Al Franken Backs Ethanol

With the disputed Minnesota senate seat finally decided, it's good to see that the incoming senator, Al Franken supports ethanol and renewable energy.

In this MN Post article, Franken shared his thoughts on the Climate Change bill and its strong ethanol components:

"What we're talking about here is the science of how ethanol affects our carbon footprint," Franken said. "The science to me tells me it helps. I've looked at this a lot, and it seems to me that ethanol already helps our carbon footprint and it's only getting more efficient in the way it's produced. Corn ethanol is a step on the way to cellulosic ethanol, which is also going to benefit Minnesota. I'm in the pro-ethanol camp."

The state of Minnesota has been a strong supporter of ethanol. This is not a new policy direction for Franken or for the state. On his campaign website, he states his support for renewable energy:

Today, I think we need a new “Apollo project” – this time to fundamentally change our energy policy and end our reliance on foreign oil.

The natural resources we have right here in Minnesota – not just corn and soybeans and biomass and wind, but innovation and creativity and brainpower – can lead to amazing breakthroughs if we commit to this undertaking.

This “Apollo project” should provide financial support for research into new forms of renewable energy and development of currently-identified sources to make them more efficient. Of course I’m talking about corn ethanol. But I’m also talking about cellulosic ethanol and other biofuels. I’m talking about solar power. And, especially here in Minnesota, I’m talking about wind power. We live in a windy state!

He goes on to write that through renewable energy, America can improve the environment, make the nation more secure and less dependent on foreign oil and also create high-tech, high-paying jobs in conservation and R&D.

There are many issues that continue to divide America. But energy independence and support for ethanol should not be one of them.

Source: Al Franken for Senate, MN Post

READ MORE

• Never Been on a Farm. And it Shows
• Senate Finds Cause for Higher Food Prices
• Senator Thune Opposes EPA Indirect Land Use Proposal
• Tell EPA to Allow Higher Blends of Ethanol
• Find Alternative Fuel Locations
  
• America's Energy Source Choice: Midwest or Middle East?
  
• Biofuels: Myths vs Facts
  

Follow Us --> Food and Fuel America on Twitter

Never Miss a New Article--> Subscribe to updates by Email
Find What You Seek --> Search FoodandFuelAmerica.com

Food and Fuel America.com
http://www.foodandfuelamerica.com
Good and Balanced Food and Fuel News!

Indirect Land Use: Science or Junk?

If you go to the store and buy groceries, are you causing massive deforrestation somewhere in the world, increased greenhouse gases and contributing to global warming?

Many critics of biofuels have developed "scientific" models that support that argument.  And they've extended that model to any land that is used for food AND fuel such as ethanol.  Use some biofuels and you've wiped out a forrest, or so their theory goes.

But the scientific community is hardly convinced that this model is valid. Recently, a group of leading scientists submitted comments(pdf) regarding the indirect land use model developed by the California Air Resources Board (CARB).  The scientists called out two major issues:

• The Science Is Far Too Limited and Uncertain For Regulatory Enforcement
  
• Indirect Effects Are Often Misunderstood And Should Not Be Enforced Selectively
  

And renown author Robert Zubin also takes on the irrational Indirect Land Use analysis in a recent Roll Call article:  The Irreationality of Indirect Analsysis":

"the proper, scientific, ethical and sane way to proceed in assessing carbon emissions, whether of ethanol use or any other human activity, is to base such judgments strictly on the direct effects of the activity itself. These can be measured and therefore reduced in detail as technological alternatives permit. If we operate otherwise, then no constructive solutions will be possible."

Let's hope that in the rush to kill the renewable fuels, calmer heads will prevail.  

Because creating models against ethanol that includes biased assumptions only hampers our efforts to break free from the well-known dangers of foreign oil.

