Commodity Group Leaders Push for Expanded Use of Biofuels

March 15, 2022

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by Daniel Grant (Farm Week Now) While the U.S. scrambles to fill the void in the oil market created by the ban of Russian imports, commodity group leaders believe the solution is closer to home than Venezuela or Saudi Arabia.

“If ever there was a time that underscores the need to expand biofuels, this is the time,” Steve Censky, CEO of the American Soybean Association and former USDA Deputy Secretary, said at Commodity Classic in New Orleans.

“We can grow it. We don’t need to rely on the foreign market,” he noted. “It not only will increase the pool of supply, but we know renewable diesel and biodiesel cut emissions by 60%. Renewable fuels are a win-win.”

Jon Doggett, CEO of the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA), echoed those comments when it comes to ethanol.

“President Biden doesn’t need to call Venezuela or Saudi Arabia to get more oil,” Doggett said at Classic, billed as America’s largest agricultural and educational experience created by farmers, for farmers. “Why go to them when we have renewable energy here that’s good for the environment.”

Both ag group leaders believe there’s plenty of capacity to expand production of biodiesel and ethanol despite tightening global crop stocks.

If a third of the E10 gasoline currently sold in the U.S. was ratcheted up to an E15 blend, the increase would more than compensate for all the oil and energy previously imported from Russia, according to Doggett. The U.S. banned energy imports from Russia this month in response to its invasion of Ukraine.

“There’s enough corn and ethanol capacity,” the NCGA leader said. “Let consumers decide if they want to buy E15 by allowing sales year-round.”

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators recently introduced a bill, the Home Front Energy Independence Act, which would do that and more.

The Energy Independence Act would make sales of E15 year-round permanent, create a tax credit for higher blends of biofuels, streamline E15 labeling, provide infrastructure funding and extend the biodiesel tax credit three more years. READ MORE

Illinois farmers, lawmakers advocate for increased ethanol production (Central Illinois Proud)

Exclusive: Chevron set to trade Venezuelan oil if U.S. relaxes sanctions, sources say (Reuters)

Excerpt from Central Illinois Proud: There is a way to save on gas, and it starts on the farm, not the pump. In the Midwestern agricultural community, that solution is ethanol.

Advocating for ethanol

“The farm economy– farmers– want to play a big part in supplying our fuel needs in the United States,” said Patrick Kirchhofer, manager of the Peoria County Farm Bureau, “as coming from biofuels and grains that are grown in Midwestern farms.”

Ethanol is an octane fuel made from corn. About a third of Illinois’ corn crop goes toward ethanol production, according to Kirchhofer.

Director of Marketing and Communications for IL Corn Lindsay Mitchell is a big advocate for an increase in ethanol production. She said rising energy prices can help others look to ethanol as a solution.

“Perhaps the public thinks more about ethanol now because things are changing for them at the pump,” Mitchell said. “Because we’ve seen the fuel prices skyrocket and people are concerned about the future of what their fuel looks like.”

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“It’s really like a three-way winning opportunity,” Mitchell said. “We have cheaper fuel, we have cleaner fuel, and it’s also domestically produced.”

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The Next Generation Fuels Act
“The Next Gen Fuels Act gives us an opportunity to make a new generation of automobile engines that will more efficiently use the liquid fuels that we have,” said Bill Leigh, a local farmer and District 4 Representative for the Illinois Corn Growers Association.

Leigh explained that the bill would allow automobile manufacturers to ramp up the level of octane in the engine fuel, allowing the engine to use that fuel more efficiently.

“We can use locally-grown, domestic sources for octane. And that’s what ethanol really is; it’s an octane for the fuel,” Leigh said.

The petroleum industry can actually benefit from ethanol, Leigh said, because “they can make a lower-base grade of fuel when they add the octane of the ethanol.”

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Leigh prefers this course of action over an overall push for electric vehicles. He attributed a lot of this to how cobalt and lithium, used to make batteries for EVs, are extracted from the earth and imported to the U.S.

He said if the bill passes, these cars would be ready in the next four years.

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Most of Illinois’ corn is field corn, according to Mitchell. She said roughly 27-30% of field corn is used for ethanol production, just below 50% is exported to other countries, and about 7% is used for feeding livestock. The remaining field corn goes to other products, including corn syrup, corn chips, tortillas, starch, diaper products, etc.

Finally, less than 1% of the corn crop is sweet corn, meant to be eaten as is.

Mitchell said the ethanol industry is not subsidized, and Leigh said ethanol plants are not federally funded.

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Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) joined Sen. John Thune (R-SD) in writing a bipartisan letter to the president. The letter was signed by multiple other senators, including Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL).

The letter stated: “Wholesale ethanol has recently traded for approximately $1.20 cheaper than gasoline per gallon, a discount that is passed on to consumers and amplified in higher blends like E15, E30, and E85.”

The letter asked for administrative authority to permit the sale of E15 fuel over the 2022 summer driving season. READ MORE