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Ethanol group pleased with Obama’s EPA pick

March 4, 2013 By Leave a Comment

The executive vice president of the American Coalition for Ethanol says they are pleased with President Obama’s appointment of Gina McCarthy as the next administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

For the past four years, McCarthy has headed up the EPA’s air and radiation office, where she has been actively involved in decisions on the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) and E15.  Jennings tells Brownfield that McCarthy understands the importance of the RFS and renewable fuels to the country.

AUDIO: Brian Jennings (6:27 MP3)

Filed Under: Feature Programs, Rural Issues Tagged With: , , , , , ,

ACE pleased with McCarthy appointment

March 4, 2013 By Leave a Comment

President Obama has nominated Gina McCarthy to be the next administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

For the past four years, McCarthy has headed up the EPA’s air and radiation office, where she has been actively involved in decisions on the Renewable Fuels Standard and E15.  Brian Jennings, executive vice president of the American Coalition for Ethanol, says they’re pleased with the appointment.

“We are (pleased).  There were rumors about other names that may have been nominated, whether it’s someone from the California Air Resources Board, or others,” Jennings says. “We know the President is a strong supporter of renewable fuels and we believe Gina McCarthy understands the importance of the RFS to our country—and the importance of E15—and so we’re looking forward to working with her.”

Obama has also nominated MIT professor Ernest Moniz as energy secretary, but Jennings says the energy secretary does not have much influence in the area of renewable fuels.

AUDIO: Brian Jennings (6:27 MP3)

Filed Under: Crops, Events/Organizations, News, Renewable Energy, Top Stories Tagged With: , , , ,

Noted ag economist sees some cautionary signs

January 18, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Dr. David Kohl isn’t forecasting an end to what he calls the “Super Cycle” that agriculture is current experiencing. 

But the noted ag economist, consultant and professor emeritus at Virgina Tech says there are some cautionary signs popping up on the agricultural landscape.  We visited with Kohl at a recent ag management expo in Beatrice, Nebraska.

AUDIO: David Kohl (4:27 MP3)

Filed Under: Feature Programs, Rural Issues Tagged With: , , , ,

Preparing for a debate on policy

January 10, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Policy is the heart of next week’s American Farm Bureau Federation Annual meeting.   Indiana Farm Bureau president Don Villwock says Indiana’s members set their policy recommendations during two delegate sessions last year and will bring them to Nashville.  “They want to phase out direct payments and make crop insurance the focus of our safety net,” he says.

Villwock tells Brownfield that IFB’s policy also supports maintaining the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) – which he anticipates will be a hot topic at the upcoming meeting.  “I think some of the larger, southern, poultry producing states will be fighting to eliminate the RFS,” he says.  “For Midwest farmers who really rely on ethanol to help drive the marketplace – maintaining that will be a big discussion.”

The American Farm Bureau Federation annual meeting runs January 13-16 in Nashville.

 

Filed Under: 2013 AFBF Convention, Featured, Special Reports Tagged With: , , ,

RFA prepares for next RFS challenge

December 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Bob Dinneen, President and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) says with the New Year will come a significant new challenge to the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS), a challenge led by the American Petroleum Institute (API).

“The API is not to be taken lightly,” said Dinneen. “They’ve got $25 million in a war chest that they will use in legislative lobbying, in grassroots organizing, in misinformation and in an advertising campaign designed to keep people from focusing on the real issues.”

To counter, Dinneen says supporters of the RFS will need to unify and collect resources to counter.

“Fuels America is a coalition of all the biofuels trade associations, several companies like Novozymes and DuPont that have an interest in developing new technologies, coming together, pooling our resources, we will have a campaign to beat back big oils efforts,” the President and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association said. “I am not going to let the success that has been the Renewable Fuels Standard to be lost without one heck of a fight.

Filed Under: News, Renewable Energy Tagged With: , , , , , ,

RFA helps Santa with naughty/nice list

December 14, 2012 By 1 Comment

Speaking at the Ohio Grain Farmers Symposium on Thursday, December 13, Bob Dinneen, President/CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) says they’ve been helping Santa with his naughty and nice list when it comes to the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS).

“It’s actually fairly easy this year,” said Dinneen. “Just a few weeks ago the American Petroleum Institute (API) came out against the Renewable Fuels Standard that has been so successful at increasing farm income, developing markets for this industry and reducing our dependence on imported oil, and they said they were going to work to repeal this program, so they immediately got on the naughty list.”

Joining the API on the naughty list are the big food companies.

Making the “nice list,” the Obama Administration.

“For denying the waiver request that Big Oil and Big Food were seeking of the RFS, doing so in the face of the 77 percent of the comments that were actually in support of a waiver, but recognizing that while they might have had the numbers, they didn’t have the fact,” Dinneen said.

When it comes to the EPA, the head of the Renewable Fuels Association said the agency had done some things to make the nice list, but there are some in the agency that may find coal in their stockings Christmas morning.