Source: Roll Call

READ MORE

• Google Learns How To Break Free from OPEC
• Study Shows Reducing Gasoline Emissions Will Benefit Human Health
• Energy Victory Through Competition
• EPA Needs to Get Its Facts Right on Ethanol
• New Texas A&M Study Shows Higher Oil Prices are Impacting Consumer Prices
  
• Let's Put the Fossil in Fossil Fuels
  
• Vinod Khosla: API To Blame for Food & Fuel War
  

Never Miss a New Article--> Subscribe to updates by Email
Find What You Seek --> Search FoodandFuelAmerica.com



Food and Fuel America.com
http://www.foodandfuelamerica.com
Good and Balanced Food and Fuel News!

Study Shows Reducing Gasoline Emissions Will Benefit Human Health

A new study shows that a biofuel eliminating even 10-percent of current gasoline pollutant emissions would have a substantial impact on human health in this country, especially in urban areas.

“While the successful deployment of biofuels requires research to overcome technical barriers, there are other barriers that can often impose constraints more challenging than those related to technical feasibility, including constraints imposed by health risks,” says Thomas McKone, an expert on health risk assessments who holds a joint appointment with Berkeley Lab’s Environmental Energy Technologies Division and the University of California Berkeley’s School of Public Health. 

“Just think, if we had done a life cycle impact assessment on the human health effects of gasoline years ago we might not be in the situation we’re facing today.”

A grant from the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI) has produced the comprehensive LCIA “Life Cycle Impact Assessment” to measure the benefits on human health that might result from a switch to biofuels.   EBI is a partnership between UC Berkeley, Berkeley Lab, the University of Illinois and BP, the energy corporation that has provided EBI with a 10-year $500-million grant.

“We found that for the vehicle operation phase of our LCIA, the annual health damages avoided in the U.S. with 10-percent less gasoline-run motor vehicle emissions ranges from about 5,000 to 20,000 DALY, with most of the damage resulting from primary fine particle emissions,” said McKone. “

This new study further confirms the mountain of evidence of the benefits of biofuels.

America needs to move from a gasoline-based transportation fuel for numerous reasons--environmental, economic, national security, and now, health.

Read more the study HERE

Source: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

READ MORE

• Senator Thune Opposes EPA Indirect Land Use Proposal
• Senator Lugar Slams EPA Ruling
  
• Tell EPA to Allow Higher Blends of Ethanol
• Biofuels: Myths vs Facts

Follow Us --> Food and Fuel America on Twitter

Never Miss a New Article--> Subscribe to updates by Email
Find What You Seek --> Search FoodandFuelAmerica.com

Food and Fuel America.com
http://www.foodandfuelamerica.com
Good and Balanced Food and Fuel News! 

Refinery Pollution May Soar

According to a recent report in the Chicago Tribune, global-warming pollution from oil refineries is expected to soar by as much as 40 percent during the next decade.

"While greenhouse gases from the tailpipes of cars get the most attention, the refineries that keep cars and trucks running also contribute to global warming. Fuel must be burned to make gasoline from oil, generating carbon-dioxide pollution." - Chicago Tribune, Feb, 2008

The report went on to discuss that the increases in greenhouse gases are the consequence of burning Canadian crude which requires more energy to process.

Source: Chicago Tribune

READ MORE

• Former CIA Director Warns Foreign Oil is a Threat to America's Economy
• When Oil Prices Rise, So Does Just About Everything Else
• Labor Dept: Energy Costs Fueling Inflation
• Big Oil's War on Ethanol

Subscribe to updates by Email
Search FoodandFuelAmerica.com



Food and Fuel America.com
http://www.foodandfuelamerica.com
Good and Balanced Food and Fuel News!

Researchers Respond to Biofuel Critics

Two Department of Energy Department researchers have responded to a study which claims that biofuels *could* increase greenhouse gas emissions.

The study, released last week in Science, claimed that production of corn ethanol and biodiesel could lead to forests and grasslands being converted to cropland in other parts of the world.

The two researchers, Michael Wang of the Argonne National Laboratory and Zia Haq of the Energy Department's biomass program, faulted the study for a number of reasons including current land use assumptions and failure to consider future crop yield increases.

