GoodFuels

Transition to a Global Biofuels Economy

Farm Foundation hosted another segment in their “Transition To A Bio Economy” conference series this week in Washington DC, focusing this time on “Global Trade and Policy Issues.”

The conference considered biofuels from a global perspective with participation from the European Union and Brazil. There were a number of very interesting presentations made at the conference, but here is just a sampling:

David Zilberman with the University of California-Berkeley, has created a model to show how ethanol is impacting the price of oil. His model shows that by increasing the supply of fuel with ethanol you reduce OPEC’s ability to make money. Even better, he says our ethanol production has raised the price of fuel in OPEC’s own countries while lowering it for everyone else around the world.

Listen to an interview with David by Chuck Zimmerman of Domestic Fuel here:

Laurent Javaudin, Delegation of the European Commission to the United States, spoke about the impacts of EU mandates for renewable energy. He says the EU is looking at requiring alternative energy sources like biofuels be a percentage of the fuel consumed and achieve it by 2020 and they expect these fuels to obtain at least a 35 percent decrease in greenhouse gas emissions. He adds that the EU mandate is still a work in progress and they hope to have it agreed to by the second quarter of 2010.

You can listen to Chuck’s interview with Laurent here:

Finally, Joel Velasco with the Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association, told the conference that because they have broken the oil monopoly in Brazil so that they consume more ethanol than gasoline, they no longer have gas stations, they have “fuel” stations. In addition, 90 percent of the new cars sold in Brazil today are flex-fuel. However, Velasco says price is the key to the development and use of ethanol and today ethanol is half the price of gas in Brazil.

You can listen to Chuck’s interview with Joel here:

See more stories from the Farm Foundation conference here on Domestic Fuel.

Indirect Land Use Challenge

Scientists, senators, cellulosic ethanol producers, agriculture groups and even retired army and intelligence officers are among the many voices of reason that have been sounding off recently against using unproven calculations for indirect land use to determine the future use of renewable fuels.

In this edition of the “Ethanol Report” podcast, we discuss the critical decisions being made regarding renewable fuels and indirect land use on both the federal and state level. Comments are from Renewable Fuels Association Vice President of Research Geoff Cooper, Air Improvement Resource, Inc. President Tom Darlington and Nathanael Greene, Senior Policy Analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Read Darlington’s report on Land Use Effects of U.S. Corn-Based Ethanol here.

You can listen to “The Ethanol Report” on-line here:

Or you can subscribe to this podcast by following this link.

KAAPA Ethanol CEO writes Omaha Op-Ed

Chuck Woodside, CEO of KAAPA Ethanol in Minden, Nebraska, has written an op-ed that appeared in the Omaha World-Herald yesterday.

Chuck wrote about the attacks on corn ethanol, noting that there is “scarcely a kernel of truth in any of them.”

Their fundamental flaw is underestimating the ingenuity of the American ethanol industry — and American agriculture as well. Both are becoming more technologically advanced and more efficient in every way, including their use of energy, water and land.

He even addresses those critics who support the “food vs fuel” false debate.

The fact is that food prices continued to rise while agricultural commodity prices plunged and ethanol production grew. This suggests that grain and other farm products play relatively minor roles in retail food prices.

When it comes to the nation’s energy, environmental and agricultural needs, ethanol isn’t part of the problem. It is part of the solution to every challenge. The nation need not choose between clean domestic energy sources and plentiful and affordable food, or between creating green jobs and protecting the natural environment.

Click here to read Chuck’s entire piece.