Category Archives: Environment

Save the Carbon Cycle

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menu_05Carbon dioxide has become an enemy of the Earth for its role in contributing to global climate change. One man wants to stop this unfair protrayal of “our friend carbon”. Dr. Norman Airs, the executive director of The Carbon Awareness Institute is on a crusade to save the carbon cycle.

He has appeared on a TV show produced by My Emissions Exchange several times and he wants another chance to defend the carbon cycle. Check out his video and maybe you’ll want to save the carbon cycle too.  BTW – if you defend CO2 you’ll be saving the planet just in time for Earth Day….

Ethanol Blending Tests May Take Another Year

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A senior agency official with the U.S. EPA says they may need another year to determine how blending ethanol in gasoline over the current 10 percent limit would affect vehicles and nonroad equipment.

EPA is working with the Energy Department to try to determine whether “mid-level” blends at 13 or 15 percent will affect emissions controls and engine durability. EPA is under ethanol-industry pressure to allow blends up to 15 percent, especially as the “blendwall” — the point at which the market is saturated at the current 10 percent limit — looms.

Margo Oge, head of EPA’s Office of Transportation and Air Quality, said her agency has been analyzing the issue for years but that more work remains. “We have been working especially closely with the Department of Energy (DOE) to evaluate the impacts of the use of higher blends on the in-use fleet of highway vehicles and nonroad equipment, and hope to complete the testing over the course of the next year,” she said in a statement for a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee panel, which held a hearing on biofuels today. She also noted that DOE is conducting tests on a sampling of newer vehicles to gauge the emissions effects of higher blends.

The 10 percent blend, or E10, is the highest amount that can be blended into most vehicles and equipment, but auto companies are also making flex-fuel vehicles that can run on a much higher blend, up to 85 percent ethanol.

Colorado Celebrates Earth Day

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aglandEarth Day 2009 is April 22, but Agland Cenex fueling stations in Greeley, Colorado will celebrate the day a bit early with their community on April 17. The sites at 1607 2nd Ave. and at 2449 35th Avenue will sell E85 for 85 cents per gallon from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.

co-cornThe first Earth Day was celebrated on April 22, 1970 with about 20 million people across America. Now Earth Day is celebrated annually around the globe. Through the combined efforts of the U.S. government, grassroots organizations, and environmentally caring citizens, what started as a day of national environmental recognition has evolved into a world-wide campaign to protect our global environment.

The Greeley, Colorado Earth Day event is sponsored by Agland, Weld County Garage and Northern Colorado Clean Cities. The E85 stations in Greeley are two of 81 in the state.

Ethanol Plant Looking to Use Wastewater

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corn-plusCorn Plus, an ethanol plant producing 49 million gallons annually in Winnebago, Minnesota, is looking at using wastewater instead of fresh water for its production process. The plant uses up to 350,000 gallons of fresh water daily and sees an opportunity knowing that the city discharges a minimum of the same amount of wastewater into the Blue Earth River daily.

“It’s a wonderful reuse of water that otherwise would just be discharged in the river,” said Mary Fralish, a deputy director of Public Works in Mankato. “And that kind of use is catching fire across the country.”

Corn Plus’ General Manager Keith Kor asked lawmakers for assistace and Senator Julie Rosen and Representative Bob Gunther sponsored legislation that will help finance pipe to transport the wastewater to the plant. The bill seeks between $250,000 and $300,000.

“They want to eliminate some of the controversy about using water in ethanol plants,” Gunther said.

Corn Plus began production in 1993. It’s new fluidized bed is one of its kind in the world.

Report Finds Ethanol is Reducing GHG

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A new report has found that ethanol use is contributing to a growing reduction in greenhouse gases on a global scale.

GHG GeniusUsing a model for lifecycle assessment of transportation fuels called GHGenius, report author Don O’Connor examined greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions from grain ethanol since 1995 and projected GHG reductions from ethanol out to 2015. The important conclusion was that GHG reductions will grow by over 100% from 1995 to 2015.

“I think what the study has documented is the importance of time in life cycle assessment work,” said report author Don O’Connor. “This issue in general has been overlooked by people.”

Global RFAThe report was commissioned by the International Energy Agency (IEA) Bioenergy Task 39 and the results were announced today by the Global Renewable Fuels Alliance (GRFA), an organization which represents over 60% of the global biofuels production from 30 countries.

GRFA spokesperson Bliss Baker says the report clearly illustrates the improving environmental performance of ethanol compared to gasoline. “This report demonstrates that governments must develop energy policies that take into account the increasing efficiency of global ethanol production and do not rely on out-of-date data and out-dated straw man arguments,” said Baker.

The research also found ethanol’s energy balance continues to improve as well. In 2005, the energy balance ratio for grain ethanol was estimated at 1:1.42, meaning every unit of energy used to produce ethanol returned 1.42 units of usable energy to the consumer. By 2015, the energy balance ratio is expected to be 1:1.93, a 55% increase in energy efficiency in just 10 years.

Read the entire report here.

Listen to comments from Baker and O’Connor during a press conference Wednesday morning:
grfa-iea.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (2.5MB)

Ethanol and Earth Groups Write EPA

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NRDCThe Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) are calling on the Obama administration to “follow a transparent, science based process in determining the rules for the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS), including the key issue of greenhouse gas emissions.”

RFA“We must ensure biofuels are done right,” said Franz Matzner, acting legislative director for NRDC. “A key step is for EPA to accurately determine the global warming emissions associated with biofuels by using the best science and economic data available.”

Signing a joint letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Peter Orzag, the groups underscored the need to move quickly to get the rule for RFS on the street. Also emphasized was the need to provide the full spectrum of data, assumptions, and methodologies used to design the program, which mandates 36 billion gallons of biofuel production by 2022.

“Proven science must be the driver behind any effort to calculate the global warming emissions of any fuel, including petroleum and biofuels,” said RFA President and CEO Bob Dinneen. “It is vital that EPA provide full transparency into its process and allow for informed comments on their approach. We urge EPA to issue its proposed rule post haste and begin the process of public commentary.”

Zoi Appointed to DOE as Assistant Sec. for EERE

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zoiPresident Obama announced the nomination of Cathy Zoi as the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. Ms. Zoi has a history of working in the energy sector including: being the founding CEO of the Alliance for Climate Protection; Chief of Staff in the White House Office on Environmental Policy; and manager at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency where she pioneered the Energy Star Program.

Zoi will face the task of helping President Obama deliver on a promise that was central to his campaign: ending American dependence on foreign oil by focusing on renewable energy sources that in the bargain can help create thousands of new, “green” jobs. During the 2008 presidential campaign, Obama vowed to increase the emphasis on renewable, clean energy. That is a goal the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) has been pursuing for years, trying to wean the country from dependence on fossil fuels and find cleaner ways to satisfy its energy needs.

EERE leads the Federal government’s R&D efforts on energy efficiency and manages what it calls “the Department of Energy’s (DOE) diverse energy efficiency and renewable energy applied science portfolio. The mission is to develop and deploy renewable energy sources and conversion technologies, as well as identify efficiency best practices, regulations and technologies that collectively strengthens our economy, protects the environment and increases national security.”

Environmental Film Launched Amidst Controversy

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DownstreamHey – in case you haven’t heard, tar sands are going to save the world. They are a renewable fuel you know. Wrong and wrong. Today, a new documentary focusing on the controversy surrounding the development of Alberta’s oil sands, “Downstream”, will be entering the US TV market, just in time to fire people up for Earth Day. Downstream is a modern day re-telling of “David vs. Goliath” or the tiny town of Fort Chipewyan versus Big Oil.

Tar Sands Before and After

Tar Sands Before and After

The film was produced by academy award nominated filmmaker Leslie Iwerks and is available to watch on Babelgum’s online TV site, Our Earth. It has premiered at film festivals around the world and already been shortlisted for an Oscar. The film takes you on a journey through a town negatively affected by the environmental impacts of oil development. Mutated fish and fowl live alongside a disproportionately large number of people suffering from a multitude of cancers. Naturally, the oil companies and local government officials vehemently deny the correlation between oil sand production and environmental and health issues. During a demonstration, one sign summed it up, “Upstream Oil for the States, Downstream Death for Alberta.”

Ironically, this film is causing more controversy than of the environmental kind. The film has vexed Alberta’s government due to the fact the Alberta Film Development Fund subsidized $67,000 of the film. An intense national discourse and debate over future arts funding and freedom of artistic expression has ensued.

For those of you renewable fuel supporters, this is a film not to miss. Check out the trailer here.

ACE Thanks EPA Administrator for Support

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ACEThe American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) sent a letter this week to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson thanking her for EPA’s consideration of the application for approval to use ethanol blends up to E15.

EPA Lisa Jackson Addresses ACEJust a few days before the waiver petition was filed, Administrator Jackson met with a group of 30 ethanol supporters who traveled to Washington DC for the “Biofuels Beltway March,” a grassroots ethanol advocacy fly-in organized by ACE. In the letter, ACE executive vice president Brian Jennings expressed his appreciation to Jackson for taking time to meet with the group.

“We are most grateful you took the time to address our concerns about the E10 blend wall and the role EPA has in examining the scientific data to consider how midlevel blends, up to E15, may be approved for use in motor vehicles,” said Jennings. “ACE agrees with you that science, not politics, must drive the decision to move beyond E10. We are further convinced the scientific data contained in our petition and available today on the use of blends up to 15 in legacy motor vehicles justifies its approval.”

Jennings also invited Jackson to visit “a modern-day, state-of-the-art ethanol biorefinery to discover more about how technology innovations are helping biofuels contribute to a low-carbon future” and offered to arrange a tour of a facility for the administrator or her staff.

California Low Carbon Fuel Standard Criticized

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The California State Senate Committee on Transportation and Housing heard testimony Monday from the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) criticizing the proposed Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS).

RFA Vice President of Research Geoff Cooper testified on behalf of the ethanol industry that under the standard proposed by the state Air Resources Board (ARB) “biofuels are penalized for a highly uncertain and unproven market-mediated effect known as indirect land use change, while petroleum and other fuel types are assumed not to cause any indirect or market-mediated impacts.”

RFARFA’s testimony reflects the views of 111 scientists, researchers, and academics from California and around the country who wrote Governor Schwarzenegger recently stating, “Leaving aside the issue of whether these [indirect] effects can be predicted with precision or accuracy, or whether such a penalty is appropriate for the LCFS, it is clear that indirect effects should not be enforced against only one fuel pathway.”

In addition, RFA is concerned that the proposed standard “has the potential to undermine the development of next generation biofuels, like cellulosic ethanol, because of the arbitrary nature in which the carbon accounting modeling is applied to biofuels and ethanol specifically.” Cooper testified that “artificially limiting the use of first generation biofuels may inadvertently “blow up the bridge” to future renewable fuels.”

Cooper suggested that the ARB change the proposal by improving the modeling used and including more current data for agricultural yields and the impact of distillers grains, the feed co-product of ethanol production, on reducing the need for additional crop acres. He also suggested that ARB initiate a comprehensive evaluation of the indirect impacts of other fuels under consideration, including gasoline, electricity, natural gas, and others to ensure an accurate performance-based regulation and organize a multi-disciplined group of disinterested economists, climate experts and other scientists to evaluate the accuracy of ARB’s work.

Southeast Missouri State University Goes Green

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semo-logoSoutheast Missouri State University (SEMO), in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, will be saving money as well as doing its part to save the environment. Facilities management have devised a recycling and waste management plan and will also purchase flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs).

According to The Arrow, SEMO will use the oil that dining hall kitchens would normally dispose of to heat the facilities management shops. The recycling program will be boosted by adding more bins around campus. And, over spring break, facilities management plans to purchase fuel-efficient vehicles that will use E85, rather than gasoline.

“We plan on purchasing two vehicles from Tiger Trucks,” Terry Major, manager of grounds, custodial, fleet and support services, said. “We want a pick-up truck for the grounds and a van for maintenance.” The University had purchased electric cars in the past but they were proven more of a hassle than a convenience.

Currently, there are no E85 fueling locations in the city of Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

California Ethanol Lawsuit Dropped

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An oil refiner has dropped a lawsuit against the California Air Resources Board (CARB) challenging a regulation that would boost ethanol consumption in the state by 2010.

TesoroAccording to a story in the Sacramento Business Journal, Tesoro Corporation dropped the lawsuit after a judge denied the company’s request for a temporary injunction to delay a new gasoline standard set to take effect next year which would increase the percentage of ethanol required to be blended into gasoline sold in California from 5.7 percent to 10 percent. The company claims that the standard is in conflict with a state law that calls for a decrease in greenhouse gas emissions because some studies suggest the production of ethanol increases greenhouse gas emissions.

The paper reports that Judge Timothy Frawley said he was not persuaded that Tesoro would prevail on the merits of its case at trial or that the company would suffer “irreparable harm” from the new standard. He also said a 1999 environmental evaluation that assessed impacts of using ethanol in amounts up to 10 percent was sufficient to meet state health code.

Tesoro is an independent oil refining and marketing company which operates two refineries in California.

California May Drop its Attempt to Obtain Emissions Exception

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carbAccording to the Detroit News, California’s top air regulator said her state could agree to the nationwide carbon-emissions standards that the auto industry seeks. But the details of such a plan, which could supersede the attempt by California and 13 other states to impose their own rules, are likely to bring their own contentious debate, even as years of fighting over California’s rules begins to ebb.

