12/11/07 Market advisor questions boosting renewable fuels standard

Farm and Ranch December 11, 2007 The House of Representatives included an increased renewable fuel standard in the energy bill it has passed. Backers of renewable fuels in the Senate are also pushing to include a new higher standard in either an energy bill or the farm bill. Currently federal law requires that 7.5 billion gallons of renewable fuels be blended into petroleum fuels by 2012. The House passed energy bill includes a renewable fuel standard of 36 billion gallons by 2022. Of that, 21 billion would have to be from cellulosic ethanol. That would still leave 15 billion gallons to come from other sources, like double the current volume coming from corn ethanol. Market advisor Mike Krueger of the Money Farm in Fargo, North Dakota told the recent Pacific Northwest Grains Conference that doubling the use of grains to make ethanol can't be done. Krueger: "Can't do it. There is not corn to do it. There is not enough wheat to do it. There is not enough barley to do it. And biomass is way in the future. We can't change that quickly." The National Association of Wheat Growers says it is highly supportive of an increase in the renewable fuels standard The Renewable Fuels Association says the House energy bill took a pragmatic approach to ensuring that the promise of advanced biofuels like cellulosic ethanol is realized. The association also says the bill guarantees that sufficient volumes of ethanol will be available to support the meaningful expansion of E85 and flexible fuel vehicle technology. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.