Category Archives: Government

The President Has Left the Building

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CZ-Bush This was no tough crowd for the president – with the exception of a anti-war protester who started shouting during the speech and had to be escorted out. He said all the right things to make this group of renewable energy entrepreneurs happy.

Here is the president’s full remarks – about 30 minutes worth – I’ll pick out some soundbites later: Listen To MP3 Bush (30 min MP3)

Thanks again to EPIC for letting us provide this coverage on the spot. The photo taken by my friend farm broadcaster Dave Schumacher of KTRS here in St. Louis.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (15.2MB)

President Promotes Renewables

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REC-Bush-1 President Bush got a nice round of applause when he just said, “I like the idea of promoting a fuel that relies upon our farmers.”

“I guess we have some farmers here,” he said.

“We’re up to five billion gallons of ethanol,” he adds. “We’re just in the beginning stages of an industry that’s evolving. We want you to succeed. It’s in our interest as a nation for you to succeed.”

“In my judgement, the thing that is keeping ethanol from becoming more widespread is the lack of other feedstocks to make it,” the president said, again to applause advocating the use of tax dollars for research into cellulosic ethanol.

More to come….thanks to the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council.
(This is cool being able to post live while the president is still speaking!)

The Eagle Has Landed

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REC We just received word that the president is on his way to the convention center from the airport, so everyone is taking a quick seventh-inning stretch before they are locked up. The media has a nice mid-row seat, check-in was smooth and easy, now we are just waiting for the main event.

We’ll keep you posted. I will give a few comments during the president’s address and then upload the audio immediately upon the conclusion of his remarks. There is not expected to be any press availability, nor is the president expected to tour the exhibit hall. Just in for remarks and back out again.

Thanks again to EPIC for sponsoring our coverage of this very historic event. As Undersecretary of Agriculture Tom Dorr just said, it’s great to have two government agencies – Energy and Agriculture – working so closely together for something that is so important to our nation.

Ethanol Industry Connections

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ICM Greg Krissek Everybody who is anybody in the ethanol industry are in attendance here at the Advancing Renewable Energy Conference in St. Louis. Here is Greg Krissek, (left) Director of Governmental Affairs with ICM, Inc., one of the nation’s major ethanol plant design/build firms, located in Colwich, KS. He is networking with one of the many attendees on hand about the potential of domestic fuels.

I interviewed Greg about this event and he said he has been in this industry for 17 years and never seen such excitement. “It’s fabulous to have this amount of interest and enthusiasm. This much growth sometimes makes it a little challenging, but I think the industry will figure that out.”

Listen to my interview with Krissek here: Listen To MP3 Krissek (6 min MP3)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (2.9MB)

Media Security

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Media Sign Media RoomSecurity has been really tight here for the Renewable Energy Conference, especially for speakers and media. They won’t let anyone through this restricted area unless they have a media badge and only staff are permitted to escort any other attendees to the media room for interviews. There were about 100 media registered for the conference itself, and several more local and national reporters are coming in today just for the president. This has gotten amazing coverage.

The registration fee for this event was pretty high – about $500 per person – but I can tell you it has been very well done. Not overdone, just well done. Okay, maybe the press security is a bit overdone, and the head-banging heavy metal transition music between speakers is annoying – but I have heard nothing but positive comments about the value of this conference to both attendees and the media. As several people noted, even a year ago an event like this would have barely gotten half the attendance and coverage it has recieved. And the main reason for the increased interest will be here today to repeat the line that set this industry on fire less than ten months ago – “America is addicted to oil.” I guess you could call this event group therapy to cure that addiction.

Preparing for the President

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Line The line was long to go through security at the Advancing Renewable Energy Conference in St. Louis. President Bush is scheduled to address the crowd of more than 1500 about lunchtime. We have been informed that we will all be in “lock down” here at the convention center between 11:00 am and 1:30 pm – no one in or out.

Meanwhile, the city was also preparing for the president’s arrival this morning, setting up gates and barriers around the convention center to shut down roads for the presidential motorcade. Fun stuff.

First up on the program this morning is former CIA Director James Woolsey, talking about the importance of renewable energy for the nation’s security.

EPIC on Display

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EPIC Johanns Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns did a little walk through of the trade show at the Advancing Renewable Energy Conference in St. Louis on Wednesday and stopped in front of the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council display with the Indy Car show vehicle.

The flashy green and blue Indy Car continues to generate lots of attention wherever it goes, more so as the IRL prepares to move into full ethanol power next year for all races.

BioMax Machine

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Biomax Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns mentioned this mighty machine in his remarks to the Advancing Renewable Energy Conference on Wednesday.

It’s called the BioMax and it is a prototype combined heat and power system developed through the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and USDA Forest Products Laboratory. The machine is “transportable, fully automated, and environmentally friendly” suitable for small businesses, rural homes and schools.

The process gasifies wood chips, or other biomass, and produces 15 kW of electricity.

Focus on Fuels

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REC Fuels 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. REC Heat

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.

Secretaries’ Day in St. Louis

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REC-Johanns 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.REC-Bodman

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: Listen To MP3 Johanns (5 min MP3)

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

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

Renewable Energy Conference Crowd

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REC-1 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.

It’s Confirmed

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USDA-DOE conference 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 1000 Registrations for Renewable Renaissance

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USDA-DOE conference 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.

Putting Ethanol in the Pipeline

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Harkin Funny Car 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.”

Corn Cob Hot Rod

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Corn Cob Hot Rod 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.

Corn Cob DC

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.