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 ____________________________________________ 6403 Aurora Avenue #3 Des Moines, IA 50322-2862 [log in to unmask] 515/276-8947 - Ofc/Res 515/238-7113 - Cel ____________________________________________ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Sign up to receive Sierra Club Insider, the flagship e-newsletter. Sent out twice a month, it features the Club's latest news and activities. Subscribe and view recent editions at http://www.sierraclub.org/insider/