by Matt Hartwig (Renewable Fuels Association/Baltimore Sun) The Sun may have cut back its foreign bureaus, but your editorial writers ("End subsidies for corn-based ethanol," March 14) must still be aware of the turmoil in North Africa and the Middle
Transportation Fuels Policy
Back TO HOMECorn Growers To Explore Payment Shift
(Wallaces Farmer) ...NCGA (National Corn Growers Association) delegates attending the meeting in Tampa, Fla., adopted ethanol policy that states "NCGA supports reforming existing ethanol tax policy. Ideas to replace existing tax law, in the following priority order, should be a variable
March 16, 2011 Read Full Article
ACE says Ethanol Better Solution than Tapping into Oil Reserves
(American Coalition for Ethanol/Ethanol Producer Magazine) With oil prices now in triple digits and gas prices averaging 75 cents higher than last year, some are calling for oil to be released from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve as a way to
March 13, 2011 Read Full Article
Big Meat and Its Big Lie
By Stephanie Dreyer (Growth Energy/RenewableEnergyWorld.com) Smithfield, the world's largest producer and processor of pork, reported record profits this quarter as the global economy continues to recover and exports rise. ...Despite these record earnings, just yesterday the American Meat Institute supported legislation introduced from Senators
March 12, 2011 Read Full Article
Klobuchar, Johnson Introduce Legislation to Promote Domestic Energy Production
(Senator Amy Klobuchar) Bill would reduce U.S. dependence on oil, strengthen rural economies, and spur innovation in the energy sector U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Tim Johnson (D-SD) introduced legislation today that focuses on developing and deploying safe, reliable domestically
March 11, 2011 Read Full Article
Propel Fuels Hosts USDA’s Judith Canales
by Joanna Schroeder (DomesticFuel.com) Propel Fuels hosted Judith Canales, Administrator for Rural Business and Cooperative Programs for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), yesterday at one of the fuel retailer’s stations in Oakland, California yesterday to promote the positive and
March 10, 2011 Read Full Article
Ethanol Industry Feels Squeeze as Congress Tightens Belt
by Elana Shor (Greenwire/New York Times) ...Major oil companies, Hartwig added, "make $50 billion a quarter in profits, yet still get billions of dollars of permanent subsidies in the tax code each and every year. Is that a wise
March 08, 2011 Read Full Article
Too Vulnerable to Reliance on Foreign Oil
by Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind (IndyStar) ...Washington over the years has failed to focus sufficient attention on our oil vulnerability and generate momentum behind substantive, concrete proposals with definable goals. In 1999, former CIA director James Woolsey and I published
March 07, 2011 Read Full Article
Opportunities to Reduce Potential Duplication in Government Programs, Save Tax Dollars, and Enhance Revenue
by Gene L. Dodaro (Comptroller General of the United States/US Government Accountability Office) ...Domestic ethanol production: Congress supported domestic ethanol production through a $5.4 billion tax credit program in 2010 and through a renewable fuel standard that applies to transportation fuels used in
March 07, 2011 Read Full Article
Global Realities
by General K. Wesley Clark (Ret.) (Growth Energy/Biofuels Digest) ...(E)very Administration has warned of America’s addiction to foreign oil but none has dealt successfully with it. ... And today we are paying the price. We have seen our military presence in the
March 07, 2011 Read Full Article
Scientific Panel to Review EPA's Triennial Biofuels Draft Report
by Kris Bevill (Ethanol Producer Magazine) The U.S. EPA has scheduled an independent peer review meeting for March 14 to review a draft report it is preparing for Congress which will detail the current and potential future environmental impacts associated
March 03, 2011 Read Full Article
The Washington Compromise
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) A unified biofuels policy? The hour is nigh. As Benjamin Franklin was reputed to say at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, “We must, indeed, all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang
March 03, 2011 Read Full Article
Coalition of 90 Groups Blast Ethanol Tax Credits
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) In Washington, a coalition of 90 organizations urged Congress to let the refundable Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit (VEETC) expire and to resist calls for spending on infrastructure for conventional biofuels. The coalition says: “Congress has
March 02, 2011 Read Full Article
Growth Energy Starts "No to OPEC" Ad Campaign
(Growth Energy) Today, as Congress returns to Washington, DC, we are sending lawmakers a timely message through a strategic ad campaign: “Say No to OPEC – Say Yes to America.” The ad campaign includes a display ad in Roll Call and
March 01, 2011 Read Full Article
USDA Expands Efforts to Develop Crop Insurance for Biofuels Producers
(US Department of Agriculture) Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced February 25, 2011, that USDA will soon seek proposals to study the feasibility of providing crop insurance to producers of biofuel feedstocks, including corn stover, straw and woody biomass. These feasibility
February 28, 2011 Read Full Article
Agriculture Secretary Vilsack to Sign MOU to Support Continued Development of Biofuels and Related Products
(US Department of Agriculture) Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that he will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to encourage the continued development of bio-based products for energy consumption, animal feed, chemicals and other uses. " This agreement will strengthen public,
February 28, 2011 Read Full Article
The Magoo Congress
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) ...The response to all this worry over oil? The United States House of Representatives in a new series of measures just passed, is doing its level best to ensure the failure of the only at-scale,
February 24, 2011 Read Full Article
Mideast Turmoil Hits U.S. Wallets
by General Wesley Clark (Politico) ...How long chaos continues in that critical corner of that world remains unknown. But one thing is certain: As long as there is chaos and fears of access to Mid East oil upsets the market,
February 24, 2011 Read Full Article
Bad Time to Kill E15, Retired Navy Leader Says
by Daniel Looker (Agriculture.com) On a day when Libya teeters on the brink of civil war and cuts oil production, Retired Vice Admiral Denny McGinn takes little comfort from an announcement by the remaining members of OPEC that it will
February 22, 2011 Read Full Article
Government Hands May Be Tied on Ethanol: USDA Official
by Ayesha Rascoe (Reuters) ..."The fact is the industry has pretty much been built," USDA Chief Economist Joe Glauber told reporters on the sidelines of a Commodity Markets Council conference. "This isn't a question of just saying 'cut it off.'
February 22, 2011 Read Full Article
25x'25 Offers New Food-versus-Fuel Information FAQ
(25 x '25) Last week, USDA reported that surplus corn stocks have hit their lowest point since 1995 and corn prices have risen from $3.50 per bushel in July 2010, to $6.10 in January 2011. Critics of biofuels charge that
February 18, 2011 Read Full Article
10 to watch: Senators on Energy
by Darren Goode (Politico) With Republicans controlling the House and ramping up oversight and investigations of the Obama administration, focus at least initially in the next Congress will be on the Senate to lay a potential pathway for legislative compromise
February 05, 2011 Read Full Article
Biofuels Play Increasing Role in Reduced U.S. Oil Imports & Reduced Vulnerability
by Jon H. Harsch (Agri-Pulse) ...Energy Committee Chair Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M. pointed to the EIA forecast that after peaking in 2005-06, U.S. oil imports should continue to decline – showing that the U.S. has already reduced its dependence on imports.
February 04, 2011 Read Full Article
RFA Analysis of EPA’s “Preliminary” Triennial Report on Biofuels and the Environment to Congress
by Geoff Cooper (Renewable Fuels Association) In compliance with Section 204 of the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is required to report to Congress every three years on the environmental and resource conservation
February 02, 2011 Read Full Article
State of the Union Talks Trade and Biofuels
(AgWired.com) President Obama made some folks in the ag industry happy with his State of the Union (SOTU) address Tuesday talking about the importance of both biofuels and free trade agreements. Corn farmers and representatives of the renewable fuels industry were especially pleased
February 01, 2011 Read Full Article
Senate Panel to Put Ethanol under the Microscope
by Ben Geman (The Hill) The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee’s agenda this year includes new scrutiny of ethanol. A spokesperson for committee Democrats said a hearing is in the offing but hasn’t been scheduled yet. Whenever it occurs, the session
February 01, 2011 Read Full Article
Gingrich to Obama: Focus on Energy
by Kathie Obradovich (Des Moines Register) Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is mulling a 2012 run for president, called on President Obama to use his State of the Union speech tonight to make the American energy production a “major
January 31, 2011 Read Full Article
Fate of the Union: 3-Point Plan for biofuels
by Bob Dinneen (Renewable Fuels Association/Biofuels Digest) ...While some would choose to ignore reality, the nation can produce more ethanol sustainably using grains like corn, wheat and barley. ...The nation can also produce significant volumes of renewable fuel from non-grain
January 25, 2011 Read Full Article
EPA Announces a Waiver to Allow the Use of Gasoline Containing Greater than 10% Ethanol in 2001 though 2006 Light-Duty Vehicles.
(US Environmental Protection Agency) In response to a request by Growth Energy under section 211(f)(4) of the Clean Air Act, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has partially granted a waiver to allow fuel and fuel additive manufacturers to introduce into
January 22, 2011 Read Full Article
The Path Forward for Federal Biofuel Incentives
(25 x'25) The belief that the ethanol industry is entering a new era is nearly universal. As Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) President Bob Dinneen put it this week, “new challenges to ethanol policies will be mounted from within the new
January 22, 2011 Read Full Article
Farm Bureau Supports Change in Biofuels Policy
by Cindy Zimmerman (DomesticFuel.com) The American Farm Bureau Federation is supporting a new direction in biofuels policy away from the blenders tax credit and toward increasing infrastructure. “The whole discussion has been evolving within the industry and within the Congress,” said AFBF President
January 12, 2011 Read Full Article
Ethanol 'All about National Security'
by Daniel Looker (Agriculture.com) To farmers who pioneered the ethanol industry, the goal was creating another market for corn. To retired General Wesley Clark, it’s about patriotism and national security. Clark, who is co-chairman of the ethanol lobbying group, Growth Energy,
January 10, 2011 Read Full Article
10 to Watch: GOP Freshmen on Energy
by Robin Braverder (Politico) ...Cory Gardner (Colo.) — Like many of his colleagues, this newcomer with strong agricultural ties hopes to advance “hearty oversight” of the EPA from his new perch on the Energy and Commerce Committee. On the energy front, look for
December 28, 2010 Read Full Article
Fuel Vs. Food: Ethanol Helps Boost Meat Prices
by Kathleen Masterson (NPR / WOI / Harvest Public Media) ...And according to USDA data, meat now costs as much as 12 percent more than last year. ...But let's get out of the kitchen for a minute — this is
December 23, 2010 Read Full Article
The Signs: Good News for the Aces of Bio-Based May Spell Trouble for the Renewable Fuel Standard
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) ... The USDA’s Sarah Biddleman speaks in terms of “standing up a biofuels industry” like a pop-up children’s book, in that all the pieces have to rise up, in the right way, all at once. ... Is the
December 22, 2010 Read Full Article
Political Winds
by Holly Jessen (Ethanol Producer Magazine) How will the new leadership impact ethanol policies? Some strong ethanol advocates lost in the November election, including Earl Pomeroy and Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, acknowledges Bob Dinneen, president of the Renewable Fuels Association. Many more
December 22, 2010 Read Full Article
Grassley Says Unity Is Vital to Ethanol Interests
by Philip Brasher (Des Moines Register) The ethanol industry needs to stop its infighting to preserve its government support beyond next year, says Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Ia. "We can't stand any more division within biofuels," said Grassley, who led a successful fight
December 21, 2010 Read Full Article
U.S. Ethanol Industry Faces Subsidy Battle Next Year
by Charles Abbott and Timothy Gardner (Reuters) U.S. ethanol makers face a battle over reforming subsidies next year after current incentives are rolled over in the tax package signed into law by President Barack Obama on Friday. The new law extends the
December 20, 2010 Read Full Article
E15 fears: More Ethanol in Gasoline is Bad News for Power Equipment, Critics Say
by Adrian Higgins (The Washington Post) ...But a push to add another 50 percent to the ethanol content of some automobile fuel has opened a barrel of worms. Automakers say they don't know how it will affect their cars; power-equipment
December 20, 2010 Read Full Article
House Votes to Extend Ethanol, Biodiesel, Renewable Diesel Tax Credits; Senate Drops Biofuels-Slashing Omnibus Bill
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) In Washington, the US House of Representatives voted by a 277 to 148 margin to approve the Obama tax deal, which extends the ethanol tax credit through 2011, and retroactively extends the biodiesel tax incentive and the renewable
December 17, 2010 Read Full Article
Price of Ethanol and Price of Oil According to the New York Times
by Raymond J. Learsy (Huffington Post) In a classic example and contender for the Alfred E. Neuman "I Don't Get It" prize of the year the New York Times' editorial page of December 9th outdid itself. First we had a dissertation on
December 13, 2010 Read Full Article
Bi-Partisan Support for Biofuels Can Help to Achieve Energy, National Security Objectives
by Steve Maddox (The Hill) ...Although conventional, corn-based ethanol is not the darling of the environmental movement, it does have certain national security benefits that cannot be overlooked. And the next generation of biofuels being developed across the country offer
December 13, 2010 Read Full Article
Getting the Facts Straight on Ethanol, Letters to the Editor
by Bob Dinneen (Renewable Fuels Association) Letter to the Editor, Chicago Tribune, Re: Dennis Byrne’s column “Time to stand up to ethanol interests.” ...First, Byrne’s facts and figures are accurate for the tax credits for domestic ethanol and the renewable fuels standards
December 01, 2010 Read Full Article
EPA: More Renewable Fuels Required
by Robin Bravender & Darren Samuelsohn (Politico) ...Energy Secretary Steven Chu on Monday said that the future of transportation fuels shouldn't involve ethanol, the gasoline additive that historically has received billions of dollars in federal subsidies. "Ethanol is not an ideal transportation
November 30, 2010 Read Full Article
Al Gore’s Flip-flop on Ethanol, He Had it Right the First Time
by Matt Hartwig (Renewable Fuels Association) Now he tells us: Al Gore was for grain ethanol before he was against it. Speaking at a green energy business conference in Athens, the former vice president declared “it is not good policy to have
November 23, 2010 Read Full Article
U.S. Corn Ethanol "Was Not a Good Policy": Gore
by Gerard Wynn (Reuters) Former vice-president Al Gore said support for corn-based ethanol in the United States was "not a good policy", weeks before tax credits are up for renewal. U.S. blending tax breaks for ethanol make it profitable for refiners to
November 23, 2010 Read Full Article
America Needs New Investment: In the Next Generation of Biofuels
by Christopher G. Standlee (Abengoa Energy/The Hill's Congress Blog) ...(T)here is bipartisan support for answering an urgent national challenge: replacing imported high-pollution petroleum with clean-burning American biofuels. ...There is bipartisan support for biofuels because their development, production and use serve great
November 22, 2010 Read Full Article
King: GOP House Good for Ethanol, Biodiesel Tax Cuts
by John Davis (DomesticFuel.com) Republicans taking control of the U.S. House is good for the chances of the federal ethanol and biodiesel tax breaks seeing renewal … that’s according to a GOP member from Iowa. AgriNews.com reports that U.S. Rep. Steve
November 12, 2010 Read Full Article
Will GOP Gains Mean Ethanol Producer Losses?
