Domestic Fuel

The Ethanol Summit is now in full swing. Buddy Rahal and his 3 drivers got us started with short statements. Tony George, President of the IRL, (pictured) just finished speaking.

Right now Greg Dana, brother to the late Paul Dana is speaking. It’s a very emotional moment and you can hear it in his voice. I know we all wish Paul was still here with us to celebrate this week’s race and the use of ethanol in the Indy car tanks.

I’ll have a number of posts with audio for you after the morning’s activities are completed. Coming up on the agenda are several more speakers.

To get you in the Indy mood today, here’s an interview I did on Ethanol Day with the number 17 car driver, Jeff Simmons.

Jeff talks about the significance of the event. He talks about how his fellow drivers feel about putting ethanol in their cars.

You can listen to my interview with Jeff here: Jeff Simmons Interview (3 min MP3)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (1.8MB)

It’s a beautiful Thursday morning trackside here in Indianapolis as we get ready for the Ethanol Forum. As you know, our primary sponsor is the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council and they are very involved in the event being held here this morning.

On the agenda this morning we’re going to hear from people like Jeff Simmons, Bobby Rahal, Danica Patrick, Buddy Rice, Tony George, Tom Slunecka, Becky Skillman and USDA Under Secretary for Rural Development, Tom Dorr. I’ll have audio and pictures later today for you.

Hopefully, the rain that passed through last night will leave us alone this morning.

Time to take a break, as in drive to Indianapolis. Tomorrow there will be an Ethanol Forum taking place and I’ll be there. I’ll be posting lots of interviews and pictures all the way through the race on Sunday from the pagoda, as they call the media center building trackside.

I hope you enjoy our coverage of the race and surrounding activities.

There is no shortage of ethanol news this week as we get closer to the Indianapolis 500. This story is about a new ethanol plant in Iowa. The Broin Companies just announced that Frontier Ethanol, LLC, near Gowrie, Iowa, is the 100th ethanol plant to begin operations in the United States. The Sioux Falls, SD-based company developed, designed, engineered, and built the facility and will provide management and marketing services. There’s a grand opening planned for tomorrow.

“The Broin Companies built one of the first successful ethanol production plants in America in the early 1980s and we are thrilled that our plant, Frontier Ethanol, is our nation’s 100th,” exclaimed Jeff Broin, CEO of the Broin Companies. “This is a tremendous milestone for our industry and our organization.”
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It’s time once again for an Indy week interview. This time it’s with Tom Branhan, CEO of Glacial Lakes Energy, a farmer-owned ethanol plant in Watertown, SD.

Tom is also President of the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council, one of our primary sponsors. I intereviewed Tom on Ethanol Day in Indianapolis. He tells us a little bit about the success of his company and gives us some information about EPIC and how it’s working to promote ethanol. He also explains what the activities of Ethanol Day mean to the industry.

You can listen to my interview with Tom here: Tom Branhan Interview (5 min MP3)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (3.7MB)

I didn’t attend but Claire did and sent in a great photo.

This weekend, the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council participated in the Wichita River Festival, a 10-day long celebration of the beautiful Arkansas River in downtown Wichita. The Indy Simulator had people lining up for hours to take a shot at getting the best time in what is essentially a gigantic video game.

This young soldier was having a great time!

Thanks Claire!

A Missouri-based company is getting ready to give away a new Ford F-150 flexible fuel truck. It’s MFA Oil Company and they’ll be announcing full details on Friday, May 26. Wish I could be there.

Basically, MFA Oil is partnering with Mid-Missouri Energy to help make corn-based E85 more affordable and accessible around the state. At the announcement event on Friday, MFA Oil President Jerry Taylor will explain “the numerous benefits of this project, including how it can potentially decrease Missourians dependence on foreign fuels, lower their prices at the pump, provide a boon to the corn farming industry and improve air quality.”
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As we work our way closer to the Indianapolis 500 I’ve got an interview for you to listen to today with ICM CEO, Dave Vander Griend. Dave is a founder of the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council. His company is a design/engineering firm for ethanol plants.

