Post by MjolnirH on Aug 5, 2005 0:55:06 GMT -5
Biodiesel fuels soybean farmers' hopes for future
SIMPSONVILLE, Ky. -- Sixty-year-old Jack Trumbo has been farming, he says, since he could follow his daddy to the barn.
Now, more than half a century later, Trumbo stands in a soybean field and marvels that it might soon power American motorists into a cleaner, more secure future.
Though traditionally used for food, many of the soybeans harvested in Kentucky and Indiana this year will likely end up as biodiesel, an increasingly popular alternative fuel that can be made from nearly any kind of fat, animal or vegetable.
After undergoing a simple chemical reaction, processed soybean oil, hog fat or cooking grease can go into almost any diesel engine, though most commercially available blends still mix biodiesel with the standard petroleum variety.
Biodiesel has long enjoyed support from grass-roots environmentalists, some of whom mix up batches in their garages.
But regionally it has been the more than 30,000 soybean farmers in Kentucky and Indiana who have pressed hardest for wider acceptance -- and wider production. They say their renewable fuel source can curtail America's dependency on foreign oil and reduce air pollution from diesel engines.
"It's just a real sense of satisfaction in knowing you're using something you've grown," said Trumbo, who fills his tractors and pickup with a 10 percent soy-based biodiesel blend.
Whether biodiesel can truly meet the lofty goals set for it remains an open question.
But one thing seems certain. Growing demand for biodiesel would likely mean a windfall for the agricultural economies of both states, where soybeans are already a multibillion-dollar industry.
And with crude oil prices topping a record $60 a barrel last week, consumers -- and government leaders -- are starting to see biodiesel as a more attractive option.
A growing industry
Biodiesel has surged in popularity in Kentucky and Indiana this year on the heels of a Bush administration tax incentive. More pumps in both states offer biodiesel than ever before, usually in blends that cut standard petroleum diesel with 2 percent to 20 percent soy-based fuel.
Local farmers still make up a major percentage of local biodiesel customers. But they aren't the only ones.
Some government agencies, businesses and school districts in both states have put their diesel fleets on a vegetable diet in recent years.
Even regular consumers are paying attention.
Ted Wirth, a Louisville commercial photographer, owns two diesel Volkswagens, a 2002 Beetle and a 2002 Golf.
Volkswagen told Wirth that it has yet to approve soy-based biodiesel for use in its cars, he said. So he risked voiding his warranty if he used it.
But he says he hopes the company comes around.
Biodiesel is not new. But the real flood of interest in the United States did not come until this year, after President Bush signed the American Jobs Creation Act last October.
Part of the law gives biodiesel distributors tax credits equal to about a penny for every 1 percent of biodiesel they blend with regular fuel.
As a result, the price has come down to within a penny per gallon of regular diesel. Since then, suppliers say they have seen unprecedented sales.
Melissa Howell of the Kentucky Clean Fuels Coalition estimates that 2005 sales of pure unblended biodiesel have already met last year's total of 300,000 gallons. She said she expects that figure to double by the end of the year.
Indiana consumers bought 1 million gallons of pure soy biodiesel in the first six months of 2005, compared with 400,000 gallons for all of 2004, said Belinda Puetz of the Indiana Soybean Growers Association.
In March, seven Energy Plus 24 stations in Southern Indiana began carrying B-5, a fuel blended from 5 percent domestic soy-based biodiesel and 95 percent regular diesel.
And 27 retailers across Kentucky now offer biodiesel blends. Supply, Puetz said, can barely meet demand.
All of which seems like good news for farmers.
The price of soybeans could jump anywhere from 10 cents to 25 cents a bushel as demand for biodiesel increases, according to industry estimates.
Last year Kentucky produced 57.2 million bushels of soybeans. In 2003, the last year for which information is available, Indiana produced more than 200 million bushels.
"We're a growing industry," Puetz says. "It's going to take time to ramp up production."
Environmental issues
Though lower prices have stirred the most recent spike in sales, biodiesel has long been touted for its perceived environmental benefits.
According to the National Biodiesel Board's Web site, "biodiesel reduces the health risks associated with petroleum diesel" emissions.
Those risks include asthma attacks, respiratory disease, heart attacks and premature death, according to a report by the Clean Air Task Force, a Boston-based group that has lobbied for stricter federal diesel emissions standards.
Diesel soot caused 82 premature deaths in Louisville in 1999, according to the Clean Air Task Force study.
But requiring better engine technology for new diesel vehicles and fitting existing diesel vehicles with new emission-reducing filters will do more to curb emissions than biodiesel, said Frank O'Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit.
