.”
Read the original story here : Comment Deadline For RFS Proposal Is Monday
Want to send the EPA your comments? Click here to send your message.
July 22, 2015
By Erin Murhpy
DES MOINES — Using corn-infused gasoline helps strengthen the country’s national security, a trio of retired U.S. generals said Wednesday.
Gen. Wesley Clark, Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton and Brig. Gen. Steven Anderson spoke to reporters Wednesday in Des Moines to express their support for the Renewable Fuel Standard, a federal mandate that the nation’s fuel supply contain a certain percentage of corn-based ethanol.
The generals appeared on behalf of VoteVets.org, a national advocacy group for veterans issues.
Clark said the nation must do what it can to reduce its dependency on foreign oil.
“For that, there’s nothing better than the Renewable Fuel Standard. It is the smartest, best energy strategy that America has ever devised,” said Clark, a four-star U.S. Army general and NATO Supreme Allied Commander who ran for president as a Democrat in 2004. “It was passed under the administration of President George W. Bush. It had bipartisan support in the United States Congress. And now the implementation, the follow-through is being questioned. By who? By people whose economic interests want us to remain addicted to importing foreign oil.”
The federal Environmental Protection Agency may reduce the amount of ethanol required in the nation’s fuel supply.
That would be a mistake with national security implications, the three generals said Wednesday. They encouraged Iowans to express to the federal government their support for the standard and to press presidential candidates visiting the first-in-the-nation caucus state to do the same.
“Unfettered access to energy is a vital national interest, regardless of the country,” said Eaton, a U.S. Army general who trained Iraqi troops during the war in Iraq.
The less the U.S. relies on foreign oil, the less the country will have to involve itself in foreign entanglements involving oil-rich countries, the generals said.
“My experiences in Iraq have taught me that our addiction to oil is putting our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines at tremendous risk overseas,” said Anderson, who served for 31 years in the U.S. Army. “While I was a senior logistics officer working for (Gen. David) Petraeus in 2006 and 2007, I was bringing upwards of 400 fuel trucks a day to sustain our oil addiction, because we didn’t have any other systems other than carbon-based systems. Everything ran off of oil. Everything ran off the generators. Everything was carbon-based.”
Anderson said that reliance on oil put “incredible pressure” on the U.S. military in combat zones and put American troops at risk. He said approximately 1,200 American troops died moving fuel in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Opponents of the fuel standard argue the federal government mandate intrudes upon the free market.
“Unfortunately, most of my Republican counterparts don’t understand that it’s not about getting cheaper oil or other sources of oil, it’s about weaning the addiction to oil,” Anderson said.
Read the original story here : Retired U.S. Generals : Protect Renewable Fuel Standard
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July 21, 2015
By Bob Dinneen
The U.S. Constitution, one of the most important documents in our nation’s history, begins with three simple, yet very powerful, words: “We the people.” Over the course of my career, I have been fortunate to work on behalf of the people. I have also had the pleasure of working with people who are passionate about the biofuels industry. Folks who wholeheartedly believe that renewable fuels can reduce our nation’s dependence on foreign oil and revitalize rural economies.
In August, Washington, D.C., changes character, transforming itself from a bustling city into a more sedate town. August is when members of Congress return to their home districts and states. While at home, these members often host town hall meetings where they give their constituents—their people—an update on what is happening in Congress, take questions, and listen to concerns. After all, as public servants, members of Congress are supposed to represent the people.
But members of Congress are not the only representatives of the people. Our government institutions are also charged with looking out for the best interests of the people. In June, officials from the U.S. EPA traveled to Kansas City, Kansas, for a public hearing that gave the agency a chance to hear what the people had to say about the agency’s implementation of the renewable fuel standard (RFS). People from all walks of life, from farmers in the heartland to academics in our nation’s largest cities, attended the hearing because they wanted the EPA to hear their voices. And what the EPA heard was a near unanimous chorus of frustration with the way the agency is implementing the RFS. Conrad Clement of Conrad Clement Farms summed up the feeling of those in attendance when, during his testimony, he called the RFS “America’s most successful policy in 40 years,” but charged that the EPA was “tearing [the RFS] apart.” Clement urged the EPA to “endorse the original RFS as it was.”
