According to a recent survey made by Renewable Fuels Now, 74 percent of Americans say that the US should increase domestic production of renewable fuels, including ethanol. The poll also mentions that Americans support the idea of the Federal Government helping develop the biofuel industry (87 percent) and increasing biofuel blends at the pumps (77 percent).

The article also mentions that Americans don't believe in the "tortilla effect" (that corn ethanol affects food prices) and more people mention other root factors for the price increase, for example higher oil prices (46 percent) and increased global demand (15 percent), than those who believe ethanol is guilty (7 percent).

The survey was released by Renewable Fuels Now, a coalition of associations and companies that includes the National Corn Growers Association. It was conducted in late October 2007 and surveyed 1,000 adults in the US.

Nevertheless, Ron Plain, a professor of agricultural economics at the University of Missouri, states that even if all the agricultural output in the US were used to produce biofuels, the country would still need 50 million gallons of gasoline to keep cars running. He also said "Ethanol can reduce the use of gasoline but it isn't going to replace it [...] We use too much gasoline to replace it with ethanol".

Related:

• Five-year moratorium on food feedstock biofuel plants suggested at the UN
• Ethanol: Burn It or Drink It?
• Mexico wants to limit corn ethanol with "Food comes first" law

[Source: Cattle network via Ethanol Review]

We've heard plenty about how biodiesel feedstock from palm plantations in SE Asia contributes to forest devastation there, but the cry from Brazil has not been nearly as loud. Of course, that country's biofuel industry also has an impact on the natural landscape, as this article explains.

Rhett Butler, writing at Mongabay.com (not GoneWithTheWind.com), explains how biofuels are driving the destruction of the Brazilian cerrado, "one of the planet's most biodiverse savanna ecosystems." The cerrado makes up a ginormous part of Brazil - 740,100 square miles, according to Wikipedia - but, as the chart above shows, this amount has been decreasing for the last 20+ years. The rate of destruction has kind of leveled out after 2002.

Why is the cerrado going away? Butler writes that is is being "transformed into croplands to meet rising demand for soybeans, sugarcane, and cattle." Butler has the details at Mongabay, but biofuels are part of the problem. The American ethanol industry's push to plant more corn (instead of soybeans) domestically is linked to the increased soybean planting in Brazil (we've got to get our soy from somewhere, right?), for example. Just something to think about when you Go Yellow.

[Source: Mongabay]

Food & Water Watch, the Network for Energy Choices and the Institute for Energy and the Environment at Vermont Law School are on the quest of creating a report called "The Rush to Ethanol: Not all BioFuels are created equal". They affirm that, "ethanol is no silver bullet solution for fossil fuel dependence, energy independence or curbing emissions".

So the organisers' intention is to create a comprehensive report on the implications of corn ethanol, because that's were the taxpayers' money is going to, while "citizens are promised that they will be driving switchgrass-based ethanol" in the following years. This report will be sent as a recommendations for the US biofuels policy for the 2007 Farm Bill.

Follow the Read link for all their arguments against corn ethanol.

Related:

• More on the coming American ethanol glut
• Iowa State University researchers say corn ethanol not profitable after 2008
• Hale group announces ethanol 2012 study

[Source: The Network for New Energy Choices]

As we wrote recently, America is about to be flooded with ethanol. This "flood" certainly won't be enough to supplant all of our oil imports, but it will be large enough to make ethanol plants less profitable and therefore changing the equation for a lot of producers and buyers.

The LA Times recently spoke with Gordon Ommen, co-founder of US BioEnergy Corp. (AutoblogGreen's interview with US BioEnergy reps is in the video above) and others in the ethanol industry about the biofuels future in America. The viewpoint that profits will plateau once we get to making nine or ten billion gallons a year is
starting to sound like a refrain, but these ethanol producers are still bullish on what they're doing (or, at least, they're confident to the media).

There is, of course, a lot more to the story. I'm talking about the increasing number of E85-capable cars, more ethanol pumps on the horizon, and continued government pressure to get ethanol into every possible area. Still, industry insiders know all about these things, too, and if they're saying the glory days will soon come to an end, then I think we need to get ready for them.

[Source: LA Times]

All the money rolling into the ethanol/corn industries may come to a screeching halt in a year or two, say researchers at Iowa State University. Inside Green Tech spoke to Bruce Babcock, economist and director of the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development at ISU, who say that, "We think the expected returns to an ethanol plant are zero or negative in 2008."

That's a dire prediction for an industry that's been building ethanol plant's like there's a greener tomorrow in each one. And it's certainly different than what people in the industry are telling AutoblogGreen. Babcock has his reasons, though: rising prices for corn feedstock, more ethanol on the market which leads to falling prices. This year there will be about six billion gallons of ethanol made in the U.S. "As we move beyond six, seven, eight billion gallons, we think the price will drop," Babcock said.

Of course, if E85-capable vehicles start to become more popular, then Americans will be able to use a bit more than six billion gallons a year. Of course, if cellulosic ethanol plants start to make the biofuel cheaply, then the profits for corn ethanol drop. So many possibilities (stay tuned for Sam's post in a little bit on how GM sees the ethanol future).

[Source: Inside Green Tech]

The Hale Group, Ltd. and its affiliates have announced the Ethanol 2012 Study. This report is designed to define the forces that will impact the U.S. ethanol industry during the next five years and to develop appropriate competitive strategies. The study will have as collaborators experts in petroleum, agricultural, technology and policy.

Some of the questions that will be addressed during this study are the prediction on oil prices for the next 5 years and the factors that affect it, the components of the US energy, agriculture, and trade policy during the next few years, the role corn ethanol plays in that policy, possible changes in US biofuels policy, the impact of imports and when cellulosic ethanol will be available.

The conclusions of the study will be sold as a course aimed at current ethanol producers, companies that are considering entry into the industry, financial firms that have an investment in the ethanol industry, service providers to the ethanol industry, and governmental agencies.

[Source: Hale Group]

A company based in Wisconsin called ENCAP has attracted some attention from investors when they recently found an agricultural product with which they can produce using the byproducts from the creation of biofuels like ethanol and biodiesel. In fact, they can use "almost any inert material, including byproducts of the sugar cane process, or dried distillers grains from the corn ethanol process", according to Michael Krysiak, president of ENCAP in an interview performed by Inside Greentech. They have begun building a test plant in Cali, Columbia to start "transforming waste from sugar, corn, rice, cassava, bio-diesel, and other starch-based plants into marketable products."

Sounds like an interesting cycle could take place... using the waste from the biofuel processes to re-grow more crops. This, however, does not solve the problem of using a foodstock as a fuel source. There are many, Fidel Castro for instance, who think that we should not use any foodstocks for fuel. I am not sure yet what the answer is to that one. Solar and wind power for our electric cars perhaps?

[Source: Inside Greentech]

Energy companies like Chevron cannot throw enough money at ethanol research these days. It certainly wasn't always like this. In 1999, a Chevron exec, Patricia Woertz, who was then head of refining, said it was "time to stop mixing agricultural policy with fuels policy." Today, Woertz has seen the light, and it is a corn-powered green.

Woertz's shift in attitude might have something to do with her new job. She is now the chief executive of Archer Daniels Midland, the agribusiness giant that is pushing like mad to promote ethanol made from corn. Woertz now says that ethanol will make up 10 percent of the U.S. gasoline supply sometime in the next ten years and that ADM will take the lead in producing cellulosic ethanol when the technology is available to make it efficiently. Woertz explains her change of heart on ethanol on an evolving energy market. Fair enough. We'll see where she's at seven years hence.

[Source: International Herald Tribune]