Why Listen to Experts When You Can Form Your Own Gossip-based, Politically-Motivated Opinion?

For those looking to the government for cues on ethanol, Thursday must have been awfully confusing.  While senators were sipping happy hour cocktails and congratulating themselves on a symbolic, politically-motivated vote attacking ethanol, the Department of Energy was rewarding innovative students for finding ways to improve fuel consumption and emissions in American-made cars.

The same day that senators bemoaned the tax credits given to the ethanol industry, the Department of Energy, in conjunction with contestant co-sponsor General Motors announced that the overall winner of the EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge was an extended-range electric vehicle using E85 designed and built by a team of Virginia Tech University. They awarded second place to another E85 EREV from Ohio State.  For the DOE, ethanol was a huge winner.

The contest is important as it is a joint government and industry challenge to re-engineer a GM-donated vehicle to minimize the vehicle’s fuel consumption and emissions, while maintaining its utility, safety, and performance. The Virginia Tech team achieved the equivalent of nearly 82 miles per gallon—a 70 percent improvement in fuel efficiency over the stock vehicle.  They did it using 85 percent ethanol as the conventional fuel.

So as the nation’s top energy regulators told the our nation’s future engineering leaders that ethanol was a winner with them, senators deemed ethanol unworthy of assistance despite its ability to provide a clean, sustainable domestic energy source.  Yes, this was the same crew who voted to keep massive Big Oil subsidies.  No, no contest winners made vehicles of the future using the fuel of the past.

It’s time to ask our senators in Washington what they are thinking.  These men and women were not elected for the scientific knowledge, but officials at the DOE were chosen for theirs.  If you have a senator who voted against ethanol, take a moment to ask why he or she continues to ignore what scientists endorse: ethanol.

Raising Corn Can Lower Fuel Prices

With gas prices on the rise, farmers are helping ease the pain at the pump for consumers across the United States.  Ethanol is currently priced roughly 80 cents less per gallon than gasoline.  In these rough times, even the relatively minor cost savings that the 10 percent of ethanol blended into the average tank of gas offers are a welcome relief for many consumers.

The question now becomes: how do we use ethanol to further reduce the burden of high gas prices should oil remain high?  Many answers provide solutions that could help the average consumer who knows that filling up a car can lead to an empty wallet.

Many major automakers already offer flex-fuel vehicles.  These cars and SUVs run on both regular gasoline and on an E-85 blend.  Drivers choosing FFVs can save at the pump themselves while easing pressure on the national oil supply.

To maximize the impact of FFVs, blender pump technology must become more readily available.  These simple gas pumps, which resemble those already at stations, allow consumers to select the amount of ethanol they put into their tank.  FFV drivers have the option of using E-85 fuel.  Those with traditional automobiles can opt for up to a 15 percent blend.  In offering choice, blender pumps provide options.

Americans know all too well that high gas prices hurt their pocketbooks and their families.  Ethanol is one of the many ways American farmers hard work can help make life affordable.  By providing options that maximize the potential use of this renewable, clean source of energy, the public can take power back from big oil and take home a little bit more of a paycheck.

Ethanol…Pinata or Juggernaut?

For years ethanol opponents have beaten on the fuel like a piñata but a funny thing keeps happening…it survives and after each attack the fuel’s reputation grows as does its market.

Ethanol’s reputation grows because the fuel is getting greener. Each new look shows increases in production efficiencies, less water and energy use, more gallons per bushel of corn and even previously estimated projections of greenhouse gasses are proving to be wrong as the science gets better.

A new report out by the US Department of Agriculture today “indicates the net energy gain from converting corn to ethanol is improving in efficiency.  

• The net energy balance of corn ethanol has increased from 1.76 BTUs to 2.3 BTUs of required energy.
• Ethanol has transitioned from being an energy sink to a “substantial net energy gain in the present. And there are still prospects for improvement.
• Ethanol yields are up 10% in the last 20 years.
• Corn yields have increased 39% in the last 20 years, requiring less land to produce ethanol. 

Titled  2008 Energy Balance for the Corn Ethanol Industry the report surveyed ethanol producers about ethanol yield per bushel of corn and energy used in ethanol plants.

While we are rolling out the good news on ethanol keep these statistics in mind too:

1. For the 1^st time, DDG availability will displace more than 1 billion bushels of corn in livestock rations this marketing year, providing a high-quality, high-value feed product for livestock producers, both in the US and abroad. 
2. In the U.S., corn production has more than doubled since 1980, on only 3% more land. That’s an impressive move from 6.6 billion bushels o 13.2 billion bushels, pushed by yields gorwing from 91 bushels an acre to 163.5 bushels per acre today.

E85 Comes Out on Top in High Tech Competition

Automotive designers and race car mechanics and engineers from around the world ended their quest to create a 100 + mile-per-gallon vehicle today with an interesting development; the winner was powered by ethanol, E85 to be exact.  While many of the competitors chose to pursue the electric-battery option it was corn squeezings that ruled the day.

