Daily Biofuels Summary for September 17

Top Story: Achim Steiner, executive director of the U.N. Environment Program, said that linking biofuel crop demand and higher commodity prices was only speculation at this stage. He said that further study would be required to firmly establish such a linkage, noting that it is not likely that biofuel demand is responsible for the increase in Italian pasta or Mexican tortilla prices.

Producer News: Atlantic Ethanol, Mid-Atlantic Ethanol, Florida Ethanol, and Palmetto Agri-Fuels, announced a merger to form East Coast Ethanol. The new company will develop four 100 million gallon per year fuel ethanol plants….A new 100 million-gallon ethanol plant has been announced for Rosalie, Kansas. The plant will also produce 320,000 tons of distillers grain annually….In North Carolina, North Iredell Neighbors For Rural Life have sued to overturn a county’s zoning approval of a biodiesel plant near Statesville….In Hawaii, BlueEarth Biofuels will prepare a voluntary environmental impact statement in response to criticism of its earlier pledge to do so only if required. The company, which is developing a 40 million gallon biodiesel refinery at Waena, believed it was not covered by a state law requiring oil refineries to produce environmental impact statements, saying that the law covered petroleum based oil refineries. The Sierra Club and Maui Tomorrow welcomed the news.

International News: The Miami Herald published a roundup of Latin American efforts to increase biofuel production. The article tracked export efforts by Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Costa Rica and El Salvador to import sugar ethanol from Brazil, process it and ship to the US because CAFTA regulations permit this duty-free, as opposed to the 54-cent-per-gallon tariff imposed on direct imports from Brazil into the US., The article also profiled the sugar cane project of Maple Energy in the northern Peruvian state of Piura, where 20,000 acres of sugarcane will be developed for ethanol export. …In South Africa, Siyanda Biodiesel is moving ahead with development of its soybean biodiesel plant despite the government’s delay of the announcement of its its biofuel legislative program. The project will plant its first crop of soybean next month in KwaZulu-Natal, and will ultimately produce
100 000 tons per year of biodiesel.

Research News: A response to a recent Wall Street Journal article on the relation between the Nebraska water shortage and biofuels points out that 87% of corn grown for ethanol is not irrigated, and that the region can and should support both food and fuel….The former head of Enron South America predicts that cultivating 37 million hectares of sugar cane in Brazil would supply an ethanol blend worldwide by 2030. Gordian Energy Partners, the executive’s firm, is raising $150m from US and European investors to fund sugar cane plantations and refineries in Brazil….A University of Illinois crop expert predicts corn yields of 180 bushels an acre. and the U.S. Department of Agriculture is projecting a 13.3 billion bushel corn harvest, up 27% over last year….Projections for Iowa, Illinois and Nebraska are for production totals of 2.54 billion bushels, 2.34 billion and 1.51 billion respectively….Forbes has published an article on the effect of ethanol on corn prices, which are up more than $1 per bushel between 2005 and 2007. This translates into a 1.1 cent increase in a box of Kelloggs Corn Flakes.
Policy and Policymakers: The American Meat Institute has joined a coalition of dairy, egg and turkey lobbyists to fight ethanol mandates, and has launched a website to promote its view. The site is currently ranked 6,352,376 among websites in traffic by alexa.com….Chevron Technology Ventures has partnered with Georgia Tech, C2 Biofuels, the Georgia Research Alliance and one of the U.S. Department of Energy’s new BioEnergy Research Centers to explore the production of biofuels from forest products.

Consumer and Fleet News: A new print directory of E85 stations has been released, available from Energy Independence Publications, and listing more than 1000 outlets and available for $9.95 in a glove-box size….In Maine, the Eliot Energy Commission will host one of a series of regional workshops on biofuel conversion for public works and highway department. The presentation will feature the Keene (N.H.) Public Works Department which has run the city’s 78 diesel vehicles on biodiesel fuels for the past five years. The B20 blend is credited with reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 420 tons per year. The presentation will also note improved health for city employees, better engine performance and less engine wear-and-tear….In Utah, a motorcycle running on B100 biodiesel set the world speed record for diesel motorcycles on the Bonneville Salt Flats. The bike, a BMW R1150 RT fitted with a two-liter turbodiesel BMW 3 Series car engine, achieved a speed of 210.203 km/h in trials….Stinker Stores in Idaho announced that its diesel sales have increased 10% since introducing a B5 biodiesel blend. The company was funded by Federal grant funds and federal tax credits for investment in biofuels.

Financial News: The Biofuels Digest Indexâ„¢ (BDI), a basket of 21 major public biofuel stocks, fell 1.49% on Friday to 98.09 as a weeklong biofuels selloff continued, as credit concerns and weak retail sales jarred the broad markets but negative investor sentiment about biofuels stocks pulled the sector further down than the market as a whole….Among the larger cap stocks, Aventine (AVR), US BioEnergy (USBE) and VeraSun Energy (VSE) were all down more than 2%, while among small caps Texcom (TEXC.PK), New Gen Technologies (NWGN.OB) and Xethanol (XNL) fell more than 10% on the day….Leading the winners was the small-cap Green Energy Resources which rose 11.1% to $0.20. The BDI was down 1.7% for the week and nearly 5% since August 4th….In the broader markets, the Dow Jones industrials rose 17.64 points to 13,442.52, the S&P 500 was up 0.30 to close at 1484.25 and the Nasdaq was up 1.12 to 2602.18. Investors are now fully expecting an interest rate cut as soon as next week.

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