Sierrans:
FYI
Ethanol is shaping up to be a major issue for this Session of the
Legislature, as we have expected for months...it likely will be the primary
energy issue of the session.
This is the weblink to the presentation by the professors from ISU/UofI/UNI
to the Iowa Legislature yesterday. It is a long .pdf document which you can
download and read, and contains pretty much everything that was presented or
discussed.
http://www2.iowaccess.org/regents/News/regentsrenewablefuelsjan2006.pdf
Here is the weblink to the DMR's article covering the presentation.
http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060113/NEWS10/6011
30367/1011
Here are 2 LTEs by DMR readers on the issue which appeared this morning...
Letters to the Editor
By REGISTER READERS
January 13, 2006
Ethanol use should not be mandated
Regarding the Dec. 29 article, "Increasing Ethanol Fuel Use in Iowa":
Petroleum marketers support Iowa farmers. No doubt about it. When the
hurricanes hit, the cost of ethanol was jumping as much as 60 cents per day,
yet Iowa consumers did not bear that burden at the pump. Gasoline retailers
continued to sell ethanol-blended gasoline for less than it cost to buy it
from their suppliers.
Petroleum marketers support Iowans' right to choose their fuel, their candy
bar or bag of chips. Our role is to provide the highest quality and most
economical product for consumers to choose from. By offering both
ethanol-blended gasoline and regular unleaded gasoline, we are able to offer
the most affordably priced products out there for consumers.
In the end, competition is what keeps prices low for consumers, whether it
is competition among the thousands of small gasoline retailers in the state,
or competition among the types of fuels made available to consumers.
Consumers deserve the right to choose.
Federal law requires that changes in equipment are necessary to offer E-85.
These are expensive changes. Petroleum marketers will sell what the consumer
demands, and consumers typically buy the cheapest product. Demand must
justify the additional expense of installing E-85, which may vary from
$15,000-$75,000 or more to install per site. When gasoline is a commodity
that does not make money, it is difficult to invest in this equipment
without financial assistance.
We applaud lawmakers who are contemplating investments in renewable fuels
incentives, infrastructure and consumer education. We've already proven over
the last few years how successful this effort can be in increasing
ethanol-blended gasoline sales to nearly 80 percent of all gasoline sold in
Iowa today.
-Dawn Carlson, president, Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Stores of
Iowa, West Des Moines.
Fossil fuels are still necessary
The Iowa Corn Grower's Association and Iowa Renewable Fuels Association
proposed that all fuel sold in Iowa be 25-percent renewable by the year
2015.
As the Iowa Legislature considers mandating ethanol, it would do well to
keep one essential fact in mind: Corn-based ethanol is not actually a
renewable fuel.
At every step of the production process, "renewable" corn ethanol consumes
nonrenewable fossil fuels:
€ Natural gas to make the essential nitrogen fertilizers corn farmers must
have.
€ Diesel fuel for corn farmers to cultivate, plant, harvest and transport
their crop.
€ Diesel fuel to transport fertilizer, seed corn and finished ethanol.
€ Natural gas on the farm to dry corn, more at the ethanol plant to mill and
distill corn into ethanol and still more to dry the waste-distiller's grains
after fermentation.
The hard fact is that making corn ethanol is unsustainable without burning
irreplaceable fossil fuels. Until corn farmers and ethanol plants show they
can use ethanol instead of nonrenewable fossil fuels to grow corn and make
ethanol, it is disingenuous for lobbyists such as the Iowa Renewable Fuels
Association to call corn-based ethanol a renewable fuel.
-Gary Dikkers, energy consultant, DiWiDi Technologies, Guttenberg.
Lyle Krewson
Sierra Club, Iowa Chapter Lobbyist
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6403 Aurora Avenue #3
Des Moines, IA 50322-2862
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515/276-8947 - Ofc/Res
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