Domestic Fuel

Another place Domestic Fuel will be on Wednesday is at a press conference where a group of Missouir farmer-investors will announce plans for a joint venture with Cargill “to enhance the future of Missouri’s biodiesel industry.” Missouri Senator Jim Talent will also be there at the Cargill Soybean Processing Facility in Kansas City, right after he gets an award at the ACE meeting – giving equal time for ethanol and biodiesel.

We hope to get that interview with a Cargill rep about food versus fuel while we are there.

Domestic Fuel will be in Kansas City on Wednesday for the American Coalition for Ethanol 19th Ethanol Conference & Trade Show. This event is SOLD OUT with 1500 participants – no on-site registrations will be accepted. So, if you have not registered and want to know what’s happening there, you can find out here on DF.

We expect to bring you comments from Missouri Governor Matt Blunt and Kansas Governor Karen Sebelius and much more. Stay tuned.

During a visit to Sioux City, Iowa on Tuesday, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns released the latest farm bill forum theme paper – this one on USDA’s role in renewable energy and energy efficiency programs.

“During the Farm Bill Forums, we heard real enthusiasm from producers about the potential for agriculture to unleash new sources of energy and income,” said Johanns. “We have seen ethanol production more than double in four years. USDA is committed to encouraging the entrepreneurial innovation of America’s farmers and ranchers to help build a new energy economy.”

The renewable energy analysis paper released today, as well as previously released analysis papers, are available at www.usda.gov/farmbill.

The biodiesel boom is changing the dynamics of the global vegetable oil industry, according to a new report out by Rabobank’s Food and Agribusiness Research group. According to a news release, the report “finds that the increasing global appetite for biodiesel and other biofuels is driving demand for vegetable oils to historic levels in world markets, leading to higher prices for vegetable oils relative to meals and causing soybean crushers to reevaluate their business models.”

Alejandro Reca, PhD, Executive Director of Rabobank’s Food and Agribusiness Research group in the Americas says “The tremendous opportunities presented by biodiesel today are attracting non-traditional investors to the agribusiness sector, such as financial institutions and private equity firms, as well as traditional energy and agribusiness players. The result is that our energy and agricultural markets are becoming increasingly interrelated.”

Could it be that we might be able to produce BOTH food and fuel from crops and not have to choose one or the other???

It was one year ago today that President George W. Bush signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005 at the Sandia National Laboratory in Albuquerque, New Mexico. At the signing ceremony, the president said the bill had three main objectives – energy conservation; making more productive use of domestic energy resources, including coal, and nuclear power, and oil and natural gas; and help diversify our energy supply by promoting alternative and renewable energy sources.

For the Renewable Fuels Association, or RFA, the most important part of that bill was the Renewable Fuels Standard, RFS – establishing for the first time a nationwide baseline for renewable fuel use. RFA sent out a release marking the anniversary and noting the “period of unprecedented growth and importance” the ethanol industry has seen over the past year, with construction started on 29 new ethanol biorefineries, representing nearly 2 billion gallons of annual ethanol production capacity.

In that release, there’s a quote from RFA president Bob Dinneen that puts ethanol in perspective with the other points of the energy bill. “While ethanol is not the solution to all of our energy problems, it is a critical element in achieving cleaner-burning fuel and some measure of energy independence. It will take a host of technologies to reach our ultimate goals, but ethanol and other renewable fuels are uniquely positioned to lessen our dependence on foreign oil today and to replace most of our imports in the future.”

This month’s FFA Today! show on RFD-TV will present a special episode featuring bio and renewable fuels initiatives in the United States.

The show will feature an interview with Agriculture Undersecretary Thomas Dorr in Washington, D.C., and a segment on “BioTown, USA” in Indiana.

Along the way, you’ll see how FFA is riding the leading edge of the renewable fuels movement through a Chapters in Action segment featuring FFA chapters across the nation and the creative ways they are participating in renewable fuels projects.

FFA Today! airs Monday, Aug. 21 at 8 p.m. eastern on RFD-TV.

The first 100-percent pure biodiesel race boat arrived last week in Seattle. Earthrace, “the World’s Coolest Boat,” is on a promotional tour in advance of its assault on the record for circumnavigating the globe, according to a release from Imperium Renewables, formally known as Seattle Biodiesel.

Not only is it cool-looking, it’s cool-burning — as its biodiesel engines emit 78 percent less carbon dioxide.

Through a sponsorship by the Port of Seattle, the boat was on display at Bell Harbor Marina through Sunday, August 6. It then heads down the Pacific Coast, stopping in Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego before cutting through the Panama Canal en route to the eastern United States. Stops are planned on the east coast in Annapolis, Richmond, New York and Portland, Maine.

Check out the port tour site for exact days when the cool Earthrace boat will be in your area.

Boat photo by John King courtesy of Earthrace.

The National Corn Growers Association participated in a two-day workshop in Washington, D.C. last week aimed at setting initiatives to reduce the nation’s dependence on imported oil by increasing the usage of renewable fuels like ethanol in the transportation sector, according to an NCGA release.

The workshop was hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and the Office of Biomass Program as part of the department’s effort to achieve the goals set forth in the Bush administration’s Biofuels Initiative.

The initiative focused heavily on how to make cellulosic ethanol cost competitive by 2012 and to reduce the nation’s dependence on oil imports by 75 percent by 2025. The initiative aims to achieve a volumetric goal of 60 billion gallons of biofuels (or 30 percent of 2004 gasoline consumption equivalent) by 2030.

The agenda included discussions on collaborative planning efforts and breakout sessions, including wet and dry mill corn processing, agricultural residues, infrastructure needs and identification of barriers to biofuel expansion by 2012 in order for the United States to meet the 30×30 biofuels goal.

Aventine Renewable Energy Holdings, Inc., has finalized its purchase of land from the Aurora Cooperative in Aurora, Neb. to build a 220 million gallon per year ethanol plant. The site is adjacent to an existing 50 million gallon ethanol facility operated by Nebraska Energy, LLC., of which Aventine is a majority partner/owner.

Aventine has also announced that it will be the exclusive marketer for Heartland Grain Fuels LP’s recently completed expansion of its Huron, South Dakota ethanol facility. Heartland, an existing Aventine marketing alliance partner, completed the expansion of its Huron facility from 12 million gallons per year to 30 million gallons per year in July.

Hartley, Iowa, has been selected as the site for VeraSun’s new 110-million-gallon-per-year ethanol production facility in northwestern Iowa. According to a company release, construction of the plant, planned to begin later this year, will take approximately 16 months. When completed, the plant will process more than 39 million bushels of corn annually and employ approximately 50 skilled workers. VeraSun expects to enter into contracts with ICM and Fagen, Inc. for engineering and construction services for the facility.

Directly on the heels of last week’s groundbreaking and announcement of two more plant sites in Nebraska, Midwest Etahnol announced yet another plant site this week, this one in Blencoe, Iowa. This little town of 213 people is located very close to the Nebraska/Iowa border and the proposed plant site is 477 acres of family owned property, which John Kant, corporate director of public relations for Midwest Ethanol Producers says is ideal for the project.
“You have to be near a rail; you have to have enough corn; and you have to have enough cattle to sell the (dry distiller’s grain) to,” Kant said.

The other four Midwest Ethanol plants are in Phelps, Holt, Furnas and Dawson counties in Nebraska. Here is another picture of the Holt County groundbreaking last week, thanks to Kurt Bravo. Kurt, could you identify the folks in the photo for us?

The Ethanol Promotion and Information Council agency retreat in Omaha is over. Isn’t this a fine looking bunch?

EPIC works with a variety of agencies on different projects that includes everything from member communications to consumer awareness and education. Representatives from the various agencies came together over the last 2 days to discuss plans for the coming year.

As our primary sponsor here on Domestic Fuel we are involved in making sure we cover the organization’s activities since they’re so active on the consumer education front nationally. There’s a lot of excitement within this group as they look at how to continue to promote this energy alternative.

Hello from Omaha, NE. It’s a rare opportunity for both Cindy and I to travel together but it worked out for this meeting today with the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council. As you know, they are our primary sponsor and it’s through their efforts and support that Domestic Fuel exists.

Today we’re getting an opportunity to learn more about them and interact with other companies that are providing various types of services for them. The organization is a little over a year old and it’s time to look forward to the next year. I’m sure this will be interesting.

Lots of stories out about Archer Daniels Midland’s big fourth quarter profits on the strength of ethanol. ADM’s quarterly profit more than doubled from last year to $410 million, or 62 cents per share on “strong results from oilseed processing and ethanol.”

Overall, ADM shares have risen 77 percent this year. Earnings from its bioproducts division, which includes ethanol, catapulted to $174 million from $25 million last year.

Shoulda bought that ADM stock in January …

Here we go again – feast or famine time. Reuters is reporting that there could be a “looming glut” of ethanol ahead. Just a month ago we couldn’t produce enough.

I especially like the fact that this story is based on the predictions of one person, Fimat Energy analyst Antoine Halff, who says, “Surging capacity … poses daunting challenges for the ethanol industry, including heightened competition for feedstock and the logistical headache and costs of shipping ethanol from the Midwest to the main gasoline markets.”

Halff predicts that by the end of 2008, ethanol production capacity in the Midwest will be sufficient to replace 25 percent of Midwestern gasoline demand and he suggests that the solution to the problem will likely be the wider adoption of E85.

Sounds like good news to me.