Domestic Fuel

Early risers will now have a little more time to electronically trade futures contracts for ethanol on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT).

Electronic trading hours for CBOT grains, oilseeds and ethanol contracts will be expanded in the morning by one hour and fifteen minutes, until 7:15 a.m., starting July 1.

The new electronic trading hours will run from 6:00 p.m. to 7:15 a.m. central time Sunday through Friday for futures and options on futures for full and mini-size where offered corn, wheat, soybeans, soymeal, soyoil, rice, oats and ethanol contracts. Daytime electronic and open outcry hours will remain from 9:30 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. weekdays.

Last year was a big year for growth in the American wind energy field, as the U.S. added more than 8,300 megawatts of capacity in 2008… a record year!

This article in the Des Moines (IA) Register says officials with the industry, along with a governor from a state that is really making headways in wind energy, were on Capitol Hill to warn Congress that the current proposed legislation doesn’t support the same continued growth:

A bill approved by a House committee last month and another under consideration in the Senate would require utilities to get a certain percentage of their power from renewable sources starting in 2012, but the targets are well below what the wind power industry wanted.

To maintain the level of construction in the wind power industry last year – about 8,500 megawatts – the mandate would have to start at 10 percent in 2012, according to the American Wind Energy Association.

House and Senate leaders agree they would like to see the higher mandate but don’t think that 10 percent level would make it through Congress. Lawmakers from southern states that don’t have as much wind potential are seen as the biggest roadblocks.

Catching a cab at Phoenix’s Sky Harbor International Airport could soon be a greener proposition.

The Arizona Republic reports that the city council has voted in a new rule that will require taxis at the airport to use one of several alternative fuels:

Under the new rules taxicabs would have the choice of using compressed natural gas; liquid propane gas, or LPG; or E85 ethanol fuel…

In practice, however, a loophole allowed the airport to make exceptions to the CNG rule. Because of this, many of the airport’s 170 airport taxis are powered by gasoline.

The change could be implemented by early next year.

Biodiesel is still having a tough go of it… just like many other businesses in today’s economy. The latest victim of the economic downturn is Sanimax Energy, which has had to temporarily close its DeForest, Wisconsin plant… the first biodiesel plant to open in the Badger State two years ago.

This story in the Wisconsin Ag Connection says the refinery, which turned used restaurant grease into the green fuel, has had to layoff 20 of its 30 workers who work in the biodiesel wing of the facility:

A spokesperson for the Canadian-based Sanimax, which has 24 locations across the continent and three other facilities in Wisconsin, says the closing is attributed to the economy. The firm did not release a possible re-opening date.

Sanimax began construction of its 15,000 square-foot plant in early 2006. In May 2007, the company sold its first large-scale load of fuel to Progressive Farmers Cooperative in Northeast Wisconsin. Sanimax was using a patented multi-feedstock technology developed by Nova Biosource Fuels to transform recycled cooking grease, rendered animal fats and vegetable oils into high-quality, clean burning biodiesel fuel.

The good news is, though, Sanimax’s partnership with BEST Energies in Cashton, Wi. will still produce biodiesel from the corn oil leftover from making corn into ethanol.

The chair of the U.S. Senate’s Ag Committee says the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed Indirect Land Use Rule, which would make biodiesel ineligible for mandates and federal subsidies, is not good science… and he believes there are enough votes in Congress to keep it from going into effect.

Agriculture Online reports that the EPA’s proposal would use the concept of increasing acreage for ethanol and biodiesel crops in the U.S. leads to deforestation and grassland destruction in other nations. Corn-based ethanol would receive a waiver, but biodiesel would not. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) said more than 100 scientists are questioning the EPA’s theory:

“I think EPA is way off the mark on this,” he said.

Two Republican Senators have already introduced bills that would require EPA to not use indirect land use when it calculates the carbon footprint of biofuels. That requirement currently is part of the 2007 energy bill that ramps up federal mandates for biofuel use in the nation’s fuel supply.

Harkin has been joined in his criticism of the EPA by fellow Iowan Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who went to the floor of the Senate earlier this week to blast the EPA assumptions:

“The EPA’s models conclude that international land use contributes more in greenhouse gases than the entire direct emissions of ethanol production and use — from the growing the crop, the production of ethanol at the refinery, to the tailpipe emissions when it’s burned,” Grassley said. “The ripple effects are greater than the direct effects. This conclusion is ludicrous.”

Bipartisan bashing of the EPA… now that’s what I call government at its best!

Biodiesel and ethanol have borne the brunt of criticism in the food versus fuel debate… being blamed, unfairly as it turns out, for the spike in food prices last year. The issue was one that came up at the recent World Ag Forum in St. Louis (see our coverage of the event over at our sister Web site, AgWired.com) that saw delegates from around the world gather with some varying opinions… especially when it comes to biofuels. It was important enough that the organizers of the forum dedicated an entire session on the second day to the subject.

In this edition of the Domestic Fuel Cast, we listen in on some of the conversation that included American Farm Bureau President Bob Stallman; Henk Joos, the Plant Science and Agronomy director for British-based biofuels maker D1 Oils; former Secretary of Agriculture for India Radha Singh; Lee Broughton with car rental company Enterprise; Bill Horan, an Iowa corn and soybean farmer and a member of 25x’25 (an initiative to get the US to produce 25 percent of its fuel from renewable sources by the year 2025); and professor Nuhu Hatibu, CEO of Kilimo Trust, East Africa.

Pretty interesting conversation, and you can hear it here: DFCast-6-05-09.mp3

You can also subscribe to the DomesticFuel Cast here.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (4.1MB)

The first Minnesota E85 Promotion of the season will be next Friday, June 12th in Alexandria. The alternative fuel facility will sell E85 for 85 cents off per gallon from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.

Kelly Marzak of Clean Fuel & Vehicle Technologies, American Lung Association in Minnesota, and American Lung Association of the Upper Midwest noted that the Pipeline Travel Plaza is a new truck stop that opened and began selling E85 in November. The E85 promotion will coincide with their grand opening celebration. Invitations have been sent to more than 1200 flex fuel vehicle owners in the Alexandria area.

The Pipeline Travel Plaza is located at Highway 27 W & Cty Rd 45 (3181 Evergreen Ln) in Alexandria, Minnesota. “If you or someone you know drives an FFV, stop by for a great price on E85,” said Marzak.

Supporters of the event include Douglas County Corn & Soybean Growers, Minnesota Corn Growers Association and members of the MN Clean Air Choice Team.

Thousands of people across the country defined “What is renewable to you?” when they selected the video, “Funky Fresh Flex Fuel” created by Chip McAfee from Arizona as the winner of the E85 Flex-Fuel Challenge. The contest was launched by the Renewable Fuels Association in early March to get a new generation of Americans, mainly college students, engaged in the promotion and support of ethanol. Promotion of the contest was done primarily through social media networks such as Facebook.

Submissions for the contest ended on April 3 and then peer voting took place between April 4-May 29, 2009. From there, a panel of judges selected the final winner, based on creativity, quality and relevance. McAfee won a Macbook Air computer for his winning entry.

A people’s choice award was also given to the entry that received the highest number of total votes through the duration of the contest. The photo submission, “University of Wisconsin-Platteville,” won this award and the photographer received a Passport hard drive.

The Fuel-Flex Challenge was sponsored by the Kansas Corn Commission, the Kentucky Corn Growers Association, the United Sorghum Checkoff Program and the Renewable Fuels Association. The fun will continue this summer with the launch of a new photo contest. Stay tuned for more details.

A dozen cars have just finished a West Coast road trip that saw the caravan of hydrogen-powered vehicles make the nine-day, 28-stop trip from Southern California to Vancouver in Canada.

The Examiner.com reports that the Hydrogen Road Tour featured a variety of vehicles, including the Chevy Equinox FCV, the Honda FCX Clarity and two different Volkswagens… among others:

So there was a configuration for everyone, from SUV’s to vans to the Daimler F-Cell that resembles the Smart fortwo, a compact urban vehicle. Fuel hydrogen is measured differently than gasoline so miles-per-gallon comparisons are a bit dodgy, but the Road Tour team estimates the cars on the tour are getting 60 to 70 mpg equivalent on the road…

Sandy Thomas, president of H2Gen Innovations believes that a hydrogen infrastructure could be put into place with public/private investments of about $15 billion over 14 years, much less than the Iraq War or the federal ethanol subsidy.

The road trip finished at the Hydrogen + Fuel Cells 2009 convention… billed as Canada’s premier international hydrogen and fuel cell event.

Small wind turbines in the U.S. are growing at a very rapid rate.

EnvironmentalLeader.com reports that the market for small wind turbines… those that produce 100 kilowatts or less… grew by a whopping 78 percent last year… following a trend discovered in an American Wind Energy Association study that showed there was about 17.3 megawatts of new small wind capacity installed in the U.S. and about 38.7 MW installed worldwide in 2008:

Denise Bode, CEO for AWEA, said in a press release that strong federal policies like the federal investment tax credit for small wind are critical to future growth. Wind energy leaders recently discussed how much the industry will rely on government incentives and standards to maintain its high growth at the Wind Power 2009 Conference in May. AWEA recently reported that more than 2,800 WM of wind energy was installed in the United States over the first quarter of 2009, which is enough to power 816,000 homes.

The 2009 Small Wind Global Market Study finds that U.S. manufacturers sold about half of all small wind turbines installed worldwide last year, with the U.S. market share accounting for $77 million of the $156 million global total. Growth in the small wind sector is attributed to increased private investment that has allowed manufacturing volumes to increase, particularly for the commercial segment of the market (systems 21-100 kW systems), according to the study.

The article goes on to say that a recent poll of small wind manufacturers finds they believe there will be a 30-fold growth in the U.S. small wind market within five years, in spite of the tough economic conditions.

In a move that could set the company up to deliver biodiesel to all of New England, New Jersey-based biodiesel maker Innovation Fuels will open operations at a Connecticut terminal this month.

This story in the New Haven (CT) Register says Innovation will ship the green fuel from its plant in Newark, N.J. by barge, rail and truck to the New Haven Terminal:

“We can easily serve all of New England,” [Paul Niznik, vice president of strategic operations] said Tuesday. He estimated they will move about 1 million gallons a month and bring five jobs to the port.

He said the company also plans to work with small producers of biodiesel, such as Greenleaf Biofuels, run by Gus Kellogg, who has approval for a processing plant in the North Yard of the port off Wheeler Street.

As you might remember from my post on May 14th, Innovation recently started selling biodiesel out of the Port of Milwaukee.

With the tidal wave rushing in a new green economy, companies are attempting to ride the waves. But many are being pulled under by the tow, including many of the very groups who are supposed to be the top surfers. “Green Inc,” is an expose about how the world of conversation and those who swim in it, are crashing.

Green, Inc. was written by author Christine MacDonald, who left her job as a journalist to join the public relations team with one of the largest environmental groups in the world, Conservation International (CI). It was during this time she discovered that something was “deeply wrong” in the world of conservationism. MacDonald was disturbed so much so that when laid off, she wrote a book about the serious issues embedded in environmental groups.

One of the biggest conundrums she tackles is whether it is morally and ethically wrong for an environmental organization to take money from the groups that it is trying to police. Some environmental groups argue that taking money from companies like Exxon Mobil, Bunge, International Paper, and others, is a way to “influence corporate leaders to change their polluting ways”.