I’ve said time and time again that there is nothing wrong with the RFS that cannot be fixed by what is right with the RFS. All the EPA has to do is to implement the statute as Congress intended. But instead of setting the renewable volume requirements at the levels that Congress established, the agency is proposing to cut them by 20 percent, or a total of 11.3 billion gallons, over the course of three years. I can assure you that the oil companies will happily fill the void with gasoline and diesel fuel refined from dirtier and more costly sources of crude oil.
Under the RFS, ethanol produced at current levels has virtually wiped out our nation’s need to import finished gasoline, reducing these imports from 600,000 barrels per day a decade ago to near nothing today. Ethanol also drastically reduces greenhouse gas emissions, removing the equivalent of 8.4 million cars from the road each year. Instead of building on the success of the RFS, however, the EPA showed in its proposal that it clearly bought into Big Oil’s false claims that ethanol has reached its saturation point at a 10 percent ethanol blend, and that higher-level ethanol blends, such as E15 and E85, are not yet available enough to justify a higher blending requirement.
The EPA proposal is creating a tsunami of RINs. When EPA considers whether the supply of renewable fuel is “adequate” to meet statutory volumetric requirements, stocks of RIN credits must be taken into account. After all, RINs represent gallons of renewable fuels that were produced and are part of the physical fuel supply. To completely dismiss carryover RINs from the determination of available supply is not only illogical but also creates disincentives for investing in pumps and technology. The EPA needs to let the RIN market work as intended to drive investment and innovation.
I commend the EPA for going to the heart of the conversation and holding the hearing in the Midwest, but the agency cannot simply discard the comments at the next convenient opportunity. The EPA must listen to the voice of the American people, who have an outspoken desire for a strong RFS, and not the oil industry.
Read the original story here : EPA Must Listen To The People On The RFS
July 17, 2015
By Nancy Madsen
JANESVILLE — U.S. Rep. Tim Walz told ethanol producers at the Guardian Plant on Friday that he would share the truth about modern ethanol production in Congress.
“Many times, we have this Minnesota Lutheran thing where we do a good deed but we don’t talk about it because then it doesn’t count,” said Walz, DFL-Mankato.
Ethanol, a type of fuel for vehicles made from fermenting corn, is clean energy made at home, a win-win, he said.
The producers described recent improvements to ethanol processing. “Our engineering guarantees were a yield of 2.75” bushels per acre, said Guardian CEO Mike Jerke. “We’re beyond that now, we’re producing at 2.85.”
The natural gas input needed to process the corn has dropped from 30 to 25 British thermal units per gallon. And the plant does not discharge any wastewater.
“That was not expected,” Jerke said.
There is some evaporation, but the rest is reused and recycled in the system.
The Janesville facility turned 43 million bushels of corn into 120 million gallons of ethanol last year.
Ethanol plants take the corn, grind it and mix it with hot water and enzymes to get the corn’s starch to turn into sugar. After adding yeast and other ingredients, it ferments in tanks for about 2 1/2 days.
The fermentation creates about 14 percent alcohol, which becomes ethanol. Byproducts are put to other uses.
In the plant’s control room, Brandon Larson showed Walz and others on the tour the computerized controls and the data — flow, temperature and pressure, just to name a few — that he watches to make sure the processing is running smoothly. Walz asked him and other employees on the tour where they grew up, how they started at Guardian and what training they had.
“I don’t have an ideological dog in this fight,” Walz said. “I have an economic dog in this fight. We’ve got young people out there looking to find middle-class, skilled jobs.”
Encouraging innovation and rural production are means to allow young people to stay in rural America, he said. Guardian employs 43 people.
