GoodFuels
Domestic Energy Production
by Cindy Zimmerman on Dec 17, 2008Obama 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.”
Quick Shot
by Cindy Zimmerman on Dec 16, 2008Ethanol Can Survive
Ethanol production is a business and like all businesses, survival depends on making good decisions.
Much has been made lately about bankruptcies and plants closing, but the majority of producers are still in business and some are even making a profit in this year of very tight margins. One example is Golden Grain Energy in Mason City, Iowa.
Agri-News has a nice article with Walt Wendland, president of Golden Grain Energy, who talks about how his company has managed to survive this year.
“Golden Grain wasn’t speculating this summer when others were,” Wendland said at last week’s Worth County Corn and Soybean Clinic in Northwood. “Anyone who followed the VeraSun situation, they talked about the fact that corn was going to go down in May and they shorted corn and they got out at $8 and then they went long corn on the way down. That’s not the way this industry can survive.”
Wendland believes the key to survival of the industry in the future is increasing ethanol blends from 10 percent to 12 percent or 15 percent sometime next year.
“We need to work with the EPA and automakers” to make that happen, Wendland said.
Clean Energy
by Jackie Helling on Dec 15, 2008Schafer to Braley: ethanol does not raise food prices
Ed Schafer, USDA Secretary of Agriculture, wrote a letter early last week to Iowa Congressman Bruce Braley to express how much Schafer appreciates Braley’s support on ethanol issues.
All of us recognize that high gasoline prices and rising food prices are important “pocketbook” issues for American consumers. We also recognize the national and economic secutiry importance of reducing our dependence on imported oil as well as the urgency of developing new, cleaner fuels to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Administration’s biofuels policy makes important contributions to each of these goals.
The letter also included a state-by-state comparison showing what ethanol saves consumers in any given state.
On July 11, 2008, the Department of Energy estimated that gasoline prices would be 20-35 cents per gallon higher without ethanol. For a typical household, this means saving about $150 to $300 a year. Nationwide, this means a reduction in gas expenditures of $20 billion to $40 billion based on annual gas consumption of roughly 140 billion gallons.
Read the entire letter here (along with the state-by-state benefit analysis).
Quick Shot
by Cindy Zimmerman on Dec 12, 2008Surprised by the Numbers
Some of the numbers in the USDA December World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) took American Farm Bureau Federation senior economist Terry Francl by surprise.
“The most dramatic change in the December WASDE report was the big drop in corn used for ethanol production,” said Francl in an AFBF press release. “I am surprised that corn use for ethanol dropped by that much. Demand for ethanol is down, just like demand for gasoline is down, but I just don’t think the decline is that large. I believe 3.8 billion bushels to 3.9 billion bushels is closer to the mark.”
The WASDE estimates corn used for ethanol production this year at 3.7 billion bushels, down 300 million bushels from the November estimate. Francl explained that a number of ethanol plants are idled due to weak demand, which explains the drop in corn used for ethanol. However, he believes the Renewable Fuel Standard would seem to imply that at least 3.8 billion bushels of corn will be utilized for ethanol production in 2008/09.
Still, America’s ethanol producers are expected to produce approximately 9 billion gallons of ethanol in 2008 and demand continues to outpace production - even with some plants closing. Maybe that is a surprise.
Quick Shot
by Jackie Helling on Dec 11, 2008Obama appoints energy secretary
President-Elect Barack Obama has appointed Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who heads the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, to be energy secretary in his administration.
Obama also plans to appoint Carol M. Browner, Environmental Protection Agency administrator for eight years under President Bill Clinton, to fill a new White House post overseeing energy, environmental and climate policies, and Lisa P. Jackson to head the EPA.
Finally, Nancy Sutley, a deputy mayor of Los Angeles for energy and environment, will chair the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
Read about the background of these appointees at the Washington Post.
Ethanol News- Oil prices, weak dollar caused food price rally: study | Reuters.com
- Pennsylvania Bets on Biofuels
- AgWeb Blogs - Biofuel Chaos is Good Chaos
- VOA News - UN Reports Rising Energy Prices Spurs Green Gold Rush
- E85 Sales on the Rise
- Perry's airfare paid for by Poultry leader | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle
- Unleashing the power of corncobs - BostonHerald.com
- The Canadian Press: Harper says biofuels likely a small factor in rising cost of food
- Alabama Economist: Corn Is Not the Primary Cause Of Food Price Spikes
- Perry requested ethanol waiver after $100,000 gift to GOP group | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle