ACE Offers Testimony for Senate Field Hearing on Cellulosic Ethanol
The American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) offered testimony for yesterday’s field hearing of the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee’s Subcommittee on Energy, Science, and Technology.
The event was held on the campus of South Dakota State University in Brookings and was hosted by Senator John Thune (R-SD), the subcommittee’s ranking member. The event, “The Next Generation of Biofuels: Cellulosic Ethanol and the 2007 Farm Bill,” was a forum for discussing how the 2007 Farm Bill can play a role in directing the development of the biofuels industry, especially the commercialization of cellulosic ethanol.
“Given the likelihood that the next Farm Bill will contain a meaningful energy title designed to promote biofuels and renewable energy, ACE is grateful for the opportunity to submit testimony at this field hearing on behalf of the U.S. ethanol industry,” said Brian Jennings, ACE executive VP. “We are also pleased that the hearing featured the expertise of two ACE member ethanol companies helping develop the technology breakthroughs necessary to commercialize cellulosic ethanol - Poet Energy and VeraSun Energy.”
In its testimony, ACE outlined cellulosic ethanol’s greta potential, as well as the four overriding challenges to making cellulosic ethanol a commercial-scale reality: 1)the cost and complexity of converting biomass feedstocks into ethanol, 2) the capital costs of financing and constructing cellulosic biorefineries, 3) feedstock challenges (how and where to grow the feedstocks; how to harvest, collect, transport, and store biomass), and 4) sustainability challenges (respecting soil quality, wildlife habitat, land conservation practices).
ACE pointed to the limitations of the “blend market” and the limitations of how much corn can be used for ethanol as reinforcements of the need for cellulosic ethanol to become a reality in the near future. “There is an intersection between what we refer to as the ‘blend market,’ where E10 comprises virtually every gallon of motor fuel in the U.S., and the upward limitations of how much corn we can distill into fuel ethanol, reinforcing the need to make cellulosic ethanol a reality if we are to achieve a more meaningful reduction in fossil fuel use,” Jennings testified.
In the testimony, ACE encouraged Congress to consider a public policy framework to help create certainty for cellulosic and corn-based ethanol. The framework contains the following:
- expanding the RFS to reach 10 billion gallons of biofuels per year by 2010, 30 billion gallons by 2020, 60 billion gallons by 2030
- promoting the use of higher blends of ethanol is the existing fleet of automobiles
- increasing funding for and consolidating federal cellulosic biofuels loan guarantee programs into a single program at USDA
- establishing a pilot cellulosic biofuels feedstock program
- requiring automakers to ensure that all vehicles in the U.S. are FFV and require installation of E85 and/or blender pump at all gas stations affiliated with major oil companies
- establishing a cost-share program under Title IX of the Farm Bill to provide assistance to ethanol plants for the installation of low-carbon processing and conversion technologies
- extending the Blender’s Credit for ethanol beyond 2010 and retain the existing secondary import tariff offset on imported ethanol