Domestic Fuel

Fortunately, the longest presentation at the Ethanol Summit was one of the most interesting. Will Steger narrated a slide show of his various expeditions across frozen ice lands in Antarctica, the North Pole and the Greenland ice cap. He spoke of temperatures 30 degrees below freezing with 30 mile an hour winds. But, amidst all that freezing cold Will said he witnessed evidence that suggests the reality of global warming. Will said significant climate changes are causing large remnants of ice from the last ice age to break up and begin to melt. He said one ice shelf took him 21 days to cross and in 2002 the entire shelf disintegrated in just a matter of four weeks, and another ice shelf was completely gone a night after he crossed it. Will said these are real affects of global warming – a global warming he says the human population is contributing to and altering. For Will, the diminishing summer sea ice suggests the earth is experiencing what he calls “unnatural climate changes.” I stopped Will just after the summit for a personal interview and asked him why, exactly, these examples are evidence of something more than a cyclical climate change:

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The “Ethanol Summit” included an impressive list of speakers and both local and national press arrived to cover it. The Ethanol Information and Promotional Council, IndyCar Series, Indianopolis Motor Speedway and Rahal Letterman Racing sponsored the event. EPIC officials said the summit was meant to commemorate what the company calls “monumental use” of 100 percent fuel-grade ethanol in the IndyCar® Series as well as ethanol’s first Indy 500 win.

President of the IndyCar Series Terry Angstadt stepped up to the podium first to talk about the IndyCar® Series as a leader in the “Greening of Racing” trend and elaborated on the performance benefits that ethanol provides. EPIC Executive Director Tom Slunecka stressed the importance of consumers in the push for the growth of ethanol fuel. Slunecka said consumers and consumer education are key in raising awareness about ethanol. Jim Gentry, Fuel Manager for GasAmerica, added that retailers need to recognize their responsibility in the future of America’s energy. Gentry called the leaders in the fuel retail industry to support E85 initiatives. Dave Vander Griend with ICM and Andy Karsner, the U.S. Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy echoed Gentry’s claim that ethanol is set to be a key energy resource for the future. Director of the SmartWay Program Mitch Greenburg spoke on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency. Greenburg commended the Indy Racing Leauge for being one of the first organizations to make a complete transition to a biofuel. He says that “impressive” move highlights the importance of home-grown renewable fuels.
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Today’s Ethanol Summit is over and Laura McNamara is working up her coverage for you. She’ll have pictures and audio interviews posted soon.

Here’s a picture of Indy Racing League president, Terry Angstadt at the podium. He started off a great group of people speaking about ethanol and racing.

In the meantime it sounds like the Indy cars are running some practice laps here at the track. I’m going to go out and see if I can find some photo opportunities or other stories.

Winning a two year lease on a Flex-Fuel Chevy Silverado would be pretty cool and apparently a lot of people thought so. HANK FM, along with Gas America and EPIC ran the Green Flag Sweepstakes with the winner being picked yesterday afternoon after the pump promotion. HANK was doing a live remote throughout the event. Here’s how it worked.

Participants had to listen to the station or visit a Gas America station for keywords. Then they had to text the word to the station and if they were a winner they got a bounce back text message saying so. The winners all had to show up to press a buzzer and if it played “Dixie” you won a 2-year lease on a Flex-Fuel Chevy Silverado!

Well the winner is Kathleen from Franklin, IN. She was very excited as you can tell. Kathleen is pictured in the center between HANK on-air personalities and representatives from EPIC and Gas America. I interviewed her to see how she felt and what she thinks of ethanol.

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Only in Washington, DC would you find the genesis of a headline like that. But this story in The Hill.com says a brouhaha is breaking out in the nation’s capitol over the $1-a-gallon renewable diesel tax credit.

Lobbyists for ConocoPhillips, Tyson, and the Soap and Detergent Association have jumped into the fight over whether oil companies should be able to use the credit. The IRS ruled last month that they should be able to. That prompted Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) to introduce a bill to repeal the ruling and narrow the tax break’s scope to what Congress had originally intended.

Tyson got involved because it’s going to provide animal fats to Conoco to produce as much as 175 million gallons of biodiesel… grabbing its share from the credit.

Soap makers are concerned that the cost of animal fat – that they use in making soap – will go up:

In this economic food chain, the soap industry could soon be extinct, according to Dennis Griesing, vice president of government affairs for the Soap and Detergent Association.

“If they start buying up animal fats, it can suck it all up, and we’re dead,” Griesing said.
“We’ve been here forever, and we’re dead.”

Several other livestock producer groups including the National Pork Producers and the National Chicken Council want the more liberal ruling by the IRS.

Interesting how some of the same livestock producers – farmers who have hogs and soybeans – could find themselves on both sides of the issue… making themselves as their own strange political bedfellow.

A new report coming out of Great Britain says using biodiesel in place of ultra-low sulfur diesel can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by an amazing 94%… and reduce energy use by up to 97%.

Check out this story in Biofuel Review:

A summary of the research was launched today (23rd May) at a meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Renewable Fuels Group. The Chairman of NorthEast Biofuels, John Reynolds, said: “We commissioned this research to understand more about the energy use and greenhouse gas emissions during the whole production process for biodiesel. The findings are extremely encouraging and will help us in our future planning to ensure that we are optimizing our processes to make the maximum possible savings.

The research took account of the energy used and the greenhouse gases produced at every stage of the process. This included all the activity and materials used to produce the crop on the farm, from the time it is planted through to harvesting, transportation and storage, processing into biodiesel, and delivery for use.

Researchers say this should help dispel some of the recent criticisms that biodiesel is not all that environmentally friendly.

Biodiesel giant Imperium Renewables is looking to get $345 million in investments in an initial public offering. You might remember Imperium from our previous posts about how the Seattle-based company is building a 100 million gallon a year refinery (Feb. 2nd) – one of the biggest in the nation – and how it secured a record $214 million investment (Feb. 21st) and how building the big refinery on the West Coast is helping that area’s economy (March 8th).

This story in the Seattle Times says the company is continuing to grow and will have more than 400 million gallons of production capacity by the end of next year:

In a regulatory filing today, Imperium also said it has a contractual commitment from one large industrial user to buy at least 18 million gallons of biodiesel annually for approximately five years. It said that is “the single largest long-term biodiesel sales contract to an end user in the U.S.”

Biodiesel consumption is growing rapidly in the U.S., but so is production capacity. Use increased from 500,000 gallons in 1999 to an estimated 250 million gallons last year, according to Imperium’s filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The stock is going to be sold under the proposed ticker symbol IMPR. Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers, and UBS Investment Bank will underwrite the offerings.

It was an afternoon of dodging the drivers of cars, trucks and SUVs. All were eager to find their place at the pumps that offered E10 fuel for just $2.25. Finally, I bumped into IndyCar Driver Scott Sharp. He seemed just as enthusiastic as the consumers. Scott said he thinks the growing use of ethanol is exciting. He said the IndyCar Series deserves a lot of credit for being on the frontier of the ethanol industry. He pointed out that the transition to 100 percent ethanol was a big transformation for the series. Ultimately, Scott said ethanol offers more power in the cars’ engines and better fuel economy. He asked, if IndyCar Drivers can be out running 230 miles an hour on ethanol, “why can’t every car in America?” As Scott dished on the benefits of ethanol, he also freely doled out his autograph:

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I made good time at the Gas America promotion and managed to keep a steady pace in tracking down the drivers. My chat with IndyCar Driver Sarah Fisher shed more light on what ethanol is doing for the Indy Racing League. She said it’s great to be a part of the first series to be thinking green. Sarah added more people thinking about ethanol means a larger industry that would potentially lead to lower rates for fuel. With the IRL running all of its cars on 100 percent ethanol fuel, she said one noticeable difference is the smell. But, more importantly, Sarah talked about how the fuel makes racing more efficient:

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In the consumer frenzy to get discounted ethanol gas at GasAmerica, I managed to flag down IndyCar Driver Jeff Simmons as he pumped fuel and passed out autographs. Jeff said a lot of motorists don’t know where to get ethanol blended fuel. He added that, often, consumers are putting an ethanol blend in their car and don’t even know it. He said EPIC is working to educate motorists about ethanol and where they can get the fuel:

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