However, it is worth noting that the extensive coverage of the $10 million X Prize competition often referred to it as an internal combustion gasoline vehicle. Kudos to the New York Times for getting it right, although I would have liked to have seen E85’s prominent role higher in the story.

Teams from Virginia, North Carolina and Winterthur, Switzerland, with roots in the world of auto racing  won the first Progressive Insurance Automotive X-Prize but it was Edison2′s “Very Light Car No. 98” that took the top prize of $5 million.

The media dismissal of the ethanol connection begs the question “when did ethanol become the Rodney Dangerfield of fuel?”  We don’t get no respect.” From the Toledo Blade to Wired Magazine online to even autobloggreen , they missed the American fuel angle, the green angle, the tested and proven angle of ethanol made right here,  right now.  With a host of flexible fuel cars capable of using higher ethanol blends like E85 this deserved to be a key component of the announcement.

Having alternatives to imported petroleum is a great idea because consumer choice (such as the BYO blendyourown initiative) and competition in the marketplace is always a good thing.

On a positive note E85 did win the competition and it offers another example that we don’t lack for solutions to our problems but rather the vision and drive to make them reality.

California Dreaming, Part 2

As a more upbeat follow-up to our last discussion of ethanol in the Golden State, there is this news item about how ethanol and biodiesel availability is expanding in California.

OAKLAND, CA–(Marketwire – August 31, 2010) –  At a grand opening event today at the Bay Area’s newest renewable fuel station, California Energy Commissioner Anthony Eggert, Director of California Governor Schwarzenegger’s Office of Economic Development (GoED) Joel Ayala, and officials from Propel Fuels, CALSTART, and East Bay Clean Cities, formally launched Propel’s Bay Area operations, which will include more than 20 stations across the Bay, with up to 10 open by the year’s end. The event also announced a $10.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and California Energy Commission (CEC) to build and operate 75 retail renewable fuel stations throughout California over the next two years.

More information on Propel can be found here.

The Absurdity of Petroleum

Is there a full moon out or what? In my normal course of scanning news, web sites and blogs for information I discovered a veritable trifecta of absurdity regarding petroleum the other day.

My favorite article had to be about a new study arguing that eliminating federal tax deductions for intangible drilling costs and for US oil and gas production expenses would hurt oil production growth and devastate future US natural gas development.

The Wood Mackenzie study was commissioned by none other than the American Petroleum Institute. (nod, nod, wink, wink). Aren’t these the same companies (foreign & domestic) who were raking it in hand over fist from 2003 to 2008 and making record profits?

Excuse me but when any single company’s sales outpace the domestic national product of 120 nations as Exxon-Mobil’s did in 2008 I find it hard not to be a little skeptical regarding the Woods Mackenzie Study.

We have seen repeatedly that domestic oil price shocks are a result of refining and distribution problems more than even supply. Mix that in with inadequate competition in the oil industry and an ample dose of bad energy policy and you get a real mess.  Maybe this is why the petroleum giants have tried repeatedly to discredit the performance and viability of ethanol.

This might go a long way toward explaining why they have so energetically fought against “tax incentives for blending ethanol” that actually go the ethanol blender…once again oil. Forgoing short term gain for long term profit is not a new concept. It also would explain their reaction to the current effort to raise the amount of ethanol in a gallon of gasoline.

 Increased ethanol demand cuts into petroleum’s profits and their ability to manipulate the market.  The economic impact of being able to control a product we are addicted to from cradle to grave is heady and lucrative stuff. (more…)

This Summer Discover Ethanol

We are officially in the dog days of summer and as such many people are vacationing and that often means lots of driving and time with family.

With all the exposure to gas stations you may have noticed the word ethanol on pumps. It is pretty much everywhere these days as a 10% blend in gasoline and it is increasingly showing up in E85 formulations for flexible fuel vehicles or FFVs.

In fact, GM recently announced their continued commitment to E85 ethanol as “our best near-term solution. In fact, last month, we announced that we’re increasing annual production of Flex Fuel Vehicles (FFV) to more than 850,000 – that’s a 55 percent increase from the 2006 volumes,” said Candance Wheeler, a Gm Technical Fellow.

GM’s  2010 lineup represents the most FFV models on the market, providing drivers with multiple options to fuel their vehicles – E85 ethanol, petroleum, or a combination of the two. And with many new stations opening up, especially in the south and south central regions, it’s becoming easier find a place to fill up.

The latest development is something called a “Blender Pump,” but I like to call it a consumer pump because it allows you to choose what gas or ethanol mixture you want; unleaded gasoline, or 10%, 20%, 30% or 85% ethanol. If you have an FFV you can pick whichever one is the best bargain or  whichever blend works best in your car.

