Attached is an audio report featuring comments from four agriculture and ethanol industry leaders who participated in a press conference on April 30 about the role of biofuels in food price increases. Featured are former Agriculture Secretary John Block, National Corn Growers Association CEO Rick Tolman, National Farmers Union president Tom Buis (buy’-us) and Renewable Fuels Association president and CEO Bob Dinneen.
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Sioux Falls, SD. (May 1, 2008 – AgNewsWire) - South Dakota is poised to lead the nation in raising public awareness for higher blends of ethanol with a new blender pump initiative announced Thursday.
Through a partnership between the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC) and the South Dakota Corn Utilization Council (SDCUC), the initiative will help gas station retailers obtain funding and the equipment needed to sell blends of ethanol ranging from 20 to 40 percent to be used in flex-fuel vehicles.
According to EPIC Director of Operations Robert White, South Dakota is the perfect place to launch this new program.
“South Dakota is where the blender pump movement started and we are happy to partner with the corn producers there to get this initiative off the ground,” said White.
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Attached is an audio report featuring comments from Renewable Fuels Association President Bob Dinneen on a number of topics coinciding with the annual RFA board of directors meeting in St. Louis this week. He talks about the angst felt by ethanol producers seeing their product maligned in the media and why the Texas governor’s request for a waiver of the Renewable Fuels Standard is misguided. Dinneen also says the industry can support a decrease in the blender’s tax credit being discussed by farm bill negotiators and he points out that transportation costs are driving the food aid crisis.
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Omaha, Neb., (April 22, 2008 - AgNewsWire) – If every car in America would use a ten percent blend of ethanol for one week, the amount of greenhouse gases produced in the U.S. would be reduced by nearly 1.3 billion pounds.
That is according to calculations done by life sciences researcher Nathan Danielson, president of BioCognito.
“What we did was take some fairly complex modeling that was done by Argonne National Laboratory and distill it down to where it would mean something to the average consumer,” said Danielson. “We considered if you took E-10, E-85 and cellulosic ethanol and put it in a typical gas tank, what would the impact on the environment be.”
Assuming a car with a 20 gallon gasoline tank, Danielson found that filling up with E10 can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 9.5 pounds per tank.
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Attached is an audio report featuring comments from Renewable Fuels Association President Bob Dinneen on a new report from Argonne National Laboratory about the increased efficiency of U.S. ethanol plants, as well as how higher oil prices are the real cause of food price inflation.
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St. Petersburg, Fla. (April 4, 2008 - AgNewsWire) – St. Petersburg, Florida will be the site of the greenest racing event in history April 5-6 when both the IndyCar Series and the American Le Mans Series will compete on the streets in the Honda Grand Prix and Acura Sports Car Challenge. This is the second year that the IndyCar Series is racing on 100 percent ethanol and the first year the American Le Mans Series is offering cellulosic E85 racing ethanol to its teams.
Doug Robinson, executive director of the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA), which is the sanctioning body of the American Le Mans Series, says allowing the use of 85 percent cellulosic ethanol in that racing venue is part of their “green racing” platform that helps test alternative fuels and create public awareness.
“In rolling out that green racing strategy, the first step was to look at the renewable fuels and the greenhouse gas emissions,” Robinson said. “Also the depletion of oil that ultimately means that there’s a cap to the amount of gasoline and diesel fuel that’s available unless you can come up with some alternative sources.”
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Attached is an audio report featuring comments from four ethanol industry leaders about the future of the ethanol industry and what role the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) will play in it. Audio sound bites are included from RFA Vice Chairman Tom Branhan of Glacial Lakes Energy in Watertown, South Dakota; Renewable Fuels Foundation chairman Bill Lee with Chippewa Valley Ethanol in Minnesota; RFA and RFF board member Dan Schwartzkopf with ICM’s LifeLine Foods; and Ryland Utlaut of Mid-Missouri Energy, a board member of RFA and past chairman of the National Corn Growers Association.
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The Agriculture Council of America (ACA) has announced the national 2008 Ag Day Essay Contest winner, Katlin Wiest.
ACA called upon seventh- to 12th-grade students nationwide to submit original essays of 450 words about the importance of agriculture in the United States. Under the theme “Agriculture - Bigger Than You Think,” students were encouraged to focus their essays on the broader scope of agriculture, showcasing the diversity of today’s American farms. Though row crops and livestock are still very much a part of the foundation of the industry, agriculture today has multiple touch points in our daily lives and many career opportunities.
Wiest, an eighth-grader at Upper Dauphin Middle School, Lykens, Pa., was named the national winner of the 2008 contest during the Ag Day event held at the USDA Whitten Building Patio. Wiest read her essay to industry representatives, members of Congress, federal agency representatives, media and others at the Celebration of Agriculture dinner in Washington, D.C.
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National Agriculture Day takes place on the first day of spring as a way to celebrate American agriculture and the farmers who help provide the food, fiber, shelter, energy and other materials we use on a daily basis. In honor of this special time of the year, the Agriculture Council of America (ACA) hosted events in Washington, D.C. on March 11, 2008, to celebrate the importance of agriculture to America’s economy and society.
Several events kicked off National Agriculture Week on March 11, 2008, in Washington D.C. At this year’s events various associations, corporations, universities and government agencies gathered together in our nation’s capital for a variety of activities that included a Meet-and-Mingle celebration luncheon at the Hart Senate office building. The luncheon was emceed by Orion Samuelson, WGN Radio, followed by Becky Sullivan, National FFA Secretary from Paola, Kansas. Guest speaker at the luncheon was Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss, who addressed several FFA Students including honored luncheon guests, the FFA Star Award Finalists, in addition to other luncheon attendees, including Senate staff members, and corporation and association employees. An FFA Rally was held after the luncheon.
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Attached is an audio report featuring comments from presenters at the 13th annual National Ethanol Conference last month in Orlando. Audio sound bites are included from Renewable Fuels Association president Bob Dinneen, National Corn Growers Association CEO Rick Tolman, Informa Economics CEO Bruce Scherr, and Assistant Energy Secretary Andy Karsner.
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