"There has also been no indication that U.S. corn ethanol production has so far caused indirect land use changes in other countries" - Michael Wang and Zia Haq

READ MORE

• Weird Science: New Reports Flawed
  
• 10 Years of Cleaner Air
• Give Ethanol a Chance: The Case for Corn-based Fuel
  

Subscribe to updates by Email
Search FoodandFuelAmerica.com



Food and Fuel America.com
http://www.foodandfuelamerica.com
Good and Balanced Food and Fuel News!

Austin Texas Turns to Ethanol

The oil barons of Texas must have been out of town last month. While they weren't looking, the Austin Texas City Council unanimously approved a multi-year contract worth up to $138 million to supply alternative fuel for city vehicles in the coming years.

Within the next four months, the majority of the city of Austin’s vehicle fleet will be running on alternative fuels, including biodiesel and ethanol. The remaining fleet will operate on an alternative fuel blend of E10 Ethanol (90 percent gasoline blended with 10 percent ethanol). The move marks another step in the City’s implementation of the Austin Climate Protection Plan.

The Austin Climate Protection Plan, introduced by Mayor Will Wynn and adopted by the City Council last year, is aimed at making Austin the leading city in the nation in the fight against global warming. Broad elements of the plan are designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with steps such as making all City facilities, fleets and operations totally carbon-neutral by 2020.

Source: City of Austin Texas

READ MORE

• Do I Have a Flex Fuel Vehicle?
  
• Distillers Grains Key to Texas Livestock
  
• BP Will Plead Guilty in Deadly Plant Blast
  

Subscribe to updates by Email
Search FoodandFuelAmerica.com



Food and Fuel America.com
http://www.foodandfuelamerica.com
Good and Balanced Food and Fuel News!

Weird Science: New Reports Flawed

Recent reports have attempted to discredit biofuels through flawed analysis with incomplete, unverified and fuzzy science. With their flawed methodology, they have chosen to single out biofuels as contributors to a “carbon debt.” while ignoring the positive benefits and the ugly realities of petroleum-based alternatives. Ultimately, these sensational reports will be discredited by the wider scientific and technical communities for solid, valid scientific reasons.

Out first look at them point out several flaws that the media and the environmental hate groups have overlooked:

• The reports attribute “secondary land use impacts” to biofuels that are not supportable;
• The reports fail to account for ongoing improvements in agricultural yields and technology improvements in biofuel production; and
• The reports fail to account for massive environmental impacts of oil extraction.

Asserting that increasing production of biofuels in the United States is driving destruction of ecosystems in South America and Asia for food production and blaming a carbon debt only to biofuels is a huge stretch. This assertion is based on assumptions and models that are not verified. This “Secondary Land Use Impacts” assumption counters all current, verified analysis showing substantial greenhouse gas emission reductions for biofuels.

And the reports conveniently ignore the fact that land use changes in other countries has been going on for years. Biofuel development in the US should not be the world's scapegoat.

The real question becomes, "Why should biofuels take a carbon hit for international land use changes for food or housing or other non-fuel related production?"

By the reports' skewed logic, any US farmland not growing food crops is creating a carbon debt by increasing demand for international food production. What are the “secondary land use impacts” of US grass seed farmers? Or tobacco farmers? Or nursery owners?

By blaming biofuels, the reports ignore the impacts and realities of our modern world. Every new subdivision and new commercial, industrial or residential development creates a carbon debt by taking "potential" food-producing land out of production that "could" shift demand to sensitive, international native ecosystems.

Are we to blame Starbucks, Home Depot, Costco, and and other big box retailers for South America and Asia's loss of rain forests?

Yield improvements means more bang for the buck---more fuel per acre. These reports fail to consider that proven record of yield improvements.

Traditional sources of oil have steep environmental costs that are not accounted for in the land use reports. Where is the accounting for oil drilling in the Amazon? Oil spills in San Francisco Bay? Or asthma deaths from petroleum-based air pollution?