Ethanol producers at the tour said that other interest groups, such as petroleum companies, are spreading misinformation when they say that there is a limit on how much ethanol can be sold each year given constraints on how much can be blended into each gallon of motor fuel. This is called a blend wall. They said ethanol is cleaner than oil for the environment, cheaper for consumers and better for engines.
“Once you’re out of the Cities in Minnesota, a large amount of folks get it,” Jerke said. “But it’s a very independent industry and our ability to speak with a common voice is big.”
Walz said that many in Congress are simply ignorant on ethanol’s benefits, having been fed information from other interests.
“There’s your voice, but then there are 15 lawyers from oil companies lined up outside my door to present their point of view,” he said.
The bulk of corn and soybean production areas are represented by 28 members of Congress, “fewer than southern California,” he said.
And that has led to recent policy disappointments for the ethanol industry, including a reduction for the 2015 and 2016 renewable fuel standards by the Environmental Protection Agency, which will require 13.4 billion gallons of ethanol be blended in this year and 14 billion gallons next year, down from Congress’s mandate of 15 billion gallons.
We have capacity to produce more,” Minnesota Bio-Fuels Association Executive Director Timothy Rudnicki said. “The EPA has gone off track again.”
Minnesota has 21 ethanol plants that produce 1.1 billion gallons of ethanol, the association said.
Walz said he would be looking for ways to raise the standard again and help ethanol producers.
“It’s in the nation’s interest to create energy at home, it’s in the nation’s interest to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and it’s in the nation’s interest to reduce our carbon footprint,” he said.
Read the original story here : Walz Touts Economic, Environmental Benefits At Janesville Plant
July 17, 2015
Today, Congressman Tim Walz visited local biofuels plant, Guardian Energy in Janesville, to highlight the importance of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and all-American energy solutions as a driver for the middle class economy.
“It’s places like this that increase our national security, grow our local economies, and create jobs and prosperity for the middle class,” Walz said. “We have the best economy in the country here in Minnesota. That doesn’t mean we get to rest, it means we have to work even harder to keep it that way. And energy production will play a major role pushing our economy to new heights. That’s why the RFS is so important. It’s working to help middle class Minnesota families, while reducing our dependence on foreign oil at the same time.”
According to the Minnesota Bio-Fuels Association, in 2014, the ethanol industry in Minnesota:
- Supported 18,630 jobs
- Contributed $2.34 billion to the state’s GDP
- Generated $7.6 billion in gross sales
- Generated $1.74 billion in household income
- Contributed $132 million to state and local communities through taxes
“Congressman Walz’s visit today highlights his commitment to clean renewable biofuels and the RFS,” Tim Rudnicki, Executive Director of the Minnesota Bio-Fuels Association, said. “Thanks to the RFS, Minnesota’s ethanol industry contributes over $2 billion a year to the state’s economy, supports nearly 20,000 jobs, and reduces CO2 emissions as well as our dependence on foreign oil.”
The Minnesota Bio-Fuels Association notes a University of Illinois study that found, E10 (fuel with 10 percent ethanol) reduces 712,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions annually in Minnesota. If all gasoline (currently E10) consumed in Minnesota (2.4 billion gallons per year) was switched to E15 (fuel with 15 percent ethanol), an additional 358,000 metric tons of annual CO2 emissions will be eliminated. According to the EPA’s greenhouse gas equivalencies calculator, the combined total of CO2 savings of 1.07 million metric tons is the same as removing 225,895 vehicles from Minnesota’s roads.
“As we strive to move towards and energy independent future, we’ll need to utilize all our sources of homegrown energy. This includes biofuels, wind, and solar, among others,” Walz continued. “I firmly believe Minnesota is positioned to lead the world in clean, all-American energy production. Let’s find ways to seize on this opportunity, create jobs, and continue to push our economy forward.”
July 15, 2015
By Amy Bickel
Ness County farmer Dennis McNinch is among the nearly 300 corn growers who will rally on Capitol Hill on Wednesday with this message to the EPA - don't reduce ethanol mandates.
