06/17/05 Senate sets renewable fuels standard

The US Senate has adopted an eight billion gallon renewable fuels standard amendment to the energy bill. A number of agricultural leaders including the American Farm Bureau believe the renewable fuels amendment will create new markets for American farmers, stabilize the economy and a greener environment. Senator Larry Craig believes the eight billion gallon mandate will rejuvenate the ethanol industry nationwide and especially in Idaho where production has gone from six million gallons to zero. CRAIG "We now see blended ethanol in states where they produce it substantially being less expensive than actual gasoline at the pump. Six distilleries being built as we speak. There are two proposed for Idaho." One is already a certainty but Idaho is still six to eight months away from ethanol production. Jim Glancey has spent time in Ireland recently checking out an ethanol plant that uses cheese whey as its feed stock. GLANCEY "There's only a half dozen plants in the world that use it so it's a very limited field but this company's been doing it for 16, 17 years." Glancey plans to use the whey from the Gossner Cheese factory which is now under construction at the old Simplot site in Burley. If the Senate passes an energy bill in the coming weeks it must confer with the House whose legislation only calls for five billion gallons of renewable fuels. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott