Ethanol. Right. Now.

President Obama on biofuels: "If Brazil can do it, there's no reason we can't do it"

President Obama was interviewed yesterday by Yankton, South Dakota's WNAX Farm Director Michelle Rook, speaking about the Administration's "Rural Tour" which kicks off July 1.  In the interview, the President spoke at length about biofuels and their role in the future of American agriculture.

When asked how big of a role he thought renewable fuels would play in the long-term profitability of American agriculture, President Obama replied, "I think it's going to be critical.  I think there's huge potential around biofuels... Ethanol has been a big boon to a lot of rural communities, really making the difference between profitability and not making a profit for a lot of farmers."

The President noted that next-generation biofuels will be important: "What we also are recognizing is that the key for us is going to be moving into the next generation of biofuels. How can we use wood chips, refuse, switchgrass, and the whole other set of biofuels standards, and how can we improve the efficiency of first generation biofuels.  And farmers are going to be critical to that entire process."

President Obama also cited the example of Brazil, which uses ethanol extensively to fuel its automobile fleet.  "If Brazil can do it, there's no reason we can't do it," the President said.

Listen to the radio interview in its entirety here.

U.S. House agreement on climate bill: no international land use charges to biofuels until independent study

U.S. House of Representatives leaders have brokered a deal ensuring that biofuels will not be charged with international indirect land use change emissions until there is widespread scientific agreement.  This new agreement ensures that science, not politics, will determine whether EPA can go forward with the highly controversial theory.

While both U.S. EPA and the California Air Resources Board have tried to impose such penalties on biofuels, ACE has consistently pointed out that these agencies have failed to demonstrate a link between biofuels production and tropical deforestation.  Singling out biofuels for selective enforcement of these "indirect effects" while holding petroleum harmless is scientifically indefensible and bad public policy.

ACE's press statement can be read here.  Executive VP Brian Jennings was interviewed on the national radio program AgriTalk; the program can be downloaded here and then advance to Brian's interview which begins at 11:00 and ends at 15:30.

Americans back to spending $1 billion a day on gasoline

One billion dollars a day is an astronomical figure -- and it's the amount Americans are spending every single day to gas up their vehicles.  Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service, told the New York Times recently ("High Gas Prices Could Slow Recovery") that in January, consumers were spending about $600 million per day on fuel for their vehicles, but now that figure is back up to around $1 billion per day.  The article says, "The national jump in prices, far larger than the normal seasonal increase, is pulling billions of dollars from the pockets of drivers. It threatens to curtail a modest recovery in consumer spending on items like apparel and electronics."

Oil and gasoline prices are on the way back up, and this underscores the importance of having a cost-effective alternative like ethanol.  For example, the Nebraska Ethanol Board recently did an analysis that showed Nebraska drivers have already saved more than $4.5 million this year by choosing E10 at the pump.  And, they say, if all the fuel sold in the state in the past five years was E85, Nebraskans would have saved $2.6 billion. 

Let's not spend $1 billion a day on a non-renewable, often imported fuel.  Ethanol is a cost-effective, homegrown alternative that can keep money circulating in our nation's economy and give it the boost that it needs.  The EPA allowing up to 15 percent ethanol per gallon would be a good start.

Rice University study misses some facts on ethanol

A new Rice University study misses some facts on ethanol, and more specifically corn-based ethanol production.  The report ("The Water Footprint of Biofuels: A Drink or Drive Issue?") says that "to meet the mandated increased production of biofuels, increased agricultural activity such as tilling more land and higher agrichemical application is inevitable."  This statement misses a couple of important facts.

First, the Renewable Fuels Standard in the 2007 energy bill was written in such a way to recognize the role of biofuels produced from different sources, and to balance those sources according to their potential size.  The RFS calls for 36 billion gallons of biofuel use by 2022, with corn-based ethanol being capped at 15 billion gallon of that total by 2015.  The balance will come from cellulosic sources.  There is a limit to how much corn can and should be used for ethanol production, and the RFS schedule respects that.  This amount of corn-based ethanol can be made available in a sustainable way, keeping an ample supply of corn for feed and food purposes.

Also, the production of corn has changed dramatically, with farmers achieving higher yields with fewer inupts.  Farmers are growing five times as much corn as they did in the 1930s on 20 percent less land.  Irrigation, soil loss, emissions, and net energy inputs per bushel of corn are all down double-digits in the last 20 years.  The ethanol production process itself has dropped its water consumption per gallon of biofuel by more than 26 percent since 2001.  There are lots of new efficiencies both in farming and in ethanol production that need to be recognized.

And please note: the Rice University study comes via funding from Shell Oil's "Center for Sustainability."

EPA needs to schedule some time in the Heartland

A recent Congressional hearing shed some light on the many unknowns surrounding how the Environmental Protection Agency's biofuels regulations will affect American farmers and ethanol producers. 

A May 21st hearing held by the House Small Business Committee, "The Impacts of Outstanding Regulatory Policy on Small Biofuels Producers and Family Farmers," included testimony by Margo Oge, the Director of the EPA's Office of Transportation and Air Quality. Ms. Oge was asked by Congressman Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA) how much time during her 29-year career with EPA she'd spent on farms in the United States seeing first-hand the impact of the agency's rule-making.  Her answer: "I have not spent any time on farms in the United States."  View a video clip here.

Since the hearing, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has invited EPA employees including Ms. Oge to visit his family's farm in Iowa to see first-hand the impressive things farmers are doing to produce food, feed, and fuel.  The American Coalition for Ethanol seconds this request and urges EPA officials to schedule a visit soon to some of America's family farmers and ethanol plants.