by Gary Clark and Rachel Ziemba (Forbes) Doctor Doom: With Congress gridlocked, the U.S. may put the brakes on biofuels support. Following the Republican Party's capture of the House of Representatives in the midterm elections, U.S. policy on the use of biofuels for
November 12, 2010 Read Full Article
U.S. Biofuel Production, Use Lags
by Philip Brasher (Zanesville Times Recorder) Motorists will use just a fraction of the next-generation biofuels in 2011 that Congress intended, and even that small amount depends on a single project in Iowa that isn't ready yet. ... Cellulose and algae are
November 10, 2010 Read Full Article
How to Get Biofuels Moving Again
by Michael Kanellos and Jim Imbler (Green Tech Media) To help this industry thrive, governments need to develop and implement a strategy that will last decades, argues Zeachem CEO Jim Imbler. the advanced biofuels industry is determined to commercialize and stand on
October 26, 2010 Read Full Article
The Health Benefits of Ethanol
(Ethanol Across America) C. Boyden Gray, one of the architects of the historic 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments that established the nation's reformulated gasoline program, called for increased regulation of air toxics by the Environmental Protection Agency and in so
October 06, 2010 Read Full Article
Journal of Peasant Studies Publishes Perspectives on New Agrarian Relations Related to Biofuels
(Journal of Peasant Studies) In this collection we ask a number of questions emerging out of the new agrarian political economy created by the ‘biofuel complex’. Together the papers offer perspectives from political economy, political sociology and political ecology, and
September 28, 2010 Read Full Article
Deficit Hawks Not Talking Turkey About Ethanol
by Matt Hartwig (Renewable Fuels Association) A Bloomberg story today warned that deficit hawks in Congress – and potentially those that might be elected this fall – are targeting ethanol as an example of wasteful government spending. ...Our government spends
September 24, 2010 Read Full Article
2010 Fuel Scorecard Released
by Joanna Schroeder (DomesticFuel) The Truman National Security Project has released its 2010 Fuel Scorecard and ethanol scores near the top of the list as viable fuel options for the future. Based on several factors that affect America’s security including instability of
September 22, 2010 Read Full Article
House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson Discusses Farm Bill Issues with Saratoga County Farmers
by Paul Post (The Saratogan) ...For local dairy producers, one of the most pressing concerns is ethanol production that drives up corn prices — hurting small family farms in the process. ..."We’ve got a big problem in the ethanol industry," (House
September 09, 2010 Read Full Article
Another Dirty Secret of Oil Dependence
by Jim DiPeso (The Daily Green) The hidden health threat (and $100 billion annual cost) in the gasoline we pump into our cars. ...China supplanted the U.S. as the biggest energy consuming country in the world. China's growth, along with India's,
August 31, 2010 Read Full Article
Ethanol at Boom/Bust Crossroads
by Elton Robinson (Southeast Farm Press) ...It’s not what President Barack Obama has been saying in recent speeches that worried several market analysts speaking at the Brock Decision 2010 Seminar in Memphis. It’s what he hasn’t been saying. In speeches outlining
August 17, 2010 Read Full Article
Costs and Benefits to Taxpayers, Consumers, and Producers from U.S. Ethanol Policies
by Bruce A. Babcock, Kanlaya J. Barr, Miguel Carriquiry (Center for Agriculture and Rural Development, Iowa State University) The U.S. ethanol industry is lobbying hard for an extension of existing ethanol import tariffs and blenders tax credits before they expire
July 21, 2010 Read Full Article
Crude Oil Imports and National Security
by Robert M. Ames, Anthony Corridore, Edward Hirs, Paul W. MacAvoy (Yale Graduates Energy Study Group) The authors demonstrate that the United States profits handsomely in all circumstances by imposing an embargo on imports of foreign crude oil. The US removes its
February 26, 2010 Read Full Article
How to Beat the High Cost of Gasoline. Forever!
by Adam Lashinsky and Nelson D. Schwartz (CNN Money/Fortune Magazine) You probably don't know it, but the answer to America's gasoline addiction could be under the hood of your car. More than five million Tauruses, Explorers, Stratuses, Suburbans, and other vehicles