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Industries will need to change for energy independence Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Agri News staff writer
ST. PETER, Minn. -- The United States can't reduce oil dependency without changing a few industries.
"We need different cars," said Michael Noble, executive director of Fresh Energy, a company that works to promote the increased reliance on home-grown renewable resources. He noted productivity in automobiles hasn't changed much since 1975.
"Despite the rhetoric, every president since Jimmy Carter has stood on a podium and promised a reduced reliance on foreign oil," Nobel said. "Every president's administration has seen an increase in dependence on foreign oil."
That's why renewable fuels, like ethanol, are so important related to global warming and depleting supplies of fossil fuels. Noble spoke about the future of the renewable fuel at the Minnesota Environmental Initiative's recent event, "Farming Our Fuel: Growing a Sustainable Ethanol Industry."
Noble said corn ethanol in a vehicle running on E85 gasoline offers a 10 percent to 15 percent reduction in fossil fuel emissions -- more if the refinery uses something other than natural gas in the process to make the fuel.
Cellulose ethanol -- fuel made from grass, paper byproducts, straw and other organic material -- would offer an 80 percent to 100 percent reduction in fossil fuel emissions when running in an E85 vehicle, Noble said. So far, no company in the world makes cellulosic ethanol.
"It was never suggested that corn and soybeans would be the final answer," said Gene Hugoson, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, about the ethanol industry.
The industry is investigating and studying cellulosic ethanol and how to make it economically viable. Switchgrass is one plant the industry is studying for possible use as cellulosic ethanol, Hugoson said.
Energy will play a large role in the next farm bill, he said. Possibilities could include looking at Conservation Reserve Program acreage and acres in the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program to produce a cellulose crop for renewable fuel.
"They can not be the cure-all or the end-all," Hugoson said of the current crops used for renewable fuel.
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