Tuesday, October 25, 2011

More Corn for Food, Not Ethanol

UPDATE 5/30/2015 - The URL for the report has changed and now correctly links to the PDF.

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A common mistake critics make concerning ethanol is their claim that more corn is used for ethanol than for animal or human food use.

And indeed, looking at raw numbers would show that ethanol consumes more.

 But the figures don't tell the full story.

And ethanol critics know better.

More than a third of the corn that's used in the ethanol process is returned as animal feed.


Dried Distillers Grains are an important co-product of the ethanol process.


Beef, pork, and poultry producers here in the US and around the world use DDGs as nutritious animal feed.

But can that be proven?

A new report from the USDA's Economic Research Service concludes that nearly 40 percent of the corn used for ethanol goes directly back into the feed supply as a high-protein animal feed.

The feed from ethanol production saves money for animal producers because it averages 80 percent cheaper than corn and can displace a greater amount of corn because of its nutritional value.

Source: Estimating the Substitution of Distillers’ Grains for Corn and Soybean Meal in the U.S. Feed Complex (PDF)

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Food and Fuel America.com
http://www.foodandfuelamerica.com
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Thursday, September 22, 2011

One Million NASCAR Miles on E15 American Ethanol

NASCAR announced this week that it has accumulated more than one million miles of driving this season in the Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Camping World Truck series using Sunoco Green E15 as fuel. 

According to NASCAR:
The release of the report is particularly timely because this week, the Environmental Protection Agency, and environmental officials and Americans nationwide are celebrating National Pollution Prevention Week. According to the EPA, pollution prevention is the cornerstone of sustainability.  
 "Before NASCAR switched its fuel to Sunoco Green E15 at the start of the 2011 racing season, there was extensive analysis and deep consideration about the decision," said Mike Lynch, managing director of Green Innovation for NASCAR. "Successfully transitioning to the new fuel and surpassing a million miles, all on America's toughest proving ground, is a validation of Sunoco Green E15 as a high-performance racing fuel and is part of our overall effort to go green. 
NASCAR is proud to use this American-made product because it creates American jobs while also reducing harmful emissions." 

NASCAR's switch to the new fuel was borne out of a partnership with American Ethanol. Representing a wide array of ethanol supporters, from farmers to bio-engineering firms, American Ethanol was established by Growth Energy in partnership with the National Corn Growers Association and others.

Source: NASCAR



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Friday, June 24, 2011

I Choose Ethanol

I Choose Ethanol.



Source: Iowa Corn Growers Association

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Five Ethanol Myths, Busted

Forrest Jehlik, a researcher with the Argonne National Laboratory, has a great article published on wired.com, Five Ethanol Myths, Busted.

He covers the major myths, including energy balance, food vs. fuel, greenhouse gas emissions, water use and mileage.

It's worth a read.

Source: www.Wired.com


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Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Senate Defeats Coburn Amendament To End Ethanol Tax Incentive

The US Senate today voted down, by a margin of 59 to 40, the Amendment by Senator Coburn that would have ended the ethanol tax incentive known as the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Incentive (VEETC).

In order to pass, the amendment needed 60 votes.

The tax incentive, paid to blenders of the ethanol, was established to build the infrastructure required to add this important transportation fuel into this country's fuel supply.

In addition, the amendment would have eliminated the trade tariff on foreign imports of ethanol.

VEETC was already set to expire at the end of this year.

Ethanol supporters have been working on alternatives to the existing credit and Senators John Thune (R-SD) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) recently introduced the Ethanol Reform and Deficit Reduction Act legislation to create a variable credit when oil prices are low and to redirect efforts to build additional flex fuel pumps and vehicles.


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New Ethanol Reform and Deficit Reduction Act Introduced


Senators John Thune (R-SD) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) along with a bipartisan group of senators have introduced the Ethanol Reform and Deficit Reduction Act.

The senate bill modifies the current Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Incentive (VEETC) to a variable tax incentive tied to the price of oil.

Currently, the tax incentive goes to ethanol blenders at .45 per gallon.

Other co-sponsors include Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Mike Johanns (R-NE), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Richard Lugar (R-IN), John Hoeven (R-ND) Tim Johnson (D-SD), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Al Franken (D-MN), Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Mark Kirk (R-IL).

The bill would also allocate funds saved through the updated ethanol tax incentive, to be used to expand fueling infrastructure through the vehicle of improved tax policies.

The legislation would reduce the federal deficit by $1 billion, end current ethanol subsidies on July 1, 2011, offer a three-year bridge safety net to protect ethanol jobs from oil price volatility, and enable large scale oil displacement through investing in infrastructure and advanced biofuels.

The bill would be an alternative to current ethanol tax credits due to expire at the end of this year.

The Senate will vote today on whether to proceed to a debate on a bill Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) bill to end the ethanol tax credits immediately.



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Friday, June 10, 2011

Sen. Coburn Seeks to Destroy American Ethanol

As reported by Politico and others, Senator Coburn (OK) introduced a motion last night to force a vote to eliminate immediately the blender tax credit.

The Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit, also known as VEETC, is a credit of .45 for every gallon of pure ethanol blended into gasoline.

It goes to the actual "blender" of the ethanol, not to corn growers and not to the ethanol plants that make ethanol.

This credit has helped the oil industry to build the infrastructure required to blend ethanol into the American fuel system.

The vote will come this Tuesday.

This surprise ambush tactic wasn't shared with the Senate's leadership:
Coburn didn’t inform either Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid or Minority Leader Mitch McConnell before he made his move, appearing to catch both completely off guard.
It's not surprising that an oil-state senator would want to attempt to snuff out the only viable competition to oil.

But it is surprising to do it the same week that OPEC met and refused to increase production output.

Especially since Iran and Venezuela, no friends to the United States, led the charge for keeping production constant.

Of course they would.

Continued high gas prices hurts the US economy and every American.

Write or call Congress to let your thoughts be known.

Source: Politico


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