“I think we may be very close to being on the same page,” said Mary Nichols, the chairwoman of the powerful California Air Resources Board. She and dozens of industry experts, environmental activists and private citizens testified during an Environmental Protection Agency hearing on California’s request to set its own rules for tailpipe emissions.

The Bush administration denied the request a year ago, but within days of taking office, President Barack Obama ordered a review of that decision. The administration has sent strong signals in recent days that it plans to set nationwide greenhouse gas limits.

Ethanol Groups Criticize Negative Study

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Ethanol industry organizations say a University of Minnesota study critical of corn ethanol is flawed.

RFAThe study, which claims corn ethanol is worse for health and the environment than gasoline, was analyzed in detail by the Renewable Fuels Association. RFA warns “because there is no consensus within the academic community on the best methods for analyzing highly uncertain potential land use changes, the results of this study must be viewed with extreme caution.”

According to RFA, the conclusion that corn ethanol “can be as harmful to the environment as gasoline, and that the combined costs to climate-change and health exceed that of gas” is predicated on “the baseless assumption that additional corn demand for increased ethanol production will cause conversion of large amounts of grassland enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP).”

RFA points out that if the authors’ assumed land use change emissions are removed from the analysis, the paper suggests average corn ethanol reduces greenhouse gases by 30% compared to gasoline and advanced corn ethanol reduces GHGs by 46%. The paper states, “Whether corn ethanol has lower life-cycle GHG emissions than gasoline depends on biorefinery heat source, assumptions about technology, and land-use change.”

Growth EnergyGrowth Energy released a statement on the report that said in part, “Despite initial negative interpretations by the press and some flawed assumptions by its authors, Growth Energy sees some positive potential from the University of Minnesota’s latest study on ethanol’s potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We were glad to see the authors agree that ethanol is part of the solution to the global climate crisis, recognizing that ‘corn-ethanol emissions will continue to improve’ with technological and agricultural advancements ‘including increased yields on the farm and improved conversion.’”

“Despite the positive aspects, the study does fail to take into account that corn farmers have dramatically increased per-acre yields, and ethanol producers continue to utilize new technologies to reduce the industry’s environmental impact. That trend is certain to continue in the years ahead.”

SchlicherAnother industry reaction to the report came from Dr. Martha Schlicher, vice president of Illinois River Energy and former head of the National Corn to Ethanol Research Center, who wrote that the study “over promises on the potential of cellulosics and under promises on what is yet possible with corn. Technology used to produce corn based ethanol today will not be the technology of tomorrow and, if given the opportunity, will be dramatically advanced from the modest advancements the Minnesota study cites.”

Schlicher notes several areas in which the study specifically falls short, such as assuming no increase over current corn-based ethanol production yields despite all of the well documented enzyme and corn composition advancements while simultaneously claiming a 10% increase in cellulosic ethanol yield over what today has been demonstrated only in the laboratory.

New York Plans for Sustained Renewable Fuel Production

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nyserdaThe New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) announced with a press release that The Pace Energy and Climate Center has been selected to develop a renewable fuels roadmap and sustainable biomass feedstock study that will help guide New York State policy on renewable fuels. The Roadmap was one of several recommendations from Governor David Paterson’s Renewable Energy Task Force report issued in 2008. The project is co-sponsored by the New York State Departments of Environmental Conservation and Agriculture and Markets; who along with NYSERDA will oversee the development of the Roadmap.

“With federal and state policy calling for increased use of renewable fuels to diversify our fuel mix, it is vital that we have a better understanding of the sustainable feedstock resources for continued in-state renewable fuel production,” said NYSERDA President and CEO Francis J. Murray Jr. “The Roadmap will put forth a plan that assesses the economic, environmental, and energy impacts of renewable fuel production while identifying pathways in which energy dollars can be retained within the State.”

The goal of the initiative is to identify the renewable fuels, feedstocks, pathways, and applications that would be sustainable and provide the most benefit to New York State by reducing lifecycle greenhouse gases and dependence on imported fossil fuels. Once the state has a firm understanding on the types of fuels that are sustainable, policymakers can determine how best to bring them to market. Because the renewable fuel industry is changing rapidly, the Roadmap is intended to be updated periodically to identify more economical and sustainable sources of renewable fuels progressing towards carbon neutrality. The Roadmap will address renewable fuels that are currently being used, near-term renewable fuels that are close to contributing to the reduction in fossil fuel use within a three to ten year time horizon, and promising future renewable fuels that may make significant contributions to fossil fuel reductions in more than 10 years.

The Roadmap is scheduled for completion in September, 2009.