It was publicity hound P.T. Barnum who is credited with the quote “I don’t care what they say as long as they spell my name right.” Wonder if his name was as hard for the media to get right as “Dinneen.”
Bob’s name is frequently spelled “Dineen” by the media - like this recent Reuters story. Now seriously, they could spell Urbanchuk right but not Dinneen?
When I was in Journalism school back in the old days, it was considered a major fact error to get someone’s name wrong. And in today’s world of the internet, double-checking is just a click away.
In fact, the article was written by one person and edited by another. Someone should have been able to check.
The good news is, it was a positive article making RFA’s point that a waiver of the RFS would increase gasoline prices even more. So, in this case, Bob probably doesn’t care that they spelled his name wrong - the message was more important.
Update: Just noticed that the AP story on today’s hearing about the RFS by the House Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality also spelled Bob’s name wrong, even though it is spelled correctly on the witness list. Sorry, but as a journalist that really bothers me.
Renewable Fuels Association spokesperson Matt Hartwig was interviewed this week for the National Association of Farm Broadcasting news service about the USDA Prospective Planting report and what it means for ethanol production.
Matt said the report, which forecasts 86 million acres of corn, shows that progress being made toward the goal of producing 15-billion gallons of corn ethanol by the year 2015.
“Most look at a scenario in the year 2015 where the American farmer will produce 15 billion bushels of corn,” Matt said. If the ethanol industry can produce three gallons of ethanol per bushel, that will mean using about one third of that crop to make 15 billion gallons of ethanol.
This year, if farmers only plant the 86 million acres forecast, production should be over 12 billion bushels. “And with carry-in of about 1.5, you’re looking at 13 to 13.75,” Matt says.
Legendary oil investor T. Boone Pickens was on CNBC earlier this week talking about energy and oil prices.
According to Delta Farm Press, his comments about ethanol did not receive very much media attention, but they are certainly interesting to the ethanol industry.
Pickens, who admitted he once opposed ethanol, said on CNBC’s daily “Squawk Box� program that America’s purchases of foreign oil are costing the country a half a trillion dollars every year.
“You take 10 years, and you have $5 trillion,� said Pickens. “That’s more than $1 billion a day. We can’t stand that.� (That $500 billion per year is not far from the record federal deficit of $552 billion in 2004.)
Ethanol industry leaders have been saying the United States needed to reduce its use of foreign-produced oil to avoid transferring such wealth out of the country. But few have put it in such dramatic terms as Pickens.
Acknowledging he didn’t think much of ethanol’s claims in the early years, he said he now supports increased production. “I’d rather have ethanol and recirculate the money in the country, than to have it go out the back door on us.�
The chief executive officer of the world’s largest food and drink company has given new meaning to the word hyperbole.
Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, CEO of Swiss food giant Nestle, is quoted in various news reports saying, “If as predicted we look to use biofuels to satisfy 20 percent of the growing demand for oil products, there will be nothing left to eat.”
He also called planned subsidies for biofuels “irresponsible and immoral” and “political insanity.”
The last sentence in the story on Forbes website from Thompson Financial News makes a good point.
“Thus far Nestle has been successful in passing on a strong hike in raw materials prices, including milk, cacao and corn, to its clients.”
In conveniently coincidental attempts to discredit the benefits of domestic renewable ethanol production and use, representatives from the nation’s petrochemical, corporate livestock, and food processing industries have made frequent public statements disparaging America’s farmers and ethanol producers.
Recent comments by corporate officers from Valero, Pilgrim’s Pride, Tyson’s, Smithfield and others have portrayed ethanol as the primary cause of rising commodity and food costs. The rush to make ethanol the scapegoat for all these ills completely ignores the complexities of world agriculture and energy markets and the many factors behind higher food prices, not the least of which is the record price of oil.
“To put the blame for rising commodity, food and energy prices solely at the feet of the American ethanol industry is misleading and diversionary,� said Renewable Fuels Association President Bob Dinneen. “This kind of overheated, chicken little rhetoric is meant to distort the truth and deliberately misinform the American public. Fortunately, the American people see through these smokescreens and understand that this nation must break its addiction to oil. The consequences of failing to do so, like record oil prices well in excess of $100 barrel, are too great. Biofuels like ethanol represent the beginning of that long journey.�
Some examples of the phony claims being made by officials from these industries include: (more…)
In this “Ethanol Report” podcast, Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) Chairman Chris Standlee, executive vice president of Abengoa Bioenergy, discusses developments in cellulosic ethanol, disputes with the recent “Science” article studies, and the upcoming 13th annual National Ethanol Conference in Orlando, February 25-27
You can subscribe to “The Ethanol Report” by following this link.