One has to wonder who is really behind this push to discredit alternatives to the oil industry.

READ MORE

• 10 Years of Cleaner Air
• Give Ethanol a Chance: The Case for Corn-based Fuel
  
• It's Time to Put Ag Water Use in Perspective
• Biofuels Beat Oil by Any Environmental Measure
  

Subscribe to updates by Email
Search FoodandFuelAmerica.com



Food and Fuel America.com
http://www.foodandfuelamerica.com
Good and Balanced Food and Fuel News!

Energy Bar Bus Takes a Bite Out of Climate Change

CLIF(R) BAR is firing up its vegetable oil-powered Vixen RV and heading for the hills this February and March for its second annual "Save Our Snow" Winter Roadtrip.

Hitting ski slopes and nearby universities in Washington, Colorado, California and Oregon, the Roadtrip will meet boarders and skiers on their home turf to talk about climate change.

The "Save Our Snow" Winter Roadtrip is part of CLIF BAR's nationwide Natural Energy Tour Series and shares ideas on how small changes in a person's choice of food and transportation can help prevent global warming and protect the places where they love to play.

"This Roadtrip is about making a one-on-one connection with winter sports fans where they live and where they play," said Ricardo Balazs, sports marketing manager for CLIF BAR. "Heading into our second year, we're seeing more and more snowboarders in particular who are embracing environmental preservation, not just as a way to protect the snowpack, but as a bigger lifestyle choice."

CLIF BAR's winter sports program last year offset a total benefit of an estimated 2,656 tons of greenhouse gas emissions (or 7.4 million pounds) through the use of a van running on vegetable oil during the winter season and sponsorship of resort offset programs. This equates to not driving 5.3 million miles using petroleum fuel.

To see what the CLIF BAR "Save Our Snow" Winter Roadtrip is all about, click on this link to view a short trailer for the 2007 tour: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3T3Yx3_B8Y.

For more information about the CLIF BAR "Save Our Snow" Winter Roadtrip, please visit www.clifbar.com/blog/C17.

Source: Clif Bar & Company

READ MORE

• Dole Harvests with Biodiesel
  
• Biofuels Research helps Local Economy
  
• Safeway Upgrades to Biodiesel
  
• San Francisco Turns Waste into Biofuels

Subscribe to updates by Email
Search FoodandFuelAmerica.com



Food and Fuel America.com
http://www.foodandfuelamerica.com
Good and Balanced Food and Fuel News!

10 Years of Cleaner Air and Greater Energy Security in Minnesota

It's been ten years since Minnesota's landmark legislation required virtually all gasoline sold in the state to contain a 10 percent blend of ethanol to help the gasoline burn cleaner and to help build its market for fuel ethanol.

Today state officials and local advocates are calling the ethanol-enriched fuel -- known as E10 -- a huge win for the environment, statewide economic development and for moving Minnesota, a state with no fossil fuel resources of its own, toward energy independence.

In the 10 years since the E10 mandate took effect, Minnesotans have conserved upwards of 2.5 billion gallons of gasoline, enough to replace the entire state fuel supply for one year."In the 1990s, the Twin Cities was designated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as being in non-attainment for carbon monoxide pollution," said Tim Gerlach, vice president for clean fuel and vehicle technology for the American Lung Association of the Upper Midwest. "Ethanol-blended gasoline was one important tool Minnesotans have used to combat and to eventually come back into attainment."

"As successful as E10 has been, higher blend ethanol fuels such as E85 may provide us greater benefits for reducing tailpipe and greenhouse gas emissions as well as reducing petroleum use." Gerlach said. "We need a multi-faceted approach to keeping our air clean and healthy, including wider use of biofuels, mass transit, hybrid-electrics and simply driving and using less."

“Back in the 1990s, there were a lot of people, incited by groups whose main concern was to protect oil company interests, who said the sky would fall if we allowed a ten percent ethanol mandate to become law,” said Valerie Jerich, who, as a lobbyist for ethanol supporters in the ‘90s, took on the dozens of lobbyists assembled by oil interests to thwart the legislation. “They said ethanol would cause vehicles to stall, fuel prices to increase and small engines to blow up. Opponents even tried to stir up the public by saying ethanol would cause jets to fall out of the sky, when they knew perfectly well ethanol was never slated to be blended with jet fuel. Obviously, none of that happened.”

Advocates point out that the objections raised by anti-ethanol forces in Minnesota ten years ago are the same canards used today to try to stop gasoline from losing market share in other parts of the country. “If folks in other states would come to Minnesota, they would see for themselves how none of those dire predictions came true,” said Gerlach. “Instead, what has happened is that with the help of ethanol and other tools at our disposal, we’re now consistently meeting air quality standards while we’re replacing ten percent of fuel that would normally come from outside our borders with cleaner renewable fuel we grow right here in our state.”

For more information on E10, E85 and other ways to reduce air pollution, visit http://www.CleanAirChoice.org

Source: American Lung Association of Minnesota and the Minnesota Corn Growers Association

READ MORE

• Big Oil's War on Ethanol
  
• New Report Addresses Ethanol Issues
  
• Find Alternative Fuel Locations
  
• Jay Leno Demystifies Ethanol
  

Food and Fuel America.com
http://www.foodandfuelamerica.com
Good and Balanced Food and Fuel News!

New California Alliance Promotes Biodiesel

A new non-profit trade association dedicated to promoting the increased use and production of biodiesel in California has been launched.

The new organization, the California Biodiesel Alliance (CBA), is comprised of a diverse group of those seeking to improve California's air quality, reduce California's dependence upon foreign oil and and reduce greenhouse emissions through the use of biodiesel. These members include biodiesel suppliers, producers, fuel marketers, technology providers, fuel retailers, consumers, and advocates.

The CBA aims to aid in the development of biodiesel production, education and representing the industry in California and Washington DC.

Alliance Chairman Eric Bowen of Tellurian Biodiesel has been a long-time blogger about renewable energy and has a blog at http://allthingsbiodiesel.blogspot.com/ that is worth reading.

READ MORE

• Renewable Fuels Helping to "Save the Bay"
• Biofuels Beat Oil by Any Environmental Measure
• Family Travels the Nation for Renewable Fuels

Food and Fuel America.com
http://www.foodandfuelamerica.com
Good and Balanced Food and Fuel News!

High Efficiency Ethanol Plant Opens

A pollution saving ethanol plant opened last month in Mead Nebraska that is setting a new standard for the industry.

Environmentally friendly because of its cutting-edge technology, the high-efficiency ethanol distillation system at the Genesis Plant gets its energy from biogas derived from cattle manure and cellulosic biomass. The plant is built next to a feedlot with 28,000 beef cattle.

The new plant uses a patented closed-loop system that uses virtually no fossil fuel, the leftover grain is fed wet to the cattle at the nearby feedlot, whose manure in turn powers the plant and creates high-quality fertilizer as a byproduct.











According to the company, the plant "offers a powerful method for waste management that protects the environment from the potential of manure runoff–a significant challenge for livestock farmers–and avoiding the emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. "

According to company CEO Dennis Langley, "The E3 BioFuels system lets America get its automotive fuel from the croplands of the Midwest instead of the oilfields of the Mideast. By successfully demonstrating this technology, the Genesis Plant has made a major contribution to U.S. energy independence and farm waste management, and offers a solution to global warming, as well."


Source: E3 Biofuels

READ MORE

• Biofuel Plant Locations
• More Ethanol Articles
  

Food and Fuel America.com
http://www.foodandfuelamerica.com
"Good and Balanced Food and Fuel News!"

Did You Know?

In 2006, the use of ethanol in the U.S. reduced greenhouse gas emissions, equal to removing the annual emissions of 1.8 million cars.?