GoodFuels

Obama Appointments Support Ethanol

The newest appointments by President-elect Obama continue to show support for ethanol.

Today, former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack was announced as Obama’s choice for Secretary of Agriculture and Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar for interior secretary.

Vilsack served two terms as governor of Iowa from from 1998 until 2006 and was a short-lived opponent of Obama’s in the presidential race. As governor, Vilsack was a strong supporter of ethanol and other biofuels as a way to help rural economies. In his brief run for the Democratic presidential nomination last year, Vilsack made the focus of his campaign a plan to end U.S dependence on foreign oil by promoting alternative energy sources.

AgWeb quotes Vilsack from an interview:

“Paying lip service to the need for renewable fuels isn’t real change. unless you’re a lifelong apologist for the oil industry. Providing the incentives, leadership, and backbone to actually build production plants when most people say it can’t be done. That’s real change. But that’s what we did in Iowa, and as a result, not only are we number one in ethanol production, which may not seem like a surprise, but we’re also number one in biodiesel production and number three in wind energy.”

As for Salazar, the interior secretary will play a key role in setting the new administration’s environmental, energy and land-use policies.

Salazar has also has been a strong supporter of biofuels, this year co-sponsoring the Open Fuel Standard Act, legislation would require that half of all new automobiles starting in 2012 be flex-fuel vehicles warranted to operate on gasoline, ethanol, and methanol, or be warranted to operate on biodiesel.

American Farm Bureau Federation says Sen. Salazar is “uniquely qualified and experienced to serve as Secretary of the Interior. He serves on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee and has been a strong proponent of expanding the development of renewable fuels.”

Silver Lining Down the Road

Even the most optimistic among those in the ethanol industry have to admit that it looks a little gloomy right now.

In a roller coaster year that has seen gas and corn prices skyrocket and crash within months, the industry has definitely taken it on the chin. Add in a poor economy and it’s hard to see a bright future at the moment with stocks dropping like rocks, companies filing bankruptcy and plants closing.

That’s the bad news. But CNBC’s By The Numbers points out that this short term pain could create a longer term opportunity for the survivors.

“…as their hedging contracts reset, surviving ethanol producers may be well positioned to rebound back into profitability and growth thanks in part to low prices and the legislation for mandated use of ethanol. A pro-renewable energy Obama administration will add momentum to the existing legislation as well.”

The ethanol industry has survived worse times than this. Those who are in the business because they believe in it will continue to survive to see the sun break through the clouds again.

RFA’s Bob Dinneen: green jobs will be created in Obama administration

Bob Dinneen, president of the Renewable Fuels Association, has written a column for the Huffington Post in which he talks about the potential for 2.5 million jobs to be created through “investment in green technologies.”

Dinneen breaks down how each ethanol plant creates opportunity within the community:

For example, while a 100 million gallon per year ethanol biorefinery will directly employ about 50 people, this facility will help support 1,500 jobs in companies that provide services and supplies as well as new businesses in communities where new facilities are built. This is particularly the case in rural communities that experience economic revival with the construction and operation of a new facility.

Dinneen also encourages Obama to focus on expanding the Renewable Fuels Standard:

Another example of a policy to expand the production and use of greener energy is the Renewable Fuels Standard, which will help reduce greenhouse gas emission while creating an expanded ethanol industry based on cellulosic materials — switchgrass, wood chips, corn cobs and municipal waste. The emergence of this next generation of renewable biofuel technologies promises even greater economic and environmental benefits than we are realizing today.

Read the entire column here.

Image courtesy of freddthompson via creative commons license.

ADM Sees No Food and Fuel Conflict

We can have our fuel and eat too.

That was the message Greg Webb with Archer Daniels Midland delivered to the Farm Foundation’s Food and Agriculture Policy Summit in Washington, D.C. this week.

Webb told the group increasing efficiencies in production agriculture would help meet the growing demands while adding only a disproportional smaller amount of land to the production mix.

“Agriculture’s role is not one of conflict between food or fuel,” Webb said. “It is one that is quite compatible. Producing more food results in more fuel being produced as well.”

Webb says more efficient practices will give farmers, who are already are being pretty efficient compared to just recent history, an even greater opportunity to produce both the food and fuel the world demands, as long as there are favorable government policies to support production.

Listen to an interview with Greg Webb by DomesticFuel reporter John Davis:

RFA president on Agri-Pulse Open Mic series

Renewable Fuels Association president Bob Dinneen recorded an interview with Agri Pulse, an agricultural focused communications firm, early last week.

Dinneen talks about “challenging times” as well as the future outlook for the ethanol industry.

He goes on to discuss the 10% per gallon of gasoline blending limit and increasing demand for ethanol in the new year.

The interview is available by streaming here.