Geoff Cooper
-The Hagstrom Report
“Mark my words – zero-carbon corn ethanol is coming!” Renewable Fuels Association President and CEO Geoff Cooper told the National Ethanol Conference on Tuesday, Feb. 16, in what amounted to a defense of ethanol compared to electric vehicles.
“Mother Nature has already given us an extraordinary solar panel that covers several hundred million acres of cropland in America’s breadbasket,” Cooper added. He noted that scientists from National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Agriculture Department and nearly a dozen leading universities have said that “the Midwest region of the United States boasts more photosynthetic activity than any other spot on Earth.” The scientists noted, in particular, that “corn plants are very productive in terms of assimilating carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.”
by Todd Neeley (DTN Progressive Farmer) The Senate rejected an attempt by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, to cap the price of renewable identification numbers, or RINs, at 10 cents, as part of a proposed amendment to the COVID-19 stimulus bill, in the wee hours of the morning on Friday.
RINs are generated in the Renewable Fuel Standard when a qualified renewable fuel is either produced or imported. RINs then are bought within the refinery industry by companies that are not producing or buying enough renewable fuels to meet their blend volumes under the RFS. There are several nested categories for RINs depending upon the renewable such as corn ethanol or biodiesel which do have different values. D6 is considered the baseline RIN.
Photo courtesy of Growth Energy Iowa governor introduces bill to set E15 standard by 2025 and bipartisan Senate bill expands renewable fuel infrastructure.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has introduced a bill to set a minimum standard of biofuels in the Iowa fuel supply. Meanwhile, legislators at the national level are also working to streamline regulatory requirements for higher ethanol blends.
In Iowa, HSB 185 proposed by Reynolds, creates more opportunities and markets within Iowa for corn-based ethanol including significant funding for biofuels infrastructure, as well as an E10 standard. The bill introduced in the Iowa state legislature would move the state to overall higher biofuel blends, including offering E15 statewide by 2025 and updating the E15 promotion tax credit to $0.03 per gallon year-round. It is estimated that over the first five years, the legislation would increase ethanol demand by over 117 million gallons.
Biofuel debate awaits Biden on way to court gazettextra.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from gazettextra.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Renewed focus on climate legislation could help biofuels
The biofuel industry argues that President-elect Joe Biden can also make progress on his climate goals by expanding biofuel usage mandates, embracing a low carbon fuel policy and increasing vehicle emissions standards. 5:30 am, Jan. 17, 2021 ×
File photo
Now that Democrats have won control of the Senate, climate legislation is inevitable, and farm groups have to get involved in the debate, says Chandler Goule, CEO of the National Association of Wheat Growers and a former Democratic congressional staffer.
“We’ve got to make sure that agriculture is part of the solution, Goule said in a Washington Week in Review interview with Agri-Pulse. It’s not if climate legislation is coming, it’s when. So we might as well just get over whether this is going to happen or not,”