Dave got interested in the Indy Racing League partnership when he met the late Paul Dana. He talks about that relationship in the interview. I intereviewed Dave on Ethanol Day in Indianapolis. He has a great way of looking at why the promotion and development of ethanol as an alternative fuel is so important to the United States.

You can listen to my interview with Dave here: Dave Vander Griend Interview (7 min MP3)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (3.5MB)

Times they are a changing. For example, look at this 1955 tv commercial for Speedway 79′s Powerfuel on Cartoon Modern.

Why can’t we have fun commercials like this anymore? I wonder what an animated commercial for biodiesel or ethanol would look like done in this style.

Story via Adjab.

After attending the BIO 2006 Convention I’m sure that any event being organized by BIO will be world class. That’s what the upcoming World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioprocessing sounds like it will be. This is the 3rd time the event will be held.

The advance release says it will display, “The latest advances in industrial biotechnology for renewable fuel and sustainable consumer products made from agricultural feedstocks.”

The Congress, to be held July 11-14, 2006 at the Toronto Westin Harbour Castle Hotel, is hosted by the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), American Chemical Society, the National Agriculture Biotechnology Council, the Agri-Food Innovation Forum, the Chemical Institute of Canada, BIOTECanada and EuropaBIO.
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A new organization is just getting itself started to “Promote Clean and Secure Energy for Transportation.” It’s the Transportation Energy Partnership (TEP). The Executive Director is Thomas Gross, former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Transportation Technologies in the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy office of the Department of Energy. Tom spoke at the recent Clean Cities Congress and I recorded his remarks.

TEP is the new name of the former National Clean Cities, Inc. Gross says that the mission of the TEP is to support the work of Clean Cities Coalitions nationally, primarily by obtaining new funding. Learn more about TEP by listening to his comments here: Tom Gross Comments (4 min MP3)

Before leaving the stage at the Clean Cities Congress Tom received several new memberships for TEP including a corporate one from the Alternative Fuel Vehicle Institute. If you’re interested to learn more you can give Tom a call at 703-273-0631. The organization address is: P. O. Box 70, Fairfax, VA 22038-0070.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (1.9MB)

Small and limited resource farmers as well as any producers might be interested in USDA’s “Energy In Agriculture, Managing The Risk” conference in Kansas City, MO on June 27-28. You can register online for $90 before June 5. Here’s a draft agenda (pdf file). Some travel scholarships are available if applied for prior to May 30.
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It’s the final week before the Indianapolis 500. Time to get revved up. I’ll be heading on over later this week. On Thursday the IRL is having an Ethanol Forum which will feature speakers like IRL founder Tony George and USDA Under Secretary for Rural Development, Tom Dorr. I’ll report on it for you right here.

In leading up to the activities in Indiana I’m going to post some more interviews I conducted during Ethanol Day a couple of weeks ago. So let’s get started. One of the founders of the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council is Jeff Broin, CEO of the Broin Companies, designers and builders of ethanol plants. Jeff is pictured on the left, next to another EPIC founder, Dave Vander Griend, CEO of ICM. They were watching Ethanol Car practice lap action in the pits. Jeff describes what EPIC does and what he thinks of all the publicity generated by the ethanol/IRL matchup.

You can listen to my interview with Jeff here: Jeff Broin Interview (3 min MP3)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (2.0MB)

People who keep track of such things say that higher gas prices are causing a major increase in web searches for domestic fuel terms such as ethanol and biodiesel. According to Hitwise, the share of U.S. internet searches for the term ‘ethanol’ was up 212 percent for the four weeks ending May 13, 2006 versus the four weeks ending April 15, 2006. Additionally, the share of searches for ‘biodiesel’ was up 100 percent in that same period. Hitwise is “the leading online competitive intelligence service,” according to the company’s website.
Traffic on Domestic Fuel has seen a significant increase in the past 30 days – up over 50 percent and growing every day.