Despite all for proven benefits of ethanol some detractors continue to spread misinformation regarding ethanol fuel. As the attached charts show, ethanol is a great fuel and an even better idea if you believe we should rely more on farmers and less on imported oil from hostile nations.

All Cars Should be Omnivores

This past weekend the family and I drove about 1200 miles, leaving the St. Louis area to visit family in Lake Zurich, Ill., and then driving down to Ft. Campbell in Kentucky to drop our son off at his barracks. Then back home. About 1200 miles in all, the vast majority in Illinois, where the corn was growing tall and straight, for the most part. Illinois saw the highest increase in planted acres, according to the USDA, up from 12 million acres in 2009 to 12.6 million acres in 2010. Great news for our hard-working Illinois corn growers!

I also saw a lot of cars with Flex-Fuel logos on the back, and wished we had the same with our 2006 Toyota Sienna. But that was not an option.

This past weekend, Robert Zubrin wrote a great piece in the Washington Times calling for open fuel standards. The idea is to get more cars on the road that can handle a variety of fuels, whether it foreign-oil-based gasoline, domestic-and-renewable corn ethanol, or even methanol.  This would add about a hundred bucks to the price of the car and give us more energy independence, which means more energy security.

As Zubrin puts it:

“We are not addicted to oil. Our cars are addicted to oil. They are like a tribe of people who, because of some unfortunate flaw, can only eat one kind of food, say herring. Thus, if the herring merchants combine to rig up the price of their product to $100 per pound, the tribesmen have no choice but to submit. They would be far better off if they could become omnivores, capable of eating steak, ice cream, corn, eggs, apples, etc., as the power to use such alternatives would make them immune from herring-cartel extortion.”

It’s time to see more energy freedom on the roads — not just in the Corn Belt, but across the Land of the Free.

Photo: Zubrin autographs his book “Energy Victory” at the 2009 Commodity Classic.

Ethanol Supporters Should Be Outraged Over IEA Sleight Of Hand

Apparently, last week’s International Energy Agency (IEA) numbers regarding future oil supplies were fudged to protect the innocent or at least our frail economic recovery. According to a whistleblower who whispered in the ear of The Guardian, the world is much closer to running out of oil that we think.

 So, what is to be gained or lost by such skullduggery? Stockbrokers, bankers and oil investors jumping out of windows…sure, but what is the downside? (Insert sarcasm here).

 The comments in the UK’s respected Guardian stated that the IEA has inflated its 2009 report of oil reserves for fear that the truth would shock world markets into a reactionary panic. IEA is alleged to have put its role as an industry watchdog in the kennel for the time being to fend off a potential buying panic…even at the risk of being exposed for overplaying supplies and chances for finding increased reserves.

  On face value this might seem to be based on at least a modicum of twisted logic, but what are the ramifications for world governments who govern, plan and even invest based on IEA’s data? Consider that they also develop their own energy policies based on such essential information.

According to the Guardian’s high-level IEA source, estimates of global oil production growing from its current level of 83 million barrels per day to 105 million barrels per day are as bogus as the Tooth Fairy. The source said many IEA officials believe even 90 million barrels per day is unreachable, but the agency will not lower its forecast because it fears panic could spread through financial markets.

If we have indeed entered the “Peak Oil Zone” (that strange and unfamiliar place where we actually feel the pressure to get real about “energy policy” not oil policy) then it is time to fess up like an alcoholic at an AA meeting. “Hi my name is Joe Consumer and I have a petroleum problem.” (more…)

Wisconsin Corn Puts on the Green

Wisconsin’s corn ethanol industry is putting on the green and walking for clean air at Milwaukee’s annual Lung Walk October 4 at the Milwaukee County Zoo and is offering free Green Team T-shirts to everyone who joins them.

“The Lung Walk at the Milwaukee County Zoo is a great family event for a worthwhile cause that calls attention to the need for cleaner air and corn-based E85 ethanol fuel is recognized as the Clean Air Choice of the American Lung Association,” says Team Captain Nancy Kavazanjian, a corn grower from Beaver Dam. “Walking as the Green E85 Team is the perfect way to show people that our locally grown and produced ethanol fuel is helping clean up Wisconsin’s air quality while it also helps boost the state economy.”

The walk is a major fund-raising event that helps the ALA, the oldest nationwide voluntary health agency in the United States, fight lung disease through education, community service, public policy and research. As part of the year’s promotional efforts supported by Wisconsin’s corn checkoff, the Wisconsin Corn Promotion Board is the official sponsor of the Lung Walk’s Green E85 Team and paid for the commemorative T-shirts shirts for all team members. Badger State Ethanol, Didion Ethanol, United Ethanol and the UWGP ethanol plant, along with several individual corn growers made major donations to the Green E85 Team effort, helping meet the team fund raising goal of $1,500.