Audio: Bob Dineen, CEO, Renewable Fuels Assn. (5:05 mp3)

Filed Under: Events/Organizations, News, Renewable Energy, Top Stories Tagged With: , , , , ,

Discussing the issues with NCBA president J.D. Alexander

December 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Cattle feeder J.D. Alexander of Pilger, Nebraska is the president of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.  He’s been traveling all over the country in recent weeks, meeting with and speaking to various state cattle organizations.  We caught up with Alexander at the Iowa Cattlemen’s Association meeting this week and asked him about a myriad of topics including the drought, RFS, EPA, the estate tax and the animal rights movement.  We also discussed whether NCBA will pursue an increase in the beef checkoff.

AUDIO: J.D. Alexander (10:01 MP3)

Filed Under: Feature Programs, Rural Issues Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

RFS battle is not over

November 17, 2012 By 1 Comment

EPA’s decision to maintain the status quo on the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) is probably not the end of the story.

Livestock groups and others will likely step up their efforts to convince Congress to make changes to the ethanol mandates in the RFS.  National Chicken Council spokesman Tom Super says all options are on the table.

“If the worst drought in over 50 years, coupled with the RFS, is not cause for that safety valve to get triggered—then the law is broken,” Super says.

National Cattlemen’s Beef Association president J.D. Alexander agrees.

“We are very disappointed with the fact that they didn’t follow through on the agreement we had many years ago, when this situation would occur—low  stocks, high prices of corn, drought situation,” Alexander says. “The agreement back then was that if something like this were to happen, they would be able to allow the waiver of this.”

But Bob Dinneen of the Renewable Fuels Association doubts a congressional challenge will gain much traction.

“Because in any objective review of this program, it has been an unmitigated success,” says Dinneen, “in terms of its ability to reduce our dependence on imported oil—in terms of the success it has meant to rural America where you’ve seen real economic development—and in terms of the environmental benefits that accrue as a result of increased use of domestic, renewable fuels.

“So I look forward to a debate.”

Filed Under: Crops, Dairy, Events/Organizations, Livestock, News, Renewable Energy, Top Stories, USDA/Government Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Livestock industry disappointed in EPA decision

November 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Friday morning’s decision by the Environmental Protection Agency’s to deny the request to waive the corn-ethanol mandate in the Renewable Fuels Standard has livestock producers disappointed.

Gary Asay is an Illinois pork producer and a National Pork Producer’s Council board member.  He says NPPC felt because the drought of 2012 was a once in a lifetime occurrence – it qualified for the RFS Waiver.  “With the rise in feed prices – because of the drought here – there is a lot of financial strain on livestock producers,” he says.  “There have been some that have gone out of business, deciding not to lose additional equity.”

In EPA’s comments – they noted that waiving the RFS would only decrease corn prices 1 percent.  Asay tells Brownfield – that depends.  “Economists have done studies on the RFS and I’ve seen releases from them that shows both sides,” he says.  “Some say it would make a significant difference in the price of corn and others say it would not make much of a difference.”

But he says that isn’t the only issue.  “We have a waiver that was not granted, even though it was allowed for in the original legislation,” he says.  “Anyone  that would try to say it wouldn’t make a difference is missing the point.”

AUDIO: Gary Asay, National Pork Producers Council (5:25mp3)

Filed Under: Events/Organizations, Livestock, News Tagged With: , , , , , ,

EPA denies RFS waiver request

November 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The federal EPA has denied a request to waive the corn-ethanol mandate in the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS).

Despite claims to the contrary from livestock, poultry and dairy groups, the EPA says the RFS is not causing economic harm.  The agency determined that suspending the standard would reduce corn prices by only one percent.

Reaction to the announcement is about as expected, with ethanol and corn groups applauding the decision and livestock groups expressing frustration.

Monte Shaw is executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association.

“Today’s decision proves that the RFS is working—that there’s inherent flexibility built into the law that allows it to adjust for a short crop,” Shaw says.

AUDIO: Monte Shaw (5:10 MP3)

But National Chicken Council spokesman Tom Super tells Brownfield that the impact on corn prices caused by the RFS is much greater than EPA’s “one percent” figure.

“Our economic data suggests otherwise,” Super says. “There have been several studies that showed that a full waiver next year would take about two dollars off a bushel of corn.”

AUDIO: Tom Super (1:49 MP3)

The president of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association—Nebraska cattle feeder J.D. Alexander—called the EPA’s decision “a blatant example of the flawed policy of the RFS”.  Alexander says cattlemen and women are only asking for a level playing field.

Asked if they will pursue congressional changes to the RFS, Super says, “all options are on the table to fix this misguided policy, yes.”

Filed Under: Crops, Dairy, Events/Organizations, Livestock, News, Renewable Energy, Top Stories, USDA/Government Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,
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