As Americans celebrate Independence Day this weekend, it is a good time to reflect on our need to increase our energy independence.
Jay Hakes, author of “A Declaration of Energy Independence,” says American Energy Independence means energy security, energy abundance and energy self-sufficiency.
Energy Independence is a civilization changing idea, like freedom, one that should be thought of much like we think of our national independence—our liberty, which is both an ideal and a physical reality. Energy Independence can and should be pursued with the same patriotic spirit that fought for, won and sustains American democracy and freedom.
The phrase “Energy Independence” is a slogan embodying an idea that resonates with the character of America—it is a call for return to economic balance and protection from vulnerability created by over-dependence on petroleum to fuel our cars, trucks and airplanes—it is a public outcry voiced by citizens demanding government leadership in energy production, distribution, security and fuel choice.
In a timely commentary for the holiday, National Corn Growers Association CEO Rick Tolman says we should ask ourselves this weekend what more we should we be doing to assure our energy independence.
This Independence Day we should be resolute and re-commit ourselves to making the right choices for America. We can pursue a strategic national initiative that will lead us to energy independence — and put America back in control of its destiny. We can start by looking for ethanol fuel at the pump. It is readily available as a 10 percent blend and E85 is becoming more common – as are the flexible-fuel vehicles that can utilize this clean-burning fuel.
So, Rick says, “at the family barbecue or fireworks this weekend, tell your friends and family to do their part by using ethanol. Ask them to encourage their elected officials to continue to support using increased blends of this proven American fuel.”
And may God continue to bless our nation with liberty and justice for all.
The Environmental Protection Agency this week announced a 60 day extension of the comment period on the proposed rule revising the national Renewable Fuel Standard program, commonly referred to as RFS2. The original comment period was to end on July 27, 2009 and will now end on September 25, 2009.
“With the 60-day comment period extension, EPA seeks to provide the public adequate time to provide meaningful comment while finalizing and implementing the standards in a timely manner,” the agency stated in a release.
More information and instructions on submitting comments on the rule, which was mandated by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, can be found here on the EPA website.
Meanwhile, the comment deadline is coming up quickly on the waiver to increase the allowable ethanol blend level in gasoline to 15 percent. The National Corn Growers Association is calling farmers and ethanol supporters to the National Corn Growers Association is asking farmers and ethanol supporters to send in comments about their own experiences with ethanol.
“Many of us own boats or other vehicles or equipment that use small engines and have experienced great performance with no concerns about ethanol-blended gasoline,” said NCGA president Bob Dickey of Nebraska. “Especially on a modern farm, there are so many different types of engines that require gasoline — and gasoline mixed with corn-based ethanol means fewer greenhouse gas emissions, more American jobs and more energy independence.”
President Obama announced his National Rural Tour yesterday during an interview with National Association of Farm Broadcasting past president Michelle Rook with WNAX Radio in Yankton, SD. “Over the next few weeks and months, top officials from my administration will fan out across the country to hold a series of discussions on how we can strengthen rural America,” Obama said.
Vice President Joe Biden, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, and Federal Communications Commission Chair Julius Genakowski kicked off the “rural road trip” today in Pennsylvania, announcing $4 billion in loans and grants to bring broadband internet service to rural communities. Other stops are planned in Alaska, Louisiana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin.
During her interview, Michelle asked the president about renewable fuels. “Obviously, I come from a farm state - Illinois - and ethanol has been a big boon for a lot of rural communities,” he said. “But we also are recognizing the key for us is to move into the next generation of biofuels, how can we use wood chips and refuse and switchgrass and how can we improve the efficiency of first generation biofuels. Farmers are going to be critical to that entire process.”
Michelle also asked President Obama about a number of other issues, including the climate change bill, whether farmers should be concerned about increasing regulations, and how the government might be able to help the livestock industry.
Listen to Michelle’s entire interview with the president here:
It’s bad enough that EPA official Margo Oge has never been on a farm, but a YouTube video of her testimony before a House panel last month reveals something much worse - she apparently doesn’t know how much corn it takes to make a gallon of ethanol, or how many soybeans it takes to make a gallon of biodiesel.
The blunder occurred when Rep. Aaron Schock (R-IL) asked Ms. Oge, who is responsible for regulating all emissions within the United States, about the indirect land use issue. “It’s my understanding that the EPA’s Renewable Fuels Standard 2 methodology assumes that for every acre of soybean crop that is used to produce biofuel, an equal acre of ground is used in the Brazilian rainforest to replace that acreage, is that correct?” asked Schock.
“Obviously we know that it takes about 64 acres for a gallon of soy biodiesel,” she begins, and then corrects herself, even more incorrectly. “It’s actually the opposite. It takes 64 acres for corn ethanol and over 400 acres for a gallon of biodiesel.”
It’s hard to believe this was just a simple mistake. She has the numbers right, but they are transposed and for the wrong crops! One acre of soybeans actually makes 64 gallons of biodiesel and one acre of corn makes over 400 gallons of ethanol. The big problem here is that she said this during testimony before the United States House of Representatives’ Small Business Committee, which does include a fair number of corn state representatives like Schock, but a good number of folks from places like New York, Pennsylvania and Arizona who could very well now believe that it takes 64 acres of corn to produce a gallon of ethanol. That’s well over 10,000 bushels of corn - which will actually produce about 25,000 gallons of ethanol!
This is seriously scary stuff. This lady is responsible for regulating all emissions within the United States! Regardless of whether the international indirect land use change methodology as proposed by EPA is adopted, everyone in the agriculture and biofuels industry should be concerned about the bureaucrats who could potentially regulate them out of business some day. We should be very afraid.
Watch this YouTube video, with commentary, put together by someone in the ethanol industry. It has already been viewed over 1200 times. Send it to everyone you know.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu was in Des Moines Monday to announce more than $16 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects in Iowa during a news conference with Governor Chet Culver. But his announcement took a back seat to some of the comments about ethanol he made during Q and A with reporters.
First, Chu indicated that he supports approval of the waiver that would allow up to 15 percent ethanol blends for standard vehicles currently being considered by the federal government.
“I don’t want to prejudge what they’re going to find, but if the existing automobile fleet can handle 15 percent, I would say let’s make that a target and go to 15 percent,” Chu said. “This is very important for decreasing our oil independence.”
Chu also suggested that car manufacturers ought to make all new automobiles flex-fuel capable. “I’ve been told it costs about $100 in gaskets and fuel lines to turn a car so that it can go all the way to E85,” Chu said. “But a new car , it would only cost $100 out of $15,000. Wouldn’t it be nice to put in those fuel lines and gaskets so that we can use any ratio we wanted?” He said that while mandating that companies make all vehicles flex-fuel is “beginning to be discussed” by the administration, they first want to “see about whether the current fleet can take 15 percent or 13 percent ethanol.”
When it came to the issue of indirect land use change and how corn ethanol can measure up using the calculations proposed by EPA under the Renewable Fuels Standard for lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions, Chu had to do some dancing. “The Obama administration has made it very clear that they would rather get to where we need to get to in terms of decreasing our carbon footprint by legislation not by regulatory things,” Chu said when questioned about the matter. He then launched into a discussion about the potential cellulosic sources for biofuels hold for farmers, “which Iowa can grow as easily and use all the agricultural waste.”
“Iowa has tremendous productivity in corn, but if you look at some of the grasses that one can grow that don’t require the fertilizer, the potential is even greater,” he said. “The trouble is we don’t have the technology today to turn cellulose into biofuel.”
Asked more specifically about the EPA proposal, Chu said, “It’s out for peer review and we’ll see how it plays out.” That comment prompted Rep. Leonard Boswell (D-IA), a member of the House Agriculture Committee who was also at the press conference, to say to the secretary, “I hear what you’re saying, I’ve heard it loud and clear, and we’re very concerned about it and there’s a fairly large group that’s making this come to the table for discussion.”
Here is an audio file with Chu’s answers to some of the questions posed. The audio from the reporters was not audible, but you can pretty much figure out what they were asking.
The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is seeking comments until July 6 on a proposed petition to deregulate genetically modified (GM) corn that improves ethanol production.
