Robert Pore's Ag Blog

Sioux Falls, SD – The American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE), a national industry trade association with nearly 1500 members across the U.S., is pleased with recent steps taken by Congress and the Administration to promote the increased production and use of ethanol.

Congressional negotiators working on legislation to fund the federal government during the 2007 fiscal year have agreed to fund the U.S. Department of Energy Title 17 loan guarantee program, a program which will be available to qualifying cellulosic ethanol facilities. Negotiators have also provided sufficient spending authority to allow the cellulosic ethanol grant program to be implemented this year, Section 932 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. A number of ACE members have applied for assistance under these programs, and the organization has worked hard to support their funding.

Also, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced that it will propose $1.6 billion in new Farm Bill spending that will be focused on efforts to encourage the production of ethanol from cellulosic feedstocks.

In his recent State of the Union address, President Bush called for a new standard requiring the use of 35 billion gallons of alternative fuels by 2017, much of which is expected to be met with ethanol. The President’s stated goal is to reduce gasoline usage across the U.S. by 20 percent in the next 10 years.

“The U.S. ethanol industry is expanding at an unprecedented rate, one not anticipated at the inception of the existing 7.5 billion gallon Renewable Fuels Standard,” noted Brian Jennings, ACE Executive Vice President. “With the likelihood of this RFS level being reached years in advance of the 2012 target date, it is critically important to match the RFS demand floor with the actual growth rate of the industry so that production and demand grow in tandem with one another.”

Achieving the levels of biofuel use outlined in these proposals will require the conversion of cellulosic feedstocks – such as corn stover, perennial grasses, grain straw, municipal waste, and others – into ethanol, a move ACE strongly supports. The organization will continue to urge Congress to fund programs to promote the commercial-scale development of cellulosic ethanol technologies.

“ACE is grateful to Congress for funding the Department of Energy Title 17 loan guarantee program under this Continuing Resolution, and in addition we hope that Congress will fund the Title 15 program, which would allow more ethanol companies to participate due to the larger loan guarantee levels,” Jennings added.

In addition to ACE, the Governors’ Ethanol Coalition has expressed support for an RFS that would result in 40 billion to 50 billion gallons of ethanol use by 2025. The 25 x ’25 coalition is supporting a similar goal. “It is gratifying to have so many voices joining in the effort to grow the domestic ethanol industry,” Jennings said. “It is ACE’s hope that Congress will explicitly recognize the potential for cellulosic ethanol to reduce U.S. dependence upon foreign oil and enact the Harkin-Lugar Renewable Fuels Standard in the future, a move that is critical to expanding ethanol demand beyond saturation of the E10 market.”

Labels: Ag News: Rural events

Washington, DC—American Farmland Trust (AFT) has released the fourth and final report in a series that looks at whether agricultural easements preserve farmland from urban influences, and is the result of the first national study of agricultural conservation easement programs.

"Among all techniques for protecting farmland in urbanizing communities, easements hold the most promise---considering their perpetuity, voluntary participation by landowners, and the matching of public purposes and farmer interests,” Alvin D. Sokolow, project co-director, University of California-Davis explained. In the study, five measurements of effective farmland protection were applied to the experience of local easement programs nationwide to determine their success.

"We learned that easement programs operated by local and state governments and non-profit land trusts throughout the United States vary greatly in effectiveness and efficiency. Some do a much better job than others in protecting farmland in strategic locations, holding urban sprawl in check, retaining easement-protected properties in active farming, and building durable stewardship--all marks of the effective use of public and private dollars in this still relatively young technique,” added Sokolow.

A National View of Agricultural Easement Programs: Measuring Success in Protecting Farmland with Easements– Report 4 was generated from the first national assessment of local agricultural easement programs. This study is based on an in-depth and comprehensive analysis of 46 programs
in 15 states, that examines practices and approaches that have helped communities protect farm and ranch land across America. The programs studied have spent a total of $2.3 billion to protect about
1.1 million acres—nearly half of all publicly funded farmland protection programs in the nation. Report 1, containing profiles and maps of the studied programs, was released in 2003, Reports 2 and 3 looking at how easement programs select farmland to fund and how easement programs and local planning work together, were issued in 2006. American Farmland Trust and the Agricultural Issues Center, University of California conducted the studies with support from Farm Foundation.

"Most of the programs have impressively protected many acres and parcels of farmland, which, in many cases, continue to be farmed despite later purchase by non-farmers. Some programs have redirected or influenced urban growth. Our study pinpoints the roots and characteristics of the effective use of agricultural easements,” said project co-director Anita Zurbrugg, American Farmland Trust. "So the findings from these reports provide a valuable baseline on which to build—both for further research and for policy makers, program managers, planners and citizens devoted to land conservation.

Agricultural easements allow landowners to sell and/or donate the development rights on their farms to government or nonprofit organizations in exchange for agreeing to keep the land permanently available for agriculture. The use of farm easements has grown exponentially since the 1970s; today thirty-three states have at least one publicly funded easement program at the state or local level.

All four reports can be viewed online at: http://www.farmfoundation.org

Labels: Ag News: Rural events