After all, the longtime Kansas grower touts, he has seen how ethanol has helped the economy - providing rural Kansas jobs and boosted corn prices - including at elevators near his west-central Kansas farm.
It's also a cleaner-burning, American-made fuel, he said.
Yet the Environmental Protection Agency announced plans in May to reduce renewable fuels requirements by nearly 4 billion gallons in 2015 and nearly 5 billion gallons in 2016.
Such shifts, McNinch and other Corn Belt farmers say, could reduce all of those attributes that have been a boon for rural America - which, largely, has been struggling with population declines since World War II.
The proposal has brought about backlash from farm country. Two weeks ago, hundreds of supporters rallied in Kansas City amid a EPA public hearing on the proposed reductions, said Sue Schulte, with Kansas Corn. She said of the nearly 300 who testified to EPA officials, about 85 percent spoke in favor of keeping the standards set forth by Congress in 2007.
Round two of the "Rally for Rural America" - takes place Wednesday - which coincides with the National Corn Growers Association's Corn Congress, Schulte said.
"We just want to reinforce our stand and commitment with our legislators about putting pressure on the EPA to revisit their stance on RFS - getting it returned back to what the law has requires," McNinch said.
Prime the Pump
The Renewable Fuel Standard - or RFS - mandates oil companies to use certain levels of biofuels. It also encourages industry growth and aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
The proposed new standards would require 16.3 billion gallons of renewable fuels to be used this year, down from 20.5 billion set by Congress in 2007, and 17.4 billion gallons next year, down from the 22.2 billion gallons.
EPA officials say the reduced standards are largely proposed because of inadequate infrastructure - such as the need for more pumps of higher blends - as well as concern about farmers' abilities to meet the demand.
Chris Grundler, the EPA's director of transportation and air quality, told the Associated Press in June that there is no way the standards can be met in the next few years unless they are reduced.
“There would be widespread noncompliance, and the EPA is not in the habit of putting out standards we don’t think are achievable,” he said.
McNinch, who is on the NCGA's Ethanol Action Team, said the industry is making strides to address those issues, which includes the Prime The Pump campaign.
The campaign's goal is to increase infrastructure in the marketplace so consumers have access to higher level ethanol blends, he said. Different groups, including ethanol plants and corporations, have donated funds to help offset the cost for fuel companies.
According to its 2015 budget goals report, the Kansas Corn Commission has projected spending $100,000 toward the campaign.
"The key going forward is we have to do a better job of educating the public about the benefits of ethanol - that it is a safe product for the engine, that it is cleaner burning fuel and it has created jobs in rural America as well as demand for our product," he said.
Public comment sought
The agency will make a final determination on the standards in November, said Kansas Corn's Schulte. The EPA is taking public comments through July 27.
The Capitol Hill rally, she said "will give us an opportunity to reach out to the Congressional delegation all over the nation."
White Cloud farmer Ken McCauley, a former NCGA president who was in Washington briefly Tuesday, said ethanol lowers gas prices by a $1 a gallon "and maybe more."
He was among the few hundred who testified in Kansas City. He told the EPA the the RFS has boosted rural communities and farm incomes across the United States more than "any other rural development effort I can think of."
Kansas has 12 ethanol plants that produce about 550 million gallons per year. Current Kansas production creates a market for about 183 million bushels of sorghum and corn, according to the Kansas Corn Commission. According to 2010 numbers, the industry pays more than $750 million to Kansas farmers for their grain.
"To lower the volumes of the RFS today would set back this economic engine dramatically and put rural America in a tailspin," he testified.
McCauley said farmers are growing enough corn to meet the demand, and if the demand is lowered, prices could decline.
"Farmers are gearing up to produce enough corn in 2015 and beyond," he said. "They shouldn't be messing with this - pulling it back."
"We don't need a setback like this," he said.