"I don't think it would be a substitute for pollution-control devices," he said. "But it could be part of the mix."
In a 2002 emissions study by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, biodiesel received a mostly positive review.
Twenty percent, or B-20, biodiesel blends can greatly reduce some emissions that contribute to ground-level ozone, the study found. The B-20 blend also releases less fine-particle soot, which has been connected to several respiratory ailments.
But the study concluded that any amount of biodiesel can lead to a slight increase in the emission of nitrogen oxide, a key ground-level ozone ingredient. And it does little to cut the release of carbon dioxide, the gas climatologists consider the major cause of global warming.
Jim Scroggin, transportation director for the Madison Consolidated Schools in Madison, Ind., started filling his fleet's 50 buses with B-5 six months ago.
He said he no longer sees school bus tailpipes belching dark clouds of diesel smoke.
He also said he likes the fact that the district is buying something made in the United States.
Governments forge ahead
Whatever doubts remain, Kentucky and Indiana leaders have gotten behind biodiesel.
In February, Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher called for the use of a 2 percent biodiesel blend, or B-2, in all state-owned diesel vehicles and B-20 in all Kentucky school buses.
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels signed a measure earlier this year that requires state government vehicles to run on biodiesel whenever possible. Another Indiana law provides up to $20 million in state tax credits to Indiana biodiesel producers.
And U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., added language to the Senate energy bill passed last week that calls for doubling the production and use of biodiesel and other renewable fuels from 4 billion gallons to 8 billion gallons a year.
Lugar has cited biodiesel as a way to increase national security by reducing America's dependence on foreign oil, a concern that has grown along with higher oil prices.
The United States imports some 55 percent of the petroleum it consumes, a number expected to rise to 68 percent by 2025, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
Members of the biodiesel industry concede that dependency on petroleum will never disappear in the United States.
Biodiesel in its pure form will always cost too much to replace petroleum outright, said Rick Geise, a spokesman for the Bio G-3000 biodiesel factory in Cold Spring, Ky. Besides, he said, no one could ever grow enough soybeans.
Still, biodiesel gives the United States a way to cope as it tries to stretch its increasingly expensive -- and in the end limited -- oil supply, he said.
"The ultimate objective is the extension of a finite resource," Geise said. "Dig your well before you're thirsty."
SIMPSONVILLE, Ky. -- Sixty-year-old Jack Trumbo has been farming, he says, since he could follow his daddy to the barn.
Now, more than half a century later, Trumbo stands in a soybean field and marvels that it might soon power American motorists into a cleaner, more secure future.
Though traditionally used for food, many of the soybeans harvested in Kentucky and Indiana this year will likely end up as biodiesel, an increasingly popular alternative fuel that can be made from nearly any kind of fat, animal or vegetable.
After undergoing a simple chemical reaction, processed soybean oil, hog fat or cooking grease can go into almost any diesel engine, though most commercially available blends still mix biodiesel with the standard petroleum variety.
Biodiesel has long enjoyed support from grass-roots environmentalists, some of whom mix up batches in their garages.
But regionally it has been the more than 30,000 soybean farmers in Kentucky and Indiana who have pressed hardest for wider acceptance -- and wider production. They say their renewable fuel source can curtail America's dependency on foreign oil and reduce air pollution from diesel engines.
"It's just a real sense of satisfaction in knowing you're using something you've grown," said Trumbo, who fills his tractors and pickup with a 10 percent soy-based biodiesel blend.
Whether biodiesel can truly meet the lofty goals set for it remains an open question.
But one thing seems certain. Growing demand for biodiesel would likely mean a windfall for the agricultural economies of both states, where soybeans are already a multibillion-dollar industry.
And with crude oil prices topping a record $60 a barrel last week, consumers -- and government leaders -- are starting to see biodiesel as a more attractive option.
A growing industry
Biodiesel has surged in popularity in Kentucky and Indiana this year on the heels of a Bush administration tax incentive. More pumps in both states offer biodiesel than ever before, usually in blends that cut standard petroleum diesel with 2 percent to 20 percent soy-based fuel.
Local farmers still make up a major percentage of local biodiesel customers. But they aren't the only ones.
Some government agencies, businesses and school districts in both states have put their diesel fleets on a vegetable diet in recent years.
Even regular consumers are paying attention.
Ted Wirth, a Louisville commercial photographer, owns two diesel Volkswagens, a 2002 Beetle and a 2002 Golf.
Volkswagen told Wirth that it has yet to approve soy-based biodiesel for use in its cars, he said. So he risked voiding his warranty if he used it.
But he says he hopes the company comes around.
Biodiesel is not new. But the real flood of interest in the United States did not come until this year, after President Bush signed the American Jobs Creation Act last October.
Part of the law gives biodiesel distributors tax credits equal to about a penny for every 1 percent of biodiesel they blend with regular fuel.
As a result, the price has come down to within a penny per gallon of regular diesel. Since then, suppliers say they have seen unprecedented sales.
Melissa Howell of the Kentucky Clean Fuels Coalition estimates that 2005 sales of pure unblended biodiesel have already met last year's total of 300,000 gallons. She said she expects that figure to double by the end of the year.
Indiana consumers bought 1 million gallons of pure soy biodiesel in the first six months of 2005, compared with 400,000 gallons for all of 2004, said Belinda Puetz of the Indiana Soybean Growers Association.
In March, seven Energy Plus 24 stations in Southern Indiana began carrying B-5, a fuel blended from 5 percent domestic soy-based biodiesel and 95 percent regular diesel.
And 27 retailers across Kentucky now offer biodiesel blends. Supply, Puetz said, can barely meet demand.
All of which seems like good news for farmers.
The price of soybeans could jump anywhere from 10 cents to 25 cents a bushel as demand for biodiesel increases, according to industry estimates.
Last year Kentucky produced 57.2 million bushels of soybeans. In 2003, the last year for which information is available, Indiana produced more than 200 million bushels.
"We're a growing industry," Puetz says. "It's going to take time to ramp up production."
Environmental issues
Though lower prices have stirred the most recent spike in sales, biodiesel has long been touted for its perceived environmental benefits.
According to the National Biodiesel Board's Web site, "biodiesel reduces the health risks associated with petroleum diesel" emissions.
Those risks include asthma attacks, respiratory disease, heart attacks and premature death, according to a report by the Clean Air Task Force, a Boston-based group that has lobbied for stricter federal diesel emissions standards.
Diesel soot caused 82 premature deaths in Louisville in 1999, according to the Clean Air Task Force study.
But requiring better engine technology for new diesel vehicles and fitting existing diesel vehicles with new emission-reducing filters will do more to curb emissions than biodiesel, said Frank O'Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit.
"I don't think it would be a substitute for pollution-control devices," he said. "But it could be part of the mix."
In a 2002 emissions study by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, biodiesel received a mostly positive review.
Twenty percent, or B-20, biodiesel blends can greatly reduce some emissions that contribute to ground-level ozone, the study found. The B-20 blend also releases less fine-particle soot, which has been connected to several respiratory ailments.
But the study concluded that any amount of biodiesel can lead to a slight increase in the emission of nitrogen oxide, a key ground-level ozone ingredient. And it does little to cut the release of carbon dioxide, the gas climatologists consider the major cause of global warming.
Jim Scroggin, transportation director for the Madison Consolidated Schools in Madison, Ind., started filling his fleet's 50 buses with B-5 six months ago.
He said he no longer sees school bus tailpipes belching dark clouds of diesel smoke.
He also said he likes the fact that the district is buying something made in the United States.
Governments forge ahead
Whatever doubts remain, Kentucky and Indiana leaders have gotten behind biodiesel.
In February, Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher called for the use of a 2 percent biodiesel blend, or B-2, in all state-owned diesel vehicles and B-20 in all Kentucky school buses.
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels signed a measure earlier this year that requires state government vehicles to run on biodiesel whenever possible. Another Indiana law provides up to $20 million in state tax credits to Indiana biodiesel producers.
And U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., added language to the Senate energy bill passed last week that calls for doubling the production and use of biodiesel and other renewable fuels from 4 billion gallons to 8 billion gallons a year.
Lugar has cited biodiesel as a way to increase national security by reducing America's dependence on foreign oil, a concern that has grown along with higher oil prices.
The United States imports some 55 percent of the petroleum it consumes, a number expected to rise to 68 percent by 2025, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
Members of the biodiesel industry concede that dependency on petroleum will never disappear in the United States.
Biodiesel in its pure form will always cost too much to replace petroleum outright, said Rick Geise, a spokesman for the Bio G-3000 biodiesel factory in Cold Spring, Ky. Besides, he said, no one could ever grow enough soybeans.
Still, biodiesel gives the United States a way to cope as it tries to stretch its increasingly expensive -- and in the end limited -- oil supply, he said.
"The ultimate objective is the extension of a finite resource," Geise said. "Dig your well before you're thirsty."