Yet these environmental offenders believe that donating money to groups like CI, World Wildlife Fund, Environmental Defense, Natural Resources Defense Council, and others, will give them “reputation insurance” or a “get out of jail free card” on their environmental rap sheet. Oftentimes, MacDonald cites, these groups actually give these environmental offenders awards for their “sustainability” programs.  Now that’s an oxymoron if I’ve ever heard one.
Read the rest of this post…

The Communicating Renewables Webinar Program kicked off the first of its six part series designed to help arm communications professionals with the tools they will need to approach, head on, the challenging task of getting the positive message about renewable energy, technologies and research out to consumers, stakeholders, policy leaders, and the media. Jay Byrne, president of Fluence Interactive Public Relations, Inc. (v-Fluence) presented yesterday on Social Networking and how one can refute the misconceptions and negativity in the renewable energy arena.

“The internet is the starting point where people collect information,” noted Byrne. “It is more influential than all other media.”

Byrne also said that over 90 percent of individuals use a search engine to inquire about issues and this is where organizations can target their message. He stressed the value of influencing search results against terms people use with your content and that of others who agree with you; extending availability and visibility of supportive content into multi-media channels; making your content available (and part of) relevant new and social media conversations; and finally having your content validated (amplified) by appropriate third-parties online (via repetition and links).

As the host of the Communicating Webinar Series, Joanna Schroeder, APR, Principal of 4R Communications said, “In an over crowded marketplace, content and relationships rule. It’s important that communicators remember that some of the most simple and effective tools will help us gain consumer support. Some of these tactics include coalition building, developing relationships with energy experts and energy reporters, and bringing all of these people together through dynamic web content.”

The next Communicating Webinar Series will be on June 9 and presented by Sean O’Hanlon, Founder and Executive Director of American Biofuels Coalition and Tom Collina, Executive Director of 2020 Vision. The topic of the webinar will be Unification of Messages through Coalition Building — Best Practices. For more information, click here.

Biodiesel producers won’t have to fly blind when trying to decide if an operation will be profitable or not.

Biodiesel Magazine reports the Ag Marketing Resource Center, an online center hosted by Iowa State University Extension Service, is offering biodiesel profitability spreadsheets:

“We put together what we think is a ballpark or typical biodiesel plant in Iowa to give an overview where the industry is going,” explained Don Hofstrand, co-director of the AgMRC, .

The biodiesel profitability spreadsheet plugs in the figures for a hypothetical 30 MMgy biodiesel plant based in Iowa including fixed and variable costs and product prices. With the launching of the spreadsheet, the Iowa-based prices for biodiesel, soybean oil, methanol and natural gas will be updated monthly. “We don’t do monthly updates for glycerin because we couldn’t find a good data series for glycerin in Iowa,” Hofstrand said. He was a bit surprised to see how small of a factor glycerin was in the overall biodiesel profitability analysis, he added.

You can download the Biodiesel Profitability Chart at www.agmrc.org and see for yourself how the Excel spreadsheet can plug in a plant’s actual fixed and variable costs and efficiencies and see how those play out.

Pennsylvania’s governor is looking to the federal government to help along his state’s biodiesel and alternative fuel vehicle industries.

Governor Ed Rendell is asking the U.S. Department of Energy for $15 million in federal stimulus bucks for Alternative Fuel and Advanced Technology Vehicles Pilot Grants:

“As part of Pennsylvania’s Energy Independence Strategy, the PennSecurity Fuels Initiative mandates the production and use of renewable fuels to grow the state’s economy and reduce our dependence on foreign fuels,” said Governor Rendell. “The federal recovery money can assist us in our efforts to reach the required goal of one billion gallons of home-grown biofuels be produced and consumed in Pennsylvania by 2017 – an amount equal to what the state will import from the Persian Gulf by that time.”

“The primary objective of this grant is to displace petroleum-based diesel fuel with domestically produced biodiesel and natural gas to fulfill the state’s and federal government’s goals to establish long-term alternative fuel use,” said Governor Rendell. “Adding these alternative fuel facilities and vehicles will enable greater access to biodiesel and CNG within the petroleum supply chain and improve fuel quality.”

The hope is to have 23 biofuel terminals and four retail stations throughout the state, plus two natural gas refueling facilities and compressed natural gas equipment on 36 existing vehicles and 57 new natural gas vehicles for public transit agencies.

Rendell says the only thing hampering biodiesel growth is the lack of availability.