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July 13, 2015
By Susanne Retka Schill
The Auto Channel recently launched the Ethanol Chronicles to aggregate questions and information on ethanol. The Auto Channel is a focused content channel covering all things automotive. A long-time champion for ethanol, copublisher Marc Rauch describes the almost-daily blog as “lively, spirited and sometimes humorous repartee concerning energy issues.”
Posts to the Ethanol Chronicles began July 2 and, according to a note introducing the blog, include questions and responses to comments emailed to Rauch and his partner Bob Gordon at The Auto Channel, as well as comments found on other outlets. “Following are some of the best of the banter sessions,” Rauch writes.
The first set of comments covers issues such as the irrelevancy of Btu as a measurement of ethanol performance compared to gasoline that gets into a lengthy dialogue about what a Btu measures and a discussion on engines. “The whole creation of Btu rating and understanding was to determine what it takes to heat water one degree. This was important (and still is important) when dealing with steam engines or water heaters or cooking using fire. Btus have no importance in internal combustion engines. Engine optimization is the key,” Rauch writes.
Other dialogues discuss “energy returned on energy invested,” subsidies, ethanol and oil’s relationships to food prices, impact on classic cars, and more.
The site has attracted other commentators. Bobby Likis, who also supports ethanol on his Car Clinic site and broadcasts, added information on his experiences with ethanol and the Ricardo EBDI ethanol-optimized engine. Another commentator included a video of to the Urban Air Initiative’s video of E0 and E10’s impacts on a Styrofoam cup.
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July 7, 2015
By Bob Dinneen
One of the hallmarks of our nation’s representative democracy is that its public institutions are charged with implementing policies that take the best interests of the American people into account. In most instances, they do a fine job of ensuring that their policies are meeting the needs of the people. But, there are times when public interests and public policy clash. Such has been the case with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and its proposed implementation of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).
When Congress passed the RFS in 2007, it specified in the legislation the annual amount of biofuels that were to be blended with gasoline. In proposing renewable fuel volumes (RVOs) for 2014 through 2016 the EPA, however, has chosen to ignore the law and is proposing to cut the biofuels requirements by 20 percent, or a total of 11.3 billion gallons, over the course of three years. In making the decision to waive the congressionally mandated RFS volumes, the agency has relied on the false “blend wall” narrative that has been perpetuated by the oil industry which claims that ethanol has reached its saturation point at 10 percent ethanol blend (E10), and that higher level ethanol blends, like E15 and E85, are not yet available enough to justify higher blending requirements.
The EPA’s proposal shows that instead of looking out for the best interests of the public it is, instead, looking out for the interests of the oil industry. So it should come as no surprise to the agency that the public has been frustrated with its RFS proposal. And public frustration was on full display last month at a hearing that the EPA held in Kansas City, Kansas on the proposal. Media reports on the hearing state that approximately 230 of the 262 people that testified at the hearing were opposed to the EPA’s proposal and were supportive of the RFS as adopted by Congress in 2007.
Conrad Clement of Conrad Clement Farms summed up the feeling of those in attendance during his testimony when he called the RFS “America’s most successful policy in 40 years,” but charged that the EPA was “tearing [the RFS] apart.” Clement urged the EPA to “endorse the original RFS as it was.” Geoff Cooper, Senior Vice President for the Renewable Fuels Association, said in his remarks at the hearing that the EPA was “overstepping the bounds of its legal authority by proposing to partially waive the RFS based on perceived capacity constraints,” and that “nothing in the statute allows EPA to set the RVOs based on the so-called ‘blend wall’ or alleged infrastructure limitations.”
In a blog post he wrote shortly after the Kansas City hearing, Cooper deconstructed the myth that the “blend wall” is an impenetrable and immovable barrier, by pointing out that recently released data by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed that nearly half of our nation’s 50 states blew past the 10 percent ethanol level two years ago. “The data prove that augmenting E10 blending with even small amounts of higher-level blends like E85 and E15 can break through the so-called ‘blend wall,’ further diversifying a state’s fuel supply, and facilitating compliance with the congressionally enacted RFS volumes,” Cooper wrote.