The petition for deregulation, submitted by Syngenta Seeds Inc., is in accordance with APHIS’ regulations concerning the introduction of genetically-engineered organisms and products and is available for the public’s review and comment. As part of the decisionmaking process, APHIS also has prepared a draft environmental assessment and plant pest risk assessment for review and comment.
APHIS will make a determination of nonregulated status if it can conclude that the organism does not pose a plant pest risk. If APHIS grants the Syngenta Seeds petition for deregulation, the genetically-engineered corn and its progeny would no longer be regulated articles. The product could then be freely moved and planted without the requirement of permits or other regulatory oversight by APHIS.
Go to regulations.gov for information on how to submit comments.
The House Appropriations Committee last week narrowly defeated an amendment that would have stopped the EPA from considering international indirect land use changes under the Renewable Fuels Standard.
The amendment offered by Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO) was defeated by just one vote during consideration of the FY 2010 $32 billion spending bill for EPA and the Interior Department, which was approved. The committee did vote to ask USDA to study the issue of indirect land use changes as it relates to biofuels.
Even though EPA has yet to make a final rule on how it will determine the lifecycle analysis of greenhouse gases as required for the increased renewable fuels standard, Rep. Collin Peterson (D-MN) and other farm state lawmakers are threatening to oppose the climate change bill if the indirect land use consideration goes forward as proposed.
Most farm groups have come out against that bill anyway, regardless of whether there are changes in the EPA rule. The climate bill could be just as bad, if not worse, for agriculture.
Food companies that rely on cheap corn are running around like chickens with their heads cut off and crying foul again with so-called “studies” submitted to the EPA that “prove” food prices will increase if the blend rate for ethanol in gasoline is increased to 15 percent.
But wait just a minute. The latest Consumer Price Index shows consumers are paying less for groceries today than they were just six months ago. The May index for meats, poultry, fish, and eggs was down almost a full percentage point from April and eggs index declined 6.5 percent. The index for dairy and related products fell 0.5 percent in May and has declined 5.6 percent over the past year.
What’s up here, Chicken Little? Because, despite the fact that a number of ethanol plants have closed over the past year, ethanol production is still increasing. The most recent figures from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) were for March and they showed that American ethanol facilities produced 640,000 barrels per day in March 2009 - up 79,000 barrels, or 12 percent from a year ago! Assuming that continues, the ethanol industry will once again produce a record amount of ethanol and distillers grains in 2009.
Point being, at the same time ethanol production is increasing, food prices are heading back downward (finally!). In other words - no correlation. The sky is not falling.
One of the frustrations for the corn ethanol industry in the whole indirect land use/lifecycle analysis debate is that the value of co-products such as distillers grains (DDGs) are often ignored.
Dave Vander Griend, president and CEO of ICM Inc, has just released a white paper on the subject, “Rethinking the Value of Corn Ethanol Co-Products in Lifecycle Assessments.” ICM is a Kansas-based company that has been building and designing ethanol plants since 1995, with a special emphasis on improved process design and energy efficiency. One of their most innovative facilities is LifeLine Foods, located in St. Joseph, Missouri, which produces both food and fuel and is serving as a model for the industry.
In his white paper, Dave points out that the value of ethanol co-products is highly underrated. “Recognition of the co-products that come from ethanol production is absolutely fundamental to understanding the true value of corn as a food and energy crop,” Dave says. Not only does ethanol production return about one third of the corn it utilizes in the form of DDGs for livestock feed - the nutritional value of that feed is actually 50% BETTER than raw corn. He points to research done by animal nutritionists at the University of Nebraska that found energy value of DDG when fed to cattle is as much as 145% of the original corn.
According to Dave, that means, “When we harvest an acre of corn for ethanol production, we’re actually only using half of the equivalent of that acre to make ethanol. The other half is returned in nutritional value to feed livestock for the human food supply.” This feed credit should be calculated when determining the overall demand for corn for ethanol production and the ultimate lifecycle analysis for ethanol.