Or you can listen to it on-line here: 
Ethanol Report 7 (8:00 MP3 file)
The rapid growth of America’s domestic ethanol industry is helping America reduce its gasoline and foreign oil use and lower prices at the pump, according to a Valentines Day article from Reuters (“Ethanol boom may stifle U.S. gasoline demand,â€? 2.14.08). According to Reuters, “explosive [ethanol] production is stifling an established driver of oil markets — U.S. gasoline demand — and could lead to lower prices at the pump.â€?
The article notes that ethanol production in 2007, which the Renewable Fuels Association estimates to have been 6.5 billion gallons, is up 130,000 barrels per day according to the Energy Information Administration. That is equivalent to the amount of gasoline a medium-sized oil refinery produces. Through November 2007, the latest date available, ethanol production was averaging 417,000 barrels per day or 17.5 million gallons per day – the equivalent of three medium-sized oil refineries.
In an interview for the article, Eric Wittenauer of AG Edwards in St. Louis stated, “‘Ethanol blending could help ease U.S. refining bottlenecks and that could be ultimately reflected in lower prices at the pump.’�
Equally important as reducing prices at the pump is ethanol’s role in reducing oil and gasoline imports. According to the outlook of Valero, the nation’s largest oil refiner, the “company foresees ethanol growth ‘offsetting gasoline imports to the U.S.’�
In response to last week’s “Science” article on studies that indicate clearing land to produce biofuels will do more to worsen global warming than using gasoline or other fossil fuels, the 25x’25 National Steering Committee says the media failed to report that the studies also show ways to avoid these problems.
According to the 25x’25 response, technology is making existing cropland more productive - negating the need to encroach on sensitive lands. Second - existing biofuels are the foundation for developing a new generation of renewable fuels that minimize land-use changes and improve the environment.
Biofuels provide a much-needed and environmentally sounder alternative to petroleum fuels. As demand for liquid fuels continues to grow, petroleum resources, which are finite, continue to diminish. Efforts to develop new sources of oil, such as the tar sands in Canada, can only be expected to generate their own high levels of climate change pollutants. Meanwhile, EPA says using cellulosic ethanol can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 90 percent. Developing new sources of renewable fuels is a far better alternative to trying to squeeze petroleum from a depleting resource of fossil fuels at a demonstrably appalling environmental cost. Ethanol and second generation biofuels remain the only fuel options available that address our need to enhance our national security and improve our environment.
Read the entire statement from 25x’25 here.
The news service RedOrbit.com picked up on an editorial Bob Dinneen wrote that was published in the January edition of “The Officer,” the official publication of the Reserve Officers Association (ROA).
The subject is the importance of domestic fuel sources like ethanol to our nation’s homeland security and it is really a must read for anyone in the business to be able to talk about why displacing even a small fraction of foreign oil makes a difference.
Dinneen writes: In 2006, U.S. ethanol producers churned out nearly five billion gallons of ethanol. This volume displaced the need to import 206 million barrels of oil. For perspective, that is more oil than we will import from Iraq in 2007 and nearly half of the oil we will get from Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. Additionally, displacing that much oil saved more than $11 billion that would have gone overseas to fund radicals bent on our destruction.
Much more in the article - definitely a good source for defending US ethanol production on the basis of national security alone.
The latest political cartoon from the Renewable Fuels Now Coalition really hits home with oil hitting the C note this week.
These political-style renewable fuels education cartoons are distributed twice a month by the Renewable Fuels Coalition for use in publications or websites. Contact Joanna Schroeder at jschroeder@renewablefuelsnow.org, or 402-932-0567 to subscribe.
Renewable Fuels Now is a coalition representing ethanol, biodiesel, agriculture and other industries that support increased use of homegrown renewable fuels as part of a balanced energy policy for America. The Coalition’s members include RFA, the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE), the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC), National Corn Growers Association (NCGA), 20/20 Vision, Wisconsin BioIndustry Alliance, Ethanol Producers and Consumers (EPAC), Kansas Association of Ethanol, Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, IndyCar Series, Buckeye Renewable Fuels Association, Ohio Corn Growers Association, Clean Fuels Development Coalition, and Northwest Renewable Fuels Association.
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