Domestic Fuel

Despite the government’s best efforts to be all-inclusive with the Advancing Renewable Energy Conference, it’s all too obvious that liquid fuels are the main attraction. That was evidenced by the attendance at the afternoon break-out sessions – one on heat and electricity and one on liquid fuels. The liquid fuels session was SRO, probably around 600-700 people, if not more. I’m not good at judging that stuff – I just know it was full – and they were actually scanning our name badges at the doors to get an accurate count, so I should know that at some point.

Anyway, point being, the heat and electricity session was half empty, as you can see by the picture. The room was also laid out differently, with tables and chairs, instead of just chairs – so I would estimate the attendance was maybe a quarter of what the fuels session was, at the most. Not that there are not exciting things going on with renewables in heat and electricity – just that the big money and interest is obviously in the fuel field.

The US Secretaries of Agriculture and Energy are the hosts of the Advancing Renewable Energy Conference in St. Louis this week. Both addressed the crowd, estimated at upwards of 1500 people, showing the huge interest in renewable energy nationwide.

Both Secretaries talked about the great need for cellulosic ethanol – in fact, just about every speaker today has at least touched on the topic. Secretary Johanns had the pleasure of announcing $17.5 million dollars in biofuels research and development grants, funded jointly by USDA and DOE. “Developing renewable energy is a priority for the Bush administration,” said Johanns. The 17 projects to be funded by this grant money include projects such as development of commercial corn hybrids for cellulosic biomass to ethanol, willow biomass crop management, waste biomass feedstocks for ethanol production, and doubling switchgrass yield by 2020 for cellulosic ethanol.

Johanns took on a few of the arguments of the (mostly ethanol) “naysayers,” starting with the claim that ethanol costs too much to be competitive with oil without subsidies.
“It costs about $1.10 to produce a gallon of ethanol,” said Johanns. “In fact, ethanol will continue to be competitive with gasoline as long as oil prices don’t drop below $30 per barrel.”

Regarding whether we can produce enough corn to meet the demand, Johanns said people who say that, “haven’t met the same farmers I have.” Johanns added that USDA economists estimate that ethanol production “could nearly double in the next five years, without forcing us to choose between corn for food or for fuel,” and he added that research into new varieties, biomass and new technology will make that happen.

Secretary Bodman noted some of the exciting research the Department of Energy is doing in rapid DNA sequencing and advanced light sources which are making “energy from biomass more promising than any time before.”

Bodman says the goal of the administration is to make cellulosic ethanol cost-competitive by 2012, but that their efforts “are not confined exclusively to cellulosic ethanol. We are also sponsoring promising research on other biofuels from biomass, inlcuding bidiesel, biofuels for aviation, and biologically produced or inspired hydrogen and other fuels from sunlight.”

Listen to a segment of Johanns’ remarks here: Johanns (5 min MP3)

Listen to a segment of Bodman’s remarks here: Bodman (3 min MP3)

Coverage of the Advancing Renewable Energy Conference sponsored by the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council.

There’s a huge crowd at the America’s Center in St. Louis for the Advancing Renewable Energy Conference. First main speaker up was Pat Woertz, CEO for ADM, who gave an impressive address on how we can and must meet the energy and food needs of the world.

Coming up shortly will be the US Secretaries of Energy and Agriculture. More to come with coverage sponsored by the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council.

President Bush is now confirmed to be the grand finale for the Renewable Energy Conference this week in St. Louis. He will make the final address on Thursday to attendees at the event, who will be hearing from other top administration officials on Wednesday, including Secretary of Energy Sam Bodman and Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns.

Just about everybody who is anybody in the renewable energy business will be in St. Louis this week. The conference includes liquid fuels like ethanol and biodiesel, as well as other bioproducts and renewable sources for electricity and heat. See the whole conference agenda here.

I will be bringing you as much of this event as possible, courtesy of the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council, which is sponsoring coverage of the conference.

See you in St. Louis!

Over 1,000 people are now registered to attend the big USDA/DOE event next week in St. Louis, Advancing Renewable Energy: An American Rural Renaissance. There are rumors that President Bush himself will be attending the conference, although he is still listed as “invited.” Chances are pretty good the boss will show up, considering the magnitude of this event and the fact that his “America’s addition to oil” state of the union address has become a rallying call for renewables nationwide this year.

Even if Bush doesn’t show, there will still be plenty of others on hand to talk about the future of domestic energy sources – from ethanol and biodiesel to wind and solar. Wednesday, October 11 is the main day of the conference, featuring some 34 speakers and panelists. Ten more are on deck for Thursday, with the President of the United States penciled in as the grand finale.

Domestic Fuel will be providing coverage of the entire event.

Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, pictured here squeezing into an ethanol-powered funny car, is calling for a study into distributing ethanol by pipeline.

