USDA Study finds ethanol reduces carbon emissions by nearly 50% as industry gears up for major environmental regulatory changes ahead.
An enormous agenda around climate offers both a challenge and opportunity in the legislative and regulatory arenas to demonstrate what a solution ethanol can be in both adding higher octane and lowering carbon emissions. That s according to former South Dakota Democratic Sen. Tom Daschle and main architect of the initial Renewable Fuel Standard advanced in Congress nearly two decades ago.
While speaking at the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association virtual meeting Jan. 26, Daschle recalls when he and former Sen. Dick Lugar, R-Ind., started the RFS movement as those in agriculture sold the idea ethanol offered a pathway to oil independence after the events of 9/11. Today, ethanol can position itself around the unifying message that it provides a solution to eliminating emissions as focus ramps up on mitigating climate impacts.
Iowa Renewable Fuels Association calls on Iowa lawmakers to increase investment in biofuels infrastructure Wednesday, January 27, 2021 10:38 AM Monte Shaw, the executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, called on the Legislature to increase funding for the state’s biofuel industry, saying the industry just went through a “triple whammy of Renewable Fuel Standard exemptions, lost export markets and decreased demand because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Shaw’s comments came Tuesday during the 2021 Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit in Johnston, where he cited opportunities to expand biofuel demand across Iowa, the country and the world.
“The power of biofuels to propel the rural economy is so great that the people in this industry will simply never give up,” he said. “That, my friends, is the state of the Iowa biofuels industry in 2021: battered, but battling for a better future.”
Since September, China returned to the U.S. market buying higher amounts of corn, soybeans, beef, pork and chicken. However, they still haven’t fulfilled commitments in rolling back tariffs on ethanol and dried distillers grains, says Terry Branstad, former China ambassador during the Trump administration and former Iowa governor.
“I’m optimistic that’s going to happen in the not too distant future. It’s in their interest as well as our interest,” Branstad explains during a panel discussion Jan. 26 of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association’s virtual annual convention.
Branstad says the phase one trade agreement with China requires major purchases of U.S. agricultural products, but they’ve not fulfilled their commitments to reduce retaliatory tariffs on ethanol and DDGs within that agreement. He continued to press the subject in his last days in China, and he’s hopeful it will happen especially if the Biden administration continues to push the matter.
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Thinkstock.com: matheesaengkaew There’s hope for the beleaguered biofuels industry if government policies and export opportunities bear fruit. That’s the conclusion reached Tuesday, January 26, at the Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit, which was held in a virtual forum because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Monte Shaw, executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, described the state of Iowa’s biofuels industry as “battered, but battling for a better future,” during his remarks. Iowa is the national leader in ethanol and biodiesel production with 42 ethanol refineries capable of producing 4.5 billion gallons a year and 11 biodiesel plants with the capacity to produce more than 400 million gallons annually.