Domestic Fuel

There were quite a few race cars mixed in with the tractors and combines this year at the 2011 Farm Progress Show in Decatur, Illinois.

In addition Richard Childress and the American Ethanol NASCAR Sprint Series car at the Growth Energy exhibit, over at the Illinois Corn Growers exhibit, the Illinois Family Farmers NASCAR Nationwide Series driver Kenny Wallace was signing autographs and doing interviews.

Wallace said he was “blown away” by the Farm Progress Show. “This is like our Daytona 500! I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said in an interview with Domestic Fuel’s Chuck Zimmerman. The Farm Progress Show is the biggest outdoor agricultural equipment show in the country, which rotates between permanent sites in Illinois and Iowa and boasts over 500 exhibitors.

Listen to Kenny Wallace interview from Farm Progress Show here. NASCAR driver Kenny Wallace

The next big races for Wallace and all of NASCAR are coming up Chicagoland on September 16-18. Speedway president Scott Paddock, who was also visiting Farm Progress Show last week, says that triple header NASCAR weekend is a the first race in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup – the first of ten ‘playoff’ style NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races in pursuit of the 2011 championship. “NASCAR was looking for a major media market and a big platform to kick off their playoffs and they chose Chicagoland and we’re honored to have that designation,” he said, noting that the corn growers will have a very visible presence at the races.

Paddock says the partnership between NASCAR, ethanol and the corn growers was a good move. “I think it’s a compliment to the (15%) ethanol fuel blend that NASCAR believes in it enough to want to put it in their race cars.”

Listen to interview with Scott Paddock here. Chicagoland Raceway president Scott Paddock

The Fast Five 225 truck series will kick off the weekend on Friday, September 16. The Dollar General 300 Nationwide series, Kenny’s race, will be Saturday, Sept. 17 and the three day weekend will conclude on Sunday, Sept. 18 with the GEICO 400 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

The partnership between American Ethanol and NASCAR was on display at the 2011 Farm Progress Show, where racing fans got a chance to meet with former driver and current team owner Richard Childress.

Pictured here with Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis, Childress said his team’s partnership with American Ethanol and the NASCAR series using a 15% ethanol blend this year is good for the country. “I’m a huge supporter of everything we do in America, from our farmers to our military,” he said. “This country has to quit depending on so much foreign energy and resources. We gotta do better.”

Childress says that NASCAR has had no problems making the transition to 15% ethanol fuel and next year they will go to fuel injection. “The fuel injection and the American Ethanol is really going to work out great,” he added.

Listen to or download interview with Richard Childress here: Richard Childress at Farm Progress Show

Buis says the partnership with the National Corn Growers Association to spotlight ethanol at NASCAR has been reaching a great audience. “We get a great reaction from the fans and people who watch it at home on television,” he said. “We couldn’t be happier. I think we’re getting our message out there.”

Listen to or download interview with Tom Buis here: Tom Buis at Farm Progress Show

Pam Johnson, an Iowa farmer who will become first vice president of National Corn Growers Association next month, says the partnership with NASCAR is exciting. “With NASCAR we’re reaching people outside the Midwest, all over the country from Richmond out to California,” Pam said at Farm Progress Show. “So we are getting the message out to a whole new group of people who need to hear the story told and we think NASCAR’s a great vehicle for that.”

Johnson added that the Illinois Corn Growers were also highlighting their partnership with NASCAR and driver Kenny Wallace. “When you get a driver out there talking about the speed and the extra power they get driving and then bringing it back to the consumer,” she said. “Hopefully we’ll all have access to E15 as those NASCAR drivers are putting in their vehicles.”

Listen to or download interview with Pam Johnson here: Pam Johnson with NCGA at Farm Progress Show

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

When the cars, trucks, tractors, combines and other equipment at the 2011 Farm Progress Show in Decatur, Illinois needed fueling up, GROWMARK FS was there on-site to serve up home-grown fuel.

Mark Dehner, GROWMARK marketing manager for refined and renewable fuels, says they have been the official Farm Progress Show fuel supplier for many years. “It takes a lot of fuel. The demonstrations for tillage, for harvest, the main fuel is diesel fuel for the heavy equipment. That’s our Dieselex Gold proprietary diesel fuel with a biodiesel blend,” Dehner says. “We also have a ten percent ethanol blend gasoline for the gasoline-powered units.”

