You can subscribe to “The Ethanol Report” by following this link.

Or you can listen to it on-line here: Ethanol Report 12 (5:45 MP3 file)

RFA president Bob Dinneen reminded the committee of that several times during the hearing, having to correct his own pre-prepared remarks. “Mr. Chairman, the RFS made sense when you passed it in December and prices were $90 a barrel,” Dinneen said. “It makes more sense today with crude oil prices at $120 a barrel. I’m sorry, just while this hearing has been going on, the market has increased and we’re now looking at $122 a barrel oil.”

“Ethanol is the only tool we have today that can address the nation’s most serious economic issue – our dependence on imported oil and the rising price of gasoline and crude oil,” he said.

Listen to Bob’s testimony here: Dinneen Hearing Testimony (6:00 MP3 file)

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.

Former Agriculture Secretary John Block, National Corn Growers CEO Rick Tolman, National Farmers Union president Tom Buis and RFA’s own Bob Dinneen gave opening statements about the facts on food price increases and entertained about 40 minutes of questions from reporters present and on the phone. They covered nearly every topic on the ethanol waterfront and gave highly informative answers to probing and intelligent questions from the press. Hopefully this will translate into some balance in reporting about the food versus fuel issue.

It’s a big file and may take a while to load but you can listen to the entire one hour plus press conference here: Food Price Press Conference (1 Hour MP3 file)

You can see an online photo album from the press conference here: RFA Press Conference Photo Album

Today at 1pm eastern time, RFA is hosting a press conference at the National Press Club. In attendance will be:

The Honorable John Block, former Secretary of Agriculture
Tom Buis, President, National Farmers Union (NFA)
Bob Dinneen, President of the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA)
Rick Tolman, CEO, National Corn Growers Association (NCGA)

The topic will be: “Farmers and Ethanol Industry to Present the Facts On Food Price Increases.”

We are working to try and stream the press conference live on on UStream.tv using the player below. At the time of the conference, you should be able to click on the player and see the live stream. This is an experiment, so we will see how it works. Regardless, we are recording the conference and will have a full update available here afterward.

Update: The live stream worked! Here is a recording of the first 20 minutes or so:

This was the first time we used this new streaming service. It recorded in segments so here’s another segment which takes you through all the opening statements.

VeraSun’s patent-pending Oil Extraction process is designed to yield 7-8 million gallons of corn oil annually from 390,000 tons of distillers grains currently produced at VeraSun’s ethanol production facility in Aurora, S.D. The corn oil will then be made available for sale into the biodiesel market, thus increasing the renewable fuel supply without an additional feedstock supply. The result of the process also includes enhanced distillers grains through the concentration of protein and the reduction of fat. One gallon of corn oil yields roughly a gallon of biodiesel.

VeraSun expects to start producing the corn oil later this year. The company also plans to use the process at two of its plants in Iowa next year.

Among those giving a hand at the groundbreaking were South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds, Reid Jensen with the South Dakota Corn Utilization Council and Matt Hartwig of the Renewable Fuels Association.

You can subscribe to “The Ethanol Report” by following this link.

Or you can listen to it on-line here: Ethanol Report 11 (6:45 MP3 file)

The Renewable Fuels Association criticized the governor’s action, saying that reducing the use of ethanol will not appreciably reduce grain prices for livestock producers and food processors in Texas.

“But eliminating 4.5 billion gallons of fuel from the marketplace as the 50% waiver of the Renewable Fuels Standard sought by Governor Perry would do will increase gasoline and diesel prices even more. While this may benefit Texas oil companies, it will certainly hurt consumers in Texas and the rest of the country.”

RFA says that Governor Perry is ignoring the conclusions of a Texas A&M report he himself requested. According to the findings of that study, “relaxing the RFS does not result in significantly lower corn prices.” The Texas A&M report also stated that, “The underlying force driving changes in the agricultural industry, along with the economy as a whole, is overall higher energy costs, evidenced by $100 per barrel oil.”

Responding to Governor Perry, Renewable Fuels Association President Bob Dinneen issued the following statement:

“Tampering, adjusting or removing the requirements will not have the impact on grain prices that Governor Perry seeks, nor will it bring the food price reductions he claims. The skyrocketing price of oil, surging global demand for grains and meat, poor harvests around the globe, and a weakened US dollar are the real factors determining world grain and food prices. The production and use of ethanol, while increasing demand for corn, is not contributing significantly to food price escalation. It is, however, helping to keep and oil prices lower than they might otherwise be.

“I strongly encourage Administrator Johnson to recognize that oil dependence and the high prices we see today play a far greater role in the complex issue of food prices than ethanol does and to roundly reject the waiver application by the state of Texas.”

The survey, conducted by Peter D. Hart Research Associates Inc., polled 1200 voters earlier this year about a number of issues facing Americans.

The top three concerns were the war in Iraq, health insurance and energy. Almost half rated imports one of their two biggest energy concerns. A distant second is the lack of viable alternatives to fossil fuels.

When asked what is the best way to solve America’s energy problems, 51 percent said the answer is to invest in renewable energy sources; 28 percent call for energy efficiency and conservation policies; and only 17 percent favor more drilling and mining for domestic fossil fuels. Eighty percent of the voters in the survey say government should give more incentives to encourage the development of renewable fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel. Seventy-six percent want government to require more renewable fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel to be blended into fuel for cars and trucks.

Read the full study results here.

The Missouri Corn Merchandising Council released a study done by John Urbanchuk with the economic consulting service LECG that finds drivers in Missouri can expect to save an average of 9.8 cents per gallon this year due to the 10 percent ethanol standard that went into effect Jan. 1, 2008. That works out to $73 for every motorist in the state.

“With petroleum industry profits of $123 billion and fuel prices spiking 40 percent in the last four months, the pain at the pump is getting intense,” said Jayne Glosemeyer, Missouri Corn Merchandising Council chairwoman and farmer from Marthasville, Mo. “The implementation of the Missouri Renewable Fuel Standard, blending the state’s gasoline with 10 percent ethanol, is the one thing helping to ease the pain. It is keeping money in consumers’ pockets and keeping dollars here at home.”

A pdf file of the study report is available here.

On the environmental side, the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council celebrated Earth Day by informing consumers that if every car in America would use a ten percent blend of ethanol for one week, the amount of greenhouse gases produced in the U.S. would be reduced by nearly 1.3 billion pounds.

According to calculations done by researcher Nathan Danielson, president of BioCognito, filling up with E10 can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 9.5 pounds per tank.

“Ethanol is just a very good fuel for reducing overall carbon foot print,� Danielson said. “The story gets better if we go to E85. If we get to E85, all the sudden you are sitting at about 90 pounds of carbon dioxide that you’ve removed from the atmosphere by using ethanol instead of gasoline.� Everyone filling their tanks with E85, he says, would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 12.4 billion pounds in one week.

Better still, Danielson says that the same situation using ethanol derived from cellulose could reduce greenhouse gases by 282 pounds per car per week, or 38.5 billion pounds a week if used by every car on the road.