Source: leavenworthtimes.com
Matt Nowak
I recently attended the eighth annual Iowa Renewable Fuels Association conference near Des Moines.
It was well-attended by mostly folks in nice suits, many of whom were farmers and plenty who were part of the industry that promotes and relies on the alternative fuels market. When I say alternative, I'm referring to anything but petroleum-based fuels.
In fact, right from the very beginning, and with probably every speaker, there was a thick disdain for the oil industry, or as they called it, "Big Oil."
Iowa is known as a pretty solidly conservative state, but I was looking around for the Sierra Club banners most of the day as I listened to one speaker after another make disparaging remarks about "Big Oil."
Often, the remarks referred to what the conferees called the lies "Big Oil" regularly makes about renewable fuels. Let's get it straight — renewable fuels in Iowa means growing corn for ethanol and maybe some soybeans for biodiesel.
The latest entry into the renewable fuels market is cellulose-based ethanol and there were at least two companies there to promote their particular plants that they are building. I believe that they said that there are at least four or five cellulose plants on the drawing boards and there are two under construction and slated to be on line in 2015. One of those plants will cost about $200 million and the other about $250 million.
Mind you, these plants must buy bales of corn stover from about 200,000 acres of surrounding farmland and that anything over 30-40 miles out from the plant is not cost-effective, according to the presenters.
By the way, there are presently more than 40 corn ethanol plants in Iowa. One fact of which I was not aware is that after the ethanol is produced from the starch in corn, apparently there is plenty of protein left, which is made into feed.
I was really surprised to hear a speaker refer to Fox News as one of the prime examples of how the media supports "Big Oil" by supposedly promoting their lies about renewable fuels. Like I said, I was looking for Sierra banners when I heard that.
I looked around again when one conferee asked the Iowa governor about when Iowa was going to support bringing back hemp as a renewable fuels crop. I was thinking that I better sit closer to the exit, but the suits sitting next to me did not make rude remarks and neither did the governor.
Speaking of hemp, when the new Farm Bill is passed, at least 10 states will have the potential to be growing hemp for fiber and for biodiesel.
The Farm Bill says that each state must have legislation that permits it in their state since federal law still bans hemp production. At least that is my understanding of the new Farm Bill. For those who think that hemp is the same as marijuana, think about the relationship between the two as the same as that between field corn and sweet corn. They are obviously both corn, but you would only try to eat field corn once or twice before you switched to the sweet corn and most would never eat field corn once. Same goes for hemp and marijuana.
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