Dehner says the GROWMARK FS system started marketing ethanol back in the late 70s and they started field trials with biodiesel in the 90s and started selling it in the year 2000. “So biodiesel and ethanol have been a part of our Farm Progress Show for some time,” he said.

They have a fuel truck that stays out on the demo fields throughout the show to provide free fuel for all the equipment whenever necessary.

Listen to or download Chuck Zimmerman’s interview with Mark Dehner at FPS here: GROWMARK's Mark Dehner at Farm Progress Show

The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) president and CEO Bob Dinneen visited with farmers, friends and the farm media at the 2011 Farm Progress Show in Decatur, Illinois this week.

Dinneen has been traveling around the Midwest this month and says he is always amazed by the ability of the nation’s farmers to do their job, no matter what Mother Nature throws at them. “The fact of the matter is, the American farmer is the most productive and efficient in the world,” Bob says. “We will get through this and there will be enough supply to meet the needs for grain that exist.”

On the other hand, Dinneen is frustrated with the inability of Congress to do its job. “It’s got everything to do with a dysfunctional Congress that couldn’t agree on whether or not Mother’s Day was a good thing,” he said, adding that in terms of energy policy, nothing is happening right now. “They’re focused right now on this super committee which is a recipe for more gridlock. There’s no way those 12 members are going to be able to come up with a plan to address the country’s needs in terms of the budget and taxes.”

In this Ethanol Report interview with Dinneen from Farm Progress Show, he also talks about the Republican presidential candidates and what is happening with the 15% ethanol waiver.

Listen to or download the Ethanol Report here: RFA CEO Bob Dinneen at the 2011 Farm Progress Show

New Holland sponsored coverage of last week’s Farm Progress Show on our sister website, AgWired.com. Domestic Fuel readers know we’ve worked with the company a number of times in recent years and have documented how committed they are to supporting biodiesel.

While at the show last week I talked with Gene Hemphill, New Holland and Tom Verry, National Biodiesel Board about The Biodiesel Alliance. NBB was the founder of the Alliance and New Holland was the first company of their kind to join.

The Biodiesel Alliance is a diverse coalition of organizations, agencies and businesses from across the nation who find common ground in their support for biodiesel fuel. Founded and managed by the National Biodiesel Board, the Biodiesel Alliance supports information sharing and opportunities to help advance the use of clean-burning, renewable biodiesel fuel that meets high industry standards. As a result, the Biodiesel Alliance is instrumental in helping others to recognize the benefits of biodiesel to human health, the environment, national energy security and the US economy.

Gene and New Holland have been big supporters of the biodiesel industry since the days when it was called soydiesel. The company has been innovative in warranting their tractors on blends of biodiesel fuel up to 100 percent. They’ve also encouraged their dealers to join the alliance and many, many people to join the Biodiesel Backers.

Tom says the number one issue facing the industry right now is the proposed RFS2 that EPA has put forth and for which they’re soliciting comments until later this month. The proposed regs require 1 billion gallons of biomass biodiesel by 2012. That should be accomplished mostly by biodiesel but EPA is penalizing biodiesel through its measurement of its carbon score from the controversial indirect land use issue. He says they’re failing to take into account things like increased efficiency and production of soybeans.

You can listen to my interview with Gene and Tom below:

You can also see a lot of our photos from the show in our Farm Progress Show Photo Album.

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Gen. Wesley Clark, Growth Energy, made an announcement this morning at the Farm Progress Show. The organization is calling for country of origin labeling for fuel. I would call that COOL for fuel! Hey, we do it with food, why not fuel?

General Wesley Clark, Co-Chairman of Growth Energy, today called on the United States Congress and the White House to take action to dramatically enhance the market transparency of the nation’s fuel supply by requiring a national standard of country of origin labeling (COOL) for fuel.

Clark also unveiled Growth Energy’s labelmyfuel.com, which showcases the costs of American dependence on foreign oil, and serves to rally grassroots support for Congressional action on COOL for fuel legislation.

You can find photos from the press conference in our Farm Progress Show photo album and you can listen to the press conference below:

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