Ethanol killing small engines

Uprising Against the Ethanol Mandate
Kevin Moloney for The New York Times


The ethanol industry, until recently a golden child that got favorable treatment from Washington, is facing a critical decision on its future. Gov. Rick Perry of Texas is asking the Environmental Protection Agency to temporarily waive regulations requiring the oil industry to blend ever-increasing amounts of ethanol into gasoline. A decision is expected in the next few weeks.

Mr. Perry says the billions of bushels of corn being used to produce all that mandated ethanol would be better suited as livestock feed than as fuel.

Feed prices have soared in the last two years as fuel has begun competing with food for cropland.

“When you find yourself in a hole, you have to quit digging,” Mr. Perry said in an interview. “And we are in a hole.”

His request for an emergency waiver cutting the ethanol mandate to 4.5 billion gallons, from the 9 billion gallons required this year and the 10.5 billion required in 2009, is backed by a coalition of food, livestock and environmental groups.

Farmers and ethanol and other biofuel producers are lobbying to keep the existing mandates.

“This is a critically important decision that will determine the future of biofuels in this country,” said Brent Erickson, a lobbyist at the Biotechnology Industry Organization, which supports the ethanol mandates. “There will be a dramatic reaction from whoever loses.”

The E.P.A. received 15,000 public comments on the Texas proposal, roughly split between those in favor and those against.

LHT Inc., an infrastructure company, said it never would have spent tens of millions of dollars developing delivery pipes for ethanol without the mandated increases. “How do we get our money back?” an executive asked.

O.K. Industries, a poultry company in Arkansas upset about rising feed costs, said this was the first year since the company was founded during the Great Depression that it could not afford to give its employees a wage increase.

An agency spokesman said the E.P.A. can approve the request, deny it or take a middle path. The deadline is Thursday, but the agency says it needs more time to review public comments and formulate a decision.

The agency’s authority derives from a 2005 energy law that sets some of the most important ethanol quotas. The law says states can petition the agency for a reduction in the ethanol mandates on the grounds of severe harm to the economy or environment. Decisions must be made after consultation with the secretaries of energy and agriculture.

Ethanol is under siege from other quarters. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Republican of Texas, has introduced legislation calling for a freeze of the mandate at the current level, saying it “is clearly causing unintended consequences on food prices.” The measure is co-sponsored by 11 other Republican senators, including John McCain, the presumptive presidential nominee.

The Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, testified last week that “it would be helpful” to remove a 51-cent-a-gallon tariff on imported Brazilian ethanol. If Brazilian ethanol enters the United States market, domestic producers argue, the industry will suffer.

In a new report, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is critical of biofuels, saying further development will raise food prices while doing little for energy security.

But the attempts to undercut ethanol are proving divisive. Mr. Perry said he hoped the other 49 governors would join him, but was able to cite only one that had: Gov. M. Jodi Rell of Connecticut. (A spokesman for Mrs. Rell declined to offer a full-fledged endorsement of Mr. Perry’s initiative, saying she supported a modification of the mandate but had not made any specific proposals.)

In ethanol’s home ground of the Midwest, where much of the corn is grown and the additive is made, Mr. Perry’s petition was opposed by 12 governors. Senator Charles Grassley, Republican of Iowa, accused the Grocery Manufacturers Association, the group leading the public relations fight against ethanol, of “treasonous” acts.

Mr. Perry is also being accused of bad motives. The Houston Chronicle reported that his interest in a rollback developed after Lonnie Pilgrim, senior chairman of the East Texas chicken company Pilgrim’s Pride, donated $100,000 to the Republican Governors Association, of which Mr. Perry is the chairman.

The governor brushed aside such concerns. “I have always been of the position that when your opposition has to point to a political contribution rather than trying to make their debate on the issues, they might be losing,” he said.

Corn growers and ethanol producers believe they are being made scapegoats for failed economic and energy policies. Corn futures have already dropped sharply from the record highs set a month ago. Midwest weather has been favorable in recent weeks, raising expectations for the size and quality of the crop.

Mark Williams, who grows corn on 2,500 acres in the Texas panhandle, dreads a further price drop. “Our costs have increased so much, we need a pretty good price to make a little living,” he said. Furthermore, he added that it would be unfair to change the rules at this point. “We bought fertilizer and corn seed, decided our crop mix on the basis of ethanol being where it was. To change that mandate in the middle of our growing season, that’s really not right.”

A cut in the mandate might be the beginning of a slippery slope that could mark the end for ethanol, said Lee Reeve, one of the pioneers of the industry. His Garden City, Kan., plant has been in operation since 1982. “If this goes through, I guarantee you that by next Thursday there would be arguments about how we should get rid of the mandate entirely,” he said. “And where are you going to find the oil to replace eight or nine billion gallons of ethanol?”

Click to expand...

channel 3 iconLast updated 12:05 pm CT July 23, 2008.

Fuel Spill in the Mississippi River

WSILTV -- Missouri Department of Natural Resources became aware of a fuel spill near the 40 upper Mississippi River mile marker which borders Scott County, Missouri and Alexander County, IL Sunday morning.

Missouri DNR began working with Illinois DNR around 11:00 a.m. Sunday in an attempt to find out what caused the spill.

Officials confirmed that the spill consisted of both on-road and off-road diesel fuel. The off-road fuel has red dye in it, and there are less taxes on it, as well.

By 5 p.m., crews had inspected up to at least river mile marker 50, which borders the southern part of Cape Girardeau.

Officials have confirmed the spill was not caused by a Mobil Oil petroleum pipeline that runs under the river.

"Cities along the river must protect against the intake of oil that may contaminate the drinking water," said Allen Cortvrient of Missouri Department of Natural Resources Environmental Emergency.

Cortvrient says several federal, state and local agencies have responded to the incident.

Click to expand...

NEW ORLEANS -- Multiple oil cleanup crews have been called to clean a chemical spill on the Mississippi River in New Orleans, according to a U.S. Coast Guard spokesman. Officials said the cleanup would take days and involve about 200 workers using booms and skimmers to remove the chemicals, reported WDSU-TV in New Orleans.

Fuel spilled into the river Wednesday morning when a ship sliced through a barge. The National Transportation and Safety Board estimated about 375,000 gallons of fuel spilled into the river.

Twenty-nine miles of river remained shut down Wednesday. Officials said the state would supervise the cleanup process.

The barge split in half when it struck the Tintomara, a 600-foot chemical hauler. The Tintomara, a Liberian vessel, contained biodiesel and styrene that a spokesman said did not spill from the double-hulled vessel.

The barge's owner, American Commercial Lines, immediately took responsibility for the spill, which a spokesman said it's obligated to do according to federal law.

Officials said the ships collided around 1:30 a.m. CDT. No injuries were reported.

The strong river current pushed the barge to a spot near New Orleans' convention center. Tugboats were dispatched to keep the broken barge stationary in the river.

Meanwhile, officials moved to protect local water supplies. Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser shut off the intake to the public water supply. St. Bernard Parish switched to its reserve supply, according to Parish President Craig Taffaro. Those living in Algiers, Gretna, St. Bernard and Plaquemines Parish were asked to conserve water.

As of Wednesday morning, the Canal-Algiers, Jackson-Gretna and Chalmette ferries were all out of service.

The riverfront street car was also out of service until further notice, and the Canal Street street car was scheduled to stop its route at Baronne Street all day.

Click to expand...