GoodFuels

What Chu Said in Iowa

Energy Secretary Steven Chu was in Des Moines Monday to announce more than $16 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects in Iowa during a news conference with Governor Chet Culver. But his announcement took a back seat to some of the comments about ethanol he made during Q and A with reporters.

First, Chu indicated that he supports approval of the waiver that would allow up to 15 percent ethanol blends for standard vehicles currently being considered by the federal government. “I don’t want to prejudge what they’re going to find, but if the existing automobile fleet can handle 15 percent, I would say let’s make that a target and go to 15 percent,” Chu said. “This is very important for decreasing our oil independence.”

Chu also suggested that car manufacturers ought to make all new automobiles flex-fuel capable. “I’ve been told it costs about $100 in gaskets and fuel lines to turn a car so that it can go all the way to E85,” Chu said. “But a new car , it would only cost $100 out of $15,000. Wouldn’t it be nice to put in those fuel lines and gaskets so that we can use any ratio we wanted?” He said that while mandating that companies make all vehicles flex-fuel is “beginning to be discussed” by the administration, they first want to “see about whether the current fleet can take 15 percent or 13 percent ethanol.”

When it came to the issue of indirect land use change and how corn ethanol can measure up using the calculations proposed by EPA under the Renewable Fuels Standard for lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions, Chu had to do some dancing. “The Obama administration has made it very clear that they would rather get to where we need to get to in terms of decreasing our carbon footprint by legislation not by regulatory things,” Chu said when questioned about the matter. He then launched into a discussion about the potential cellulosic sources for biofuels hold for farmers.

Asked more specifically about the EPA proposal, Chu said, “It’s out for peer review and we’ll see how it plays out.” That comment prompted Rep. Leonard Boswell (D-IA), a member of the House Agriculture Committee who was also at the press conference, to say to the secretary, “I hear what you’re saying, I’ve heard it loud and clear, and we’re very concerned about it and there’s a fairly large group that’s making this come to the table for discussion.”

Here is an audio file with Chu’s answers to some of the questions posed. The audio from the reporters was not audible, but you can pretty much figure out what they were asking.