During a panel discussion at the Fuel Ethanol Workshop in Denver this week, Dave compared the different categories of feedstocks for ethanol - sugar, cellulose and starch - using sugarcane, switchgrass and corn as examples. “All three of them will give you fuel, but when you look at which ones will give you food and fuel, you only have corn,” said Dave. He says if you count the food and feed value of corn utilized for ethanol, corn is actually the most efficient energy crop.
Listen to Dave’s comments at FEW here, it is good stuff.
There is much more in Dave’s well-researched paper and all corn ethanol advocates should familiarize themselves with it.
A quarter of a century ago, hardly anyone even knew what ethanol was, much less that it had the potential to fuel automobiles.
But one gutsy lady who produced ethanol on her family farm in Minnesota had this crazy idea to start the Fuel Ethanol Workshop. A handful of visionaries joined Kathy Bryan at that first conference. There are nearly 3,000 at this week’s 25th annual Fuel Ethanol Workshop in Denver and it has become the largest and oldest ethanol conference in the world, owned and organized by BBI International, the company started by Kathy and her husband Mike.
Kathy’s roots are in corn farming and she was the first woman to serve on the board of directors of the National Corn Growers Association back in the 1980s. She was known as the “Ethanol Lady” for her efforts as a relentless promoter of ethanol on both the state and national level, speaking to Congress and even meeting with presidents to educate them about the benefits of fuel ethanol.
Tuesday, this visionary was honored by her many friends in the ethanol business with the FEW High Octane award for a lifetime of commitment to the industry. However, it was her son Tom who accepted the award in her place because for the second year in a row, Kathy’s battle with cancer prevented her from attending the conference. She did record a message that was played during the general session for so many who have come to know her so well over the past 25 years. “I’m usually here behind the podium giving this award, so it’s a little awkward to be receiving it this year,” Kathy said. “I can only tell you that I am truly honored and very proud to be part of the huge team of ethanol pioneers.”
Energy Independence is a civilization changing idea, like freedom, one that should be thought of much like we think of our national independence—our liberty, which is both an ideal and a physical reality. Energy Independence can and should be pursued with the same patriotic spirit that fought for, won and sustains American democracy and freedom.
“With the 60-day comment period extension, EPA seeks to provide the public adequate time to provide meaningful comment while finalizing and implementing the standards in a timely manner,” the agency stated 
President Obama announced his 
The blunder occurred when Rep. Aaron Schock (R-IL) asked Ms. Oge, who is responsible for regulating all emissions within the United States, about the indirect land use issue. “It’s my understanding that the EPA’s Renewable Fuels Standard 2 methodology assumes that for every acre of soybean crop that is used to produce biofuel, an equal acre of ground is used in the Brazilian rainforest to replace that acreage, is that correct?” asked Schock.
Chu also suggested that car manufacturers ought to make all new automobiles flex-fuel capable. “I’ve been told it costs about $100 in gaskets and fuel lines to turn a car so that it can go all the way to E85,” Chu said. “But a new car , it would only cost $100 out of $15,000. Wouldn’t it be nice to put in those fuel lines and gaskets so that we can use any ratio we wanted?” He said that while mandating that companies make all vehicles flex-fuel is “beginning to be discussed” by the administration, they first want to “see about whether the current fleet can take 15 percent or 13 percent ethanol.”
The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is seeking comments until July 6 on a proposed petition to deregulate genetically modified (GM) corn that improves ethanol production.
The amendment offered by Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO) was defeated by just one vote during consideration of the FY 2010 $32 billion spending bill for EPA and the Interior Department, which was approved. The committee did vote to ask USDA to study the issue of indirect land use changes as it relates to biofuels. 
But wait just a minute. The latest 
Dave Vander Griend, president and CEO of 
A quarter of a century ago, hardly anyone even knew what ethanol was, much less that it had the potential to fuel automobiles. 
Kathy’s roots are in corn farming and she was the first woman to serve on the board of directors of the National Corn Growers Association back in the 1980s. She was known as the “Ethanol Lady” for her efforts as a relentless promoter of ethanol on both the state and national level, speaking to Congress and even meeting with presidents to educate them about the benefits of fuel ethanol.