I’ve said time and time again that there is nothing wrong with the RFS that cannot be fixed by what is right with the RFS. By any measure, the RFS has been a tremendous success: it has stimulated growth in biofuel production; revitalized rural economies; reduced greenhouse gas emissions; and lowered pump prices. The RFS has also reduced petroleum consumption and introduced competition into the fuel market, which is precisely why the oil industry opposes the program and is calling for its repeal.
I commend the EPA for going to the heart of the conversation and holding the hearing in the heartland of the nation, but the agency cannot simply discard the comments at the next convenient opportunity. The EPA must listen to the voice of the American people, who have an outspoken desire for a strong RFS, and not the oil industry.
- See more at: http://www.ethanolrfa.org/exchange/entry/the-voice-of-the-people/#sthash.BSkob3vX.dpufOne of the hallmarks of our nation's representative democracy is that its public institutions are charged with implementing policies that take the best interests of the American people into account. In most instances, they do a fine job of ensuring that their policies are meeting the needs of the people. But, there are times when public interests and public policy clash. Such has been the case with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and its proposed implementation of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).
When Congress passed the RFS in 2007, it specified in the legislation the annual amount of biofuels that were to be blended with gasoline. In proposing renewable fuel volumes (RVOs) for 2014 through 2016 the EPA, however, has chosen to ignore the law and is proposing to cut the biofuels requirements by 20 percent, or a total of 11.3 billion gallons, over the course of three years. In making the decision to waive the congressionally mandated RFS volumes, the agency has relied on the false "blend wall" narrative that has been perpetuated by the oil industry which claims that ethanol has reached its saturation point at 10 percent ethanol blend (E10), and that higher level ethanol blends, like E15 and E85, are not yet available enough to justify higher blending requirements.
The EPA's proposal shows that instead of looking out for the best interests of the public it is, instead, looking out for the interests of the oil industry. So it should come as no surprise to the agency that the public has been frustrated with its RFS proposal. And public frustration was on full display last month at a hearing that the EPA held in Kansas City, Kansas on the proposal. Media reports on the hearing state that approximately 230 of the 262 people that testified at the hearing were opposed to the EPA's proposal and were supportive of the RFS as adopted by Congress in 2007.
Conrad Clement of Conrad Clement Farms summed up the feeling of those in attendance during his testimony when he called the RFS "America's most successful policy in 40 years," but charged that the EPA was "tearing [the RFS] apart." Clement urged the EPA to "endorse the original RFS as it was." Geoff Cooper, Senior Vice President for the Renewable Fuels Association, said in his remarks at the hearing that the EPA was "overstepping the bounds of its legal authority by proposing to partially waive the RFS based on perceived capacity constraints," and that "nothing in the statute allows EPA to set the RVOs based on the so-called 'blend wall' or alleged infrastructure limitations."
In a blog post he wrote shortly after the Kansas City hearing, Cooper deconstructed the myth that the "blend wall" is an impenetrable and immovable barrier, by pointing out that recently released data by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed that nearly half of our nation's 50 states blew past the 10 percent ethanol level two years ago. "The data prove that augmenting E10 blending with even small amounts of higher-level blends like E85 and E15 can break through the so-called 'blend wall,' further diversifying a state's fuel supply, and facilitating compliance with the congressionally enacted RFS volumes," Cooper wrote.
I've said time and time again that there is nothing wrong with the RFS that cannot be fixed by what is right with the RFS. By any measure, the RFS has been a tremendous success: it has stimulated growth in biofuel production; revitalized rural economies; reduced greenhouse gas emissions; and lowered pump prices. The RFS has also reduced petroleum consumption and introduced competition into the fuel market, which is precisely why the oil industry opposes the program and is calling for its repeal.
I commend the EPA for going to the heart of the conversation and holding the hearing in the heartland of the nation, but the agency cannot simply discard the comments at the next convenient opportunity. The EPA must listen to the voice of the American people, who have an outspoken desire for a strong RFS, and not the oil industry.
