BioFuels Journal

by Jerry Perkins, BioFuels Journal Editor

Speakers at the 2009 American Coalition for Ethanol Conference and Trade Show in Milwaukee, WI, Aug. 11-13, said more research needs to be done before the impact of Indirect Land Use (ILU) can be accurately measured.

Prof. Wally Tyner of the Agricultural Economics Department at Purdue University said the concept of Indirect Land Use argues that corn used to make ethanol means more crops will have to be grown in other parts of world and that will lead to deforestation of the rain forest and more greenhouse gas emissions.

Before such sweeping conclusions can be made, Tyner said, more study needs to be done on ILU.

In any event, Tyner said, there are other issues, such as the cap on ethanol use caused by the so-called “blend wall,” that will have a greater impact on the industry than ILU.

Tom Darlington, president of Air Improvement Resource, said ILU calculations done by two leading economic modeling organizations vary widely and don’t take into account other factors like distillers grains that mitigate corn’s impact on the environment.

Until ILU economic modeling is more sophisticated, Darlington said, any conclusions about the impact of ethanol on land use should be questioned.

Another subject much on the minds of ACE conference attendees was the financing of the ethanol industry, which has been strained by the economic downturn.

Dallas Tonsager, USDA undersecretary of Rural Development, said the agency has about 40 programs that can help fund ethanol and other “bioenergy” projects.

Support for the ethanol industry is coming from the top of the Obama Administration, he said, because both President Obama and USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack are strong advocates of ethanol.

Two speakers at the ACE conference urged the ethanol industry to use new media tools on the Internet to fight misinformation being put out by ethanol opponents.

Greg Veerman of Astronaut Studios in Sioux Falls, S.D., said the time of the “Mass Media” has passed.

Now, he said, organizations like ACE must use a variety of “Social Media” tools to have a two-way conversation with members and consumers as a way to get its message out.

Jeremy Bird, who was deputy director of the Obama campaign’s Organizing for America efforts, said the campaign used the “New Media” to build its organization, which helped elect Barack Obama president of the United States.

Attendance at the 22nd annual ACE conference and trade show was down this year because of the economy, said ACE executive vice president Brian Jennings.

Attendance at last year’s meeting in Omaha, NE, was about 1,000.

This year’s attendance was 450.

The number of exhibitors also was down from 120 a year ago to 73 this year.

Next year’s ACE Conference and Trade Show will be Aug. 2-4 in Kansas City, MO.

Given awards at this year’s ACE Conference were:

USDA Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack: Policy Leadership Award

David Hallberg: Merle Anderson Award

Chippewa Valley Ethanol Company: Grassroots Award

Kwik Trip Inc.: Paul Dana Marketing Vision Award

Peter Rohde: Media Excellence Award

Bob Scott: ACE President's Award.

For more information, call 605-334-3381.

See Related Websites/Articles:

• ACE
• ACE, RFA, NCGA, and Other Corn Organizations Launch BYOethanol Program to Increase Blender Pumps Installed to 5,000 Within Three Years

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