It took a Texas oil man to finally unleash the power of renewable fuels.
In the aftermath of 9/11, energy independence became a driving force for President George W. Bush, and he saw the potential for our nation’s productive farmers to help attain that goal.
President George W. Bush holds the box containing the energy bill after signing the H.R. 6, The Energy Policy Act of 2005 at Sandia National Laboratory in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Monday, Aug. 8, 2005. Also on stage from left are Congressman Ralph Hall (R, TX), Congressman Joe Barton (R, TX), Senator Pete Domenici (R, NM) and Senator Jeff Bingaman (D,NM). White House Photo by Eric Draper
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 was signed on August 8 of that year at Sandia National Laboratory in Albuquerque, New Mexico symbolizing a new approach to energy economics and security, diversifying our transportation fuel supply by incentivizing ethanol and biodiesel.
“The bill includes a flexible, cost-effective renewable fuel standard that will double the amount of ethanol and biodiesel in our fuel supply over the next seven years,” said President Bush. “Using ethanol and biodiesel will leave our air cleaner. And every time we use a home-grown fuel, particularly these, we’re going to be helping our farmers, and at the same time, be less dependent on foreign sources of energy.”
In 2005, there were 81 ethanol plants in the United States, production was less than 4 billion gallons a year, and corn was averaging $2 per bushel. Three years later, in 2008, production was 9.4 billion gallons with almost 140 plants on-line and corn was $7 a bushel.
President Bush understood the American farmer and he understood that fuel could be made from crops and that it could help make our country more energy independent.
“I like to say that someday a President is going to pick up the crop report and they’re going to say we’re growing a lot of corn, and — or soybeans — and the first thing that’s going to pop in the President’s mind is, we’re less dependent on foreign sources of energy. It makes sense to promote ethanol and biodiesel.”
It was an exciting day for the still very young ethanol industry. Bob Scott was president of the American Coalition for Ethanol or ACE. “One of the best phone calls I’ve ever gotten was the call that said I’m from the White House and you’re invited to the signing of the RFS and the energy bill,” said Scott, who retired from the industry in 2009. “It was great fun because we had worked hard on getting that done.”
A lot of people had worked very hard to get the ethanol industry to that point. ACE was founded in 1987 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, six years after the founding of the nation’s first ethanol organization, the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA). Along with the National Corn Growers Association, organized lobbying to make ethanol part of the nation’s fuel supply had already been happening for more than two decades after the gasohol decade of the 70s blazed the trail.
What the Renewable Fuel Standard meant for the ethanol industry was a road map for growth, a certain number of gallons of renewable fuel required to be blended gasoline at the refiner level. With a guaranteed market for their product, ethanol producers were given the green light to expand as fast as farmers could produce the corn to make the fuel. Ethanol policy and production had gone from a dirt road to a superhighway, but not exactly overnight.
Bob Dinneen had been president of the Renewable Fuels Association since 2001 and had joined the staff three years prior. The day the bill was signed in New Mexico, he was on vacation.
“Despite the bill having taken at least seven years of my professional life by then, I was unwilling to sacrifice three days of my family vacation to make the trip for the signing,” said Dinneen. The cell service on the island wasn’t very good at the time, but it was better out on the water.
“At the appointed hour of the signing, I paddled my canoe out to the middle of Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire where in the solitude of the Green Mountains and witnessed by only a few tranquil loons, I let out a whoop in celebration because I knew U.S. energy policy had been transformed, renewable fuels would be assured a permanent and competitive place in the transportation fuels market, and the environment would benefit from the increased use of a low-carbon, low-emissions, and biodegradable fuel ethanol.”
This book takes journey down the road to the RFS and the wild ride it has been since 2005. I am grateful to be joined in this journey by the Reverend of Renewable Fuels himself, Mr. Bob Dinneen. As an agricultural and renewable energy reporter, it’s been my pleasure to interview Bob over 100 times since 2006 and I have learned a lot from him.
This is the tale of “Ethanol: America’s Fuel” – the industry pioneers and the story of how the RFS was won and ultimately changed the U.S. transportation fuel system for the better.