www.ethanolrfa.org (August 17, 2011)

Washington – American farmers and ethanol producers are both the most productive and most efficient of any across the globe. As the Renewable Fuels Association pointed out last week, American farmers are producing twice as much corn on the virtually the same acres as a generation ago. The same kind of productivity and efficiencies gains are being mirrored across domestic ethanol production as well.

In this week’s installment of the RFA’s series on efficiency, RFA Vice President Geoff Cooper takes on the critics who contend that both farming and ethanol production is simply too energy-intensive. [Read more...]

By: Jerry Hagstrom, Special to Agweek

WASHINGTON — One day after the Environmental Protection Agency announced it would lower the goal for cellulosic ethanol use in the nation’s energy supply because there is not enough ethanol available, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack declared his faith in cellulosic energy, and announced $45 million in federal contracts for four additional Biomass Crop Assistance Program project areas in six states to expand the availability of nonfood crops to be used in the manufacturing of liquid biofuels. [Read more...]

Updated: June 17, 2011, New York Times

Ethanol has been around for centuries, best known until the last couple of decades as grain alcohol. The fermentation of sugar into ethanol was possibly the first organic reaction known to man — one that in ancient times produced mostly intoxication.

In recent years, moonshine has given way to hopes for new biofuels and a political football that has had an impact on presidential campaigns, particularly the caucuses in Iowa, the epicenter of ethanol production for fuels. [Read more...]