Read the original story here
July 7 2015
By Paul Marathe
We ask a lot of the land: feed the world with crops, power the world with bioenergy, retain nutrients so they don’t pollute our water and air. To help landscapes answer these high demands, scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory are designing ways to improve—and hopefully optimize—land use.
In collaboration with the farming community of the Indian Creek Watershed in central Illinois, these researchers are finding ways to simultaneously meet three objectives: maximize a farmer’s production, grow feedstock for bioenergy and protect the environment. These goals, as it turns out, are not necessarily mutually exclusive.
All it takes is a multifunctional landscape, where resources are allocated efficiently and crops are situated in their ideal soil and landscape position. Planting bioenergy crops like willows or switchgrass in rows where commodity crops are having difficulty growing could both provide biomass feedstock and also limit the runoff of nitrogen fertilizer into waterways — all without hurting a farmer’s profits. This is what a group of Argonne scientists has discovered through careful data collection and modeling at a cornfield in Fairbury.
“The issue we’re working to address is how to design bioenergy systems that are sustainable” said Cristina Negri, principal agronomist and environmental engineer at Argonne. “It’s not idealistic. We wanted to show that it’s doable; if we design for specific outcomes, we’ll see real results.”
So Negri and her team created a pilot farm site that balances the priorities of economic feasibility, bioenergy and environmental health.
Meeting this challenge called for a change in perspective. Rather than looking at whole fields as the unit of planting decisions, researchers analyzed subareas of the cornfield. They found that subareas with the lowest yield also had the lowest nitrogen retention. These sections of land are doubly taxing — unprofitable for the farmer and damaging to the environment.
Negri explained what happens in the underproductive land: “Imagine pouring a nice, nutrient-rich solution through a fertile soil with plants growing in it,” she said. These nutrients would be retained by the soil long enough to be taken up by plants, minimizing any leakage. “Now imagine pouring this same solution through a colander: If nutrients filter through the soil too quickly, they’re no longer available for plants. The corn grows less, and more nitrogen is leached into groundwater.”
But planting bioenergy crops in the colander-like soil could solve both problems — environmental and economic — as the Argonne team showed with the Denitrification Decomposition simulation.
Willows and switchgrass are perennial bioenergy crops, meaning their life cycle spans multiple years. These plants have a more extensive root system than annual plants, which start their growth from scratch every year. Deeper roots are better able to absorb nitrogen as it seeps deeper into the soil.
The loss of nitrogen from agricultural land is a major environmental concern. If not retained by soil or taken up by plants, nitrogen escapes into air or water. It is released into the atmosphere as nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas with 310 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide. Nitrate leaking into water spurs oxygen depletion that harms aquatic ecosystems and can lead to toxic algal blooms, as seen in Lake Erie. The Fairbury cornfield is located within the Indian Creek Watershed, draining to the Vermilion River and eventually to the Gulf of Mexico, which for years has been suffering from oxygen depletion caused by nutrient runoff.
While scientists may be invested in energy and environment, the team recognized that farmers — the true agents of change — have to think first and foremost about their economic bottom line.
“Across the entire field your farm might be profitable, but by collecting more specific data we can identify subareas where the farmer is not recovering his or her investment,” said Argonne postdoctoral researcher Herbert Ssegane.
The money lost comes from farmers cropping and applying expensive nitrogen fertilizers to patches of the field that are just not producing enough. Inserting rows of bioenergy crops where there is low corn yield means the farmer is not sacrificing substantial profit from row crops. As a cost-saving bonus, the deep-rooted bioenergy crops naturally accumulate the lost nitrogen as a free fertilizer.
Argonne scientists planted willows at the Fairbury site in 2013 and will continue collecting data through next year to see how results compare to their predictions. “We’ve already reached a 28 percent reduction in nitrate, even with two full growing seasons still ahead of us,” Ssegane said. Willow growth has also been good, without the researchers applying any fertilizer.
