GoodFuels

US to become gas exporter?

Kicking Tires, a blog for car aficionados, has posted about a rather interesting find from a study done by global management consulting firm Booz & Company.

Could the United States possibly become an energy exporter?

Kicking Tires suggests that with India’s population explosion, their need for gasoline is going to jump higher and higher, especially with more afforable vehicles coming on the market. At the same time, our demand for gasoline is decreasing due to higher costs across the board.

The result? America could be importing oil to sell gasoline to India. How’s that for a head-trip?

With all the shifts in energy needs and Americans strapped for cash, could this be possible in the next few years? Could a complete change in the way this country thinks about energy be far behind such a move? Put your thoughts in the comments.

USDA Secretary Schafer champions biofuels

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Secretary Ed Schafer has written a letter to the editor that appeared in the Wall Street Journal this morning.

Secretary Schafer begins by applauding the EPA’s recent decision to deny Texas Governor Rick Perry’s request to waive the Renewable Fuels Standard.

This decision has recently generated some critical commentary in your pages. I, however, support and applaud the EPA’s decision. Renewable energy is a tremendous American success story. We are the world leader in biofuels. Since 2000, U.S. ethanol production has quadrupled. Biodiesel production soared from two million gallons to 450 million last year. Cellulosic ethanol, which will derive fuel from non-food feedstocks, is moving into production.

Schafer also points out that the rising cost of grain in recent months is attributable to skyrocketing gasoline prices and other factors.

Yes, there are ripple effects, but the sharp rise in global grain prices in recent years is driven primarily by soaring energy costs, improved diets in rapidly developing nations, two years of bad weather in some countries, and new export restrictions in several nations. U.S. biofuels production contributed only an estimated 0.2%-0.6% to the 5.1% rise in U.S. consumer food costs.

Read the entire letter online here.

RFA on Huffington Post

Renewable Fuels Association President and CEO Bob Dinneen has written a blog post up on Huffington Post, where he talks about the food vs fuel debate.

He brings up some good points, including the USDA’s newly released WASDE study.

In the agency’s August 2008 World Agriculture Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE), a clear picture of the resiliency and productivity of American farmers emerges. Farmers in the US have faced obstacles of historic proportions this year as flooding threatened to severely hamper crop production in the American Midwest. As should have been expected however, American farmers have once again stepped up to the plate demonstrating that they can meet the feed and fuel needs of our economy.

Dinneen goes on to discuss the fact that ethanol critics continue to ignore evidence that ethanol is not significantly causing food prices to rise:

Despite numerous studies documenting that the role of ethanol was minimal and the impact of skyrocketing oil prices was far greater at every level of the food chain, these critics have kept up their drumbeat.

They ignored a study from Texas A&M University which found that reducing the level of ethanol production would have little, if any, impact on corn prices and that high oil prices were the dominant driver. A more recent study by economists at Purdue University found that skyrocketing oil prices, not ethanol production, accounted for 75% of the increase in corn prices.

He wraps up with a thoughtful conclusion on the state of American farming and food production.

World agriculture is more than capable of fulfilling its traditional role as food and feed providers, while also contributing significantly to a renewable, sustainable energy future. Our nation’s energy crisis will not solve itself. It will require bold action and thoughtful collaboration. Together with America’s ethanol industry, American farmers stand ready to play our role in helping to feed America and other parts of the world while reducing America’s dependence on foreign oil.

Read the entire post here.

CEO of First United Ethanol in AJC

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution blog Opinion Talk has posted snippets of an interview with Murray Campbell, CEO of First United Ethanol.

Campbell defended biofuels on Monday at an event at Atlanta’s Commerce Club, entitled “Biofuels in Georgia: Fact, Fiction and Future.”

He talked about water usage and other common concerns about biofuels.

“Talk about water usage. … It takes 44 gallons to refine a gallon of gasoline. It takes three to four gallons of water to refine a gallon of ethanol, and 87 percent of the corn in this country is grown on dry land. Grant you, we grow a lot of irrigated crops down in our area, and one of the assets for our plant is the ability to grow irrigated corn. But our yield is significantly higher than the national average of corn grown dry.”

Take a look.