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Ethanol Backers Rally at Iowa Statehouse to Push for Renewable-Fuels Bill

Posted on: Tuesday, 14 February 2006, 15:00 CST

By Todd Dorman, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, Iowa

Feb. 14--DES MOINES -- More than 500 corn growers and other ethanol backers packed the Statehouse Monday to push for legislation they insist would grow Iowa's renewable fuels industry.

"This is the largest biofuels rally we've ever had in the state Capitol," said Monte Shaw, executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, to a crowd gathered in the Statehouse rotunda.

But unlike past years, corn growers and their allies are not asking for a so-called ethanol mandate that would require Iowans to pump corn-based gasoline. This time they're pushing for a long-term requirement that at least 25 percent of the motor fuel sold in Iowa come from renewable sources, such as ethanol or biodiesel, by 2015.

A bill setting that goal already has cleared a Senate committee. That's in contrast with past years when strong opposition to a mandate killed ethanol bills.

"We've been working on a mandate for about eight years and were unsuccessful," said David Nelson, a Belmond farmer and chairman of the board for Midwest Grain Processors, an Iowa-based ethanol producer.

"We've come up with a plan that's much better. It gives consumers choice."

Backers of the bill contend it could eventually increase ethanol usage in the state by more than 300 million gallons annually. Iowa drivers currently consume about 120 million gallons of ethanol.

Iowa is the nation's No. 1 ethanol producing state, processing more than 400 million bushels of corn into 1.1 billion gallons of ethanol annually. Iowa has 21 ethanol plants and six more are under construction.

"The more money that we can put in the producers' pockets that are growing the grain in the state of Iowa, the stronger our ag economy is going to be," said Brad Davis, general manager of Goldfield's Gold Eagle Cooperative and of Corn LP, an ethanol processing plant. "It just makes the state much, much stronger financially."

To reach the bill's 25 percent goal, lawmakers are hoping to boost demand for E85, or gasoline blended with 85 percent ethanol. They also want to increase the use of biodiesel, or diesel blended with soybean oil or another renewable additive.

The bill includes a state tax incentive for retailers who sell E85 and biodiesel. Separate legislation would provide up to $5 million annually to help gas stations install E85 fuel pumps.

So far, only 30 of the state's 2,880 gas stations sell E85. The cost of converting tanks and equipment to sell E85 can run into the tens of thousands of dollars.

Corn growers argue that although only 12 percent of the price of a gallon of regular unleaded fuel stays in Iowa, 67 percent of E85's cost remains in the state.

"This turnout today" will tell our lawmakers that we are tired of waiting. "It will tell them it's time to get 'er done," said Keith Sexton, a Rockwell City farmer and president of the Iowa Corn Growers Association.

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To see more of the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.wcfcourier.com.

Copyright (c) 2006, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, Iowa

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Source: Waterloo Courier

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