According to Ssegane, this project is about proving a concept. It shows farmers that strategic planting of bioenergy crops can increase productivity and save money, while demonstrating to the scientific community that bioenergy will be sustainable if we match plants to their optimal position within a landscape.
“Before this work, the popular idea was ‘dedicated fields,’ where you might convert a large area from corn to switchgrass,” Ssegane said. “But dedicated fields of bioenergy crops are currently inviable in an agricultural setting where the economy is tied to grain. What does pass the cost-benefit test is converting underproductive subareas to an alternative crop.”
A multifunctional landscape finds the happy, efficient medium between a dedicated bioenergy field and a farm growing continuous acres of the same cash crop.
The scientists are exploring how these design principles can be scaled up to the entire watershed. Eventually, they hope this research informs agricultural planning for scientists and farmers alike.
“Multifunctional landscapes: Site characterization and field-scale design to incorporate biomass production into an agricultural system,” the most recent paper analyzing data from Fairbury, was published in the journal Biomass and Bioenergy. Funding for this research comes from the DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Bioenergy Technologies Office.
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July 6, 2015
By Ken McCauley
The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) is critical for small, rural farms in America’s heartland. The renewable fuel industry stimulates job growth, spurs investment and drives down costs at the pump. Why, then, do so many oppose this critical component to domestic renewable fuel growth?
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Congress established the RFS to promote energy security by increasing the percentage of domestic renewable fuels (like ethanol) used in transportation fuel. The RFS led to the emergence of a burgeoning biofuels industry, harnessing the energy from natural, domestic products like corn to produce ethanol. The program works by imposing a yearly requirement on refiners and importers of fuel to include an increasing percentage of renewable fuel, called Renewable Volume Obligations (RVOs).
Each year since enactment, the RVOs were to be slightly increased, as the industry adjusted and infrastructure and technology were developed to keep up. However, in recent years, the EPA has dropped the ball. The agency neglected to issue RVOs for the past three years, causing confusion and uncertainty in the marketplace.
In late May, the EPA finally released its proposed RVO numbers for 2014, 2015 and 2016. The levels were much lower than Congress intended when it passed the standard in 2005. The comment period on the proposed levels extends until July 27. We must urge the EPA to reconsider and push for higher levels.
The initial enactment of the RFS spurred companies to invest billions into the industry, causing renewable fuel production to triple, driving oil import levels down to their lowest in decades and significantly decreasing our carbon emissions into the atmosphere. However, EPA’s failure to issue RVOs in a timely manner has had a chilling effect on the industry, causing investment to shrink by almost $14 billion in the past two years and putting American jobs at risk.
American farmers stepped up when called upon, increasing production levels of corn ethanol to meet the growing standards. We restructured our production plants and ways of life to help wean the United States off foreign oil from unfriendly nations, resulting in billions being injected into a new industry. But now, the EPA is submitting to the demands of Big Oil — with newly proposed RVOs disappointing, at best — after not issuing standards for the past three years. Instead of letting the oil industry rewrite the rules of renewable fuel, the EPA should uphold its end of the deal.
A recent economic impact report commissioned by Fuels America tracked the data, showing that the RFS has stimulated $4.1 billion dollars in economic activity annually in Kansas.
The renewable fuel industry supports 16,620 jobs and generates $1 billion in wages annually in Kansas. It has created job growth for the tens of thousands of people who work on the 400,000 farms across America that grow corn. Of last year’s total corn production, a staggering 35 percent of the 14 billion bushels of domestic corn production went to produce corn ethanol.
Cuts in the RVO will have serious consequences across the board, specifically in the American heartland, and would adversely impact our agricultural economy. It could have ripple effects on the rest of our economy, as well, with higher prices at the pump. Environmentally, it could lead to a reversal of the past decade of decreases in carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere.
The RFS represents a highly successful energy policy that has created American jobs, decreased our reliance on foreign fuel and contributed to a cleaner environment. We must encourage the EPA to reconsider and reinstate strong renewable fuel volumes, for the good of our economy, our national security and our environment.
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