Harkin and Senator Dick Lugar (R-IN) introduced legislation on Friday to direct the U.S. Department of Energy to study “the feasibility of transporting ethanol by pipeline from the Midwest to the East and West coasts, where demand is growing.”

According to a Harkin press release, given the increasing ethanol demand, there may be economic benefits to transporting ethanol through dedicated pipelines. However, such a dedicated system could take a decade or more to build.

“With the ethanol production and demand both on the rise, we need an accurate and fair analysis of the potential to distribute ethanol around the country by pipeline,” said Harkin. “We continue to hear comments that it can’t but done efficiently, but it is happening right now in Brazil. The goal of this bill is to examine the issue and get all the facts on the table.”

The National Corn Growers Association, the Ohio Corn Growers Association, the Renewable Fuels Association and five-time International Hot Rod Association Funny Car champion Mark Thomas were on Capitol Hill Wednesday to promote ethanol’s success as America’s renewable fuel. Nearly 1000 people turned out to see the race car, which runs on 100 percent ethanol on the IHRA circuit.

Pictured in the close up are Mark Thomas; Sen. Jim Talent (R-Mo.); Corn Cob Bob; Bob Dineen, RFA President: and Jon Doggett, NCGA Vice President of Public Policy. The full shot of everyone also includes Aaron Poldberg, President of the International Hot Rod Association (IHRA); Mike Perry, IHRA; Scott Mackie, General Motors Regional General Manager; Rick Tolman, NCGA CEO; Dwayne Siekman, OCGA Executive Director; David Gibson, Corn Producers Association of Texas, Executive Director and Craig Floss, Iowa Corn Growers Association CEO. Click here to see the BIG picture of all the suits.

New York lawmakers have introduced bills in Congress to provide tax credits for ethanol plants in four states which consume more than 2 percent of gasoline but make less than 2 percent of ethanol. The four states are New York, California, Florida and Texas. Small producers in these states would receive a credit of 20 cents per gallon of ethanol produced, up to 50 million gallons a year, as long as total annual production does not exceed 150 million gallons.

Congressman Brian Higgins of Buffalo, NY introduced Senator Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) Ethanol Stimulus Act of 2006 in the House this week. Logically, Higgins’ district in western New York would stand to benefit from the bill. RiverWright Energy LLC, a Buffalo-based alternative fuel company, is planning to build an $80 million ethanol plant along the Buffalo River with a 110 million gallon per year capacity.

President Bush made a stop in Hoover, Alabama on Thursday to recognize the city’s police department for using E85 fuel.

“You know, the price of gasoline has been dropping, and that’s good news for the American consumer, it’s good news for the small business owners, it’s good news for the farmers. But it’s very important for us to remember that we still have an issue when it comes to dependence on foreign oil. And one way to become less dependent on foreign oil is for us to develop new ways to power our automobiles right here in America,” Bush said in his statement at the Hoover Public Safety Facility.

“What we have just witnessed is a police force that is filling up its vehicles with a fuel called E85. When you hear somebody talk about fuel E85, that means 85 percent of the fuel comes from ethanol. And ethanol is produced from corn. And corn is grown right here in the United States of America.”

Bush told the audience that the police chief claims he chooses E85 “because it’s got a little better “git up” to it. In other words, it works just fine. And it works just fine for other reasons, as well. It works just fine because it helps keep our air clean. It works just fine because it helps address a national security issue. So one of the important policies of governments ought to be to encourage the production and use of ethanol. And there’s a federal role for that. In other words, we provide tax credits.”

Bush also talked about research being done at Auburn University to make cellulosic ethanol from wood and switchgrass. “If that ever becomes a reality, there’s going to be a lot of switch-grass growers,” he said.

Hoover is a town of about 68,000 located outside of Birmingham, where Bush attended a fundraiser with Alabama Governor Bob Riley.

Read Bush’s remarks here.

Boise, Idaho Mayor David Bieter has issued a directive to use biodiesel fuel in city vehicles as often as possible, with the goal of reducing petroleum consumption and cutting smog-causing emissions.

According to a press release from the Mayor’s office, the announcement was made Monday during a ceremony to mark Idaho Renewable Fuels Awareness Days during the month of September and the opening of the first public biodiesel pump in the Boise area.

“Biodiesel is gaining popularity because it’s good for the environment and can be used in almost any diesel vehicle built in the past 10 years,” Mayor Bieter said. “By moving to biodiesel as much as possible, our city fleet will be cutting petroleum use in those vehicles by 10 to 20 percent – one to two gallons with every fill-up. We hope businesses and the public will follow that fine example.”

The ceremony on Monday was held at the Main Street Stinker Store (stinker??). A total of 11 Stinker Stores in the Treasure Valley area will now offer biodiesel. The stations upgraded their pumps after receiving a $124,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy and the Idaho Department of Water Resources. Find the full list of Treasure Valley biodiesel pumps in this story from KTVB.