September 16, 2010
Fueling Freedom Story in Mankato Free Press
Published in Mankato Free Press
MANKATO – The federal government wants to increase the use of renewable fuels by 36 billion gallons annually a decade from now.
But federal regulations and policies are keeping it from happening by preventing access to ethanol in much of the country, according to an ethanol coalition.
“Universally, the single biggest issue we face is market access,” said Rob Skjonsberg, senior vice president of government affairs for POET, the country’s largest ethanol producer.
POET and other ethanol producers who are part of a coalition called Growth Energy, are proposing a plan that would lend government support to increasing the number of flex fuel vehicles, building ethanol pipelines to the coasts, and increasing the number of ethanol blending pumps at gas stations across the country.
The Fueling Freedom proposal, said Skjonsberg during a stop in Mankato Friday, would give ethanol the access to markets it needs, would allow consumers to make the choices they want and would end the need for government subsidies for ethanol.
Nathan Schock, director of public relations for POET, said oil companies have been successful in lobbing regulation changes that discourage an increase in ethanol use and investments in ethanol infrastructure.
“They want to grow their market share – if future growth comes from renewables that leaves no growth for them,” Schock said.
The group wants Congress to restructure the current blenders tax credit to add ethanol infrastructure. Currently, companies that blend ethanol and gas together – generally oil refineries – get a 45-cents-per-gallon subsidy aimed at keeping the cost of ethanol competitive. That subsidy is to expire at the end of the year.
Skjonsberg said the group would like to see the program extended five years, with funds from the credit divided between blenders, incentives to make virtually all vehicles flex fuel, money to build pipelines and funding to add 200,000 ethanol blender pumps across the country. He said the subsidy would decrease over the five years.
Scott Austin, general manager of the POET ethanol plant near Lake Crystal, said Minnesota¹s rural economy has been bolstered by ethanol production.
“In rural areas in the past 10 or 15 years, there hasn’t been any real economic development or job creation except for ethanol.”
The Lake Crystal plant produces 45 million gallons of ethanol annually. Virtually all is shipped to the east and west and Gulf coasts, as Minnesota produces far more ethanol than it uses.
POET produces 1.6 billion gallons annually at 27 plants in seven states.
