Vilsack: USDA still interested in blender pump construction
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said today that the decision of Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., to exclude construction of blender pumps from USDA renewable fuel activities in the draft of the proposed farm bill means that he has to work harder to convince Congress to allow it.
A leaked memo on the proposed farm bill that Stabenow gave to the now-failed supercommittee on deficit reduction said that she and Lucas would favor an extension of the renewable fuel assistance program called REAP, but would not allow the program to be used to help gas stations and other fuel facilities construct blender pumps to make ethanol and other renewable fuels available.
USDA has a small program to subsidize blender pump construction, but ethanol industry groups say the lack of blender pumps has become their biggest constraint on expansion.
The proposed ban on pump construction “means I’ve got more work to do,” Vilsack told The Hagstrom Report after he gave a speech to a Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative event held at Georgetown University.
Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack
“There are other ways to help, but REAP is the easiest way,” Vilsack added. “The biofuels challenge is as much convenience of supply as capacity to produce.”
Vilsack urged the aviation and alternative fuel executives to stand up for renewable fuels programs during the congressional budget and appropriations debates. He repeated themes that he has used in previous speeches that not all experiments will work and that the country is becoming too risk averse.
“This country has always succeeded when we’re fearless,” Vilsack said, urging members of the audience “to encourage a continuation of the entrepreneurial spirit not just in business but in government.”
Asked in the interview whether he was referring to the reaction to Solyndra, the troubled solar company that received government support, Vilsack said he was speaking “generally” and that his statement was also intended as “a message to people at USDA — think creatively, take risks.”
Noting that computer entrepeneurs Steve Jobs and Bill Gates had failures as well as successes, Vilsack said, “It’s so easy to become critical. You become risk averse.”
Emphasizing that the farm bill debate is likely to be “elaborate” and lengthy, Vilsack specifically asked the group to encourage support for energy programs in the farm bill, saying USDA “would like to do a bit more” in energy development.
In the question and answer session, Vilsack said he is not sure when he will see results from the feedstock research initiative grants USDA has made. Getting results will take time, he said, because it involves constructing biorefineries.
Vilsack said USDA will do all it can to make advanced biofuels competitively priced by trying to help companies reduce feedstock input costs and expenses. But he added that the industry “won’t see” the tax breaks that the ethanol industry got.
Vilsack, who just returned from a trip to Vietnam and China, was asked about U.S. assistance for renewable fuels production in other countries.
He said the United States needs to help developing countries increase food production, citing the need to increase it 70 percent by 2050. China, he noted, has 60 million farmers, many of them with only two, three or four acres and cannot produce enough to feed itself.
Only 230,000 farmers produce 85 percent of the U.S. food supply, he said, adding that when world food production increases, crop residues will be available to be used for renewable energy production.
A leaked memo on the proposed farm bill that Stabenow gave to the now-failed supercommittee on deficit reduction said that she and Lucas would favor an extension of the renewable fuel assistance program called REAP, but would not allow the program to be used to help gas stations and other fuel facilities construct blender pumps to make ethanol and other renewable fuels available.
USDA has a small program to subsidize blender pump construction, but ethanol industry groups say the lack of blender pumps has become their biggest constraint on expansion.
The proposed ban on pump construction “means I’ve got more work to do,” Vilsack told The Hagstrom Report after he gave a speech to a Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative event held at Georgetown University.
Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack
“There are other ways to help, but REAP is the easiest way,” Vilsack added. “The biofuels challenge is as much convenience of supply as capacity to produce.”
Vilsack urged the aviation and alternative fuel executives to stand up for renewable fuels programs during the congressional budget and appropriations debates. He repeated themes that he has used in previous speeches that not all experiments will work and that the country is becoming too risk averse.
“This country has always succeeded when we’re fearless,” Vilsack said, urging members of the audience “to encourage a continuation of the entrepreneurial spirit not just in business but in government.”
Asked in the interview whether he was referring to the reaction to Solyndra, the troubled solar company that received government support, Vilsack said he was speaking “generally” and that his statement was also intended as “a message to people at USDA — think creatively, take risks.”
Noting that computer entrepeneurs Steve Jobs and Bill Gates had failures as well as successes, Vilsack said, “It’s so easy to become critical. You become risk averse.”
Emphasizing that the farm bill debate is likely to be “elaborate” and lengthy, Vilsack specifically asked the group to encourage support for energy programs in the farm bill, saying USDA “would like to do a bit more” in energy development.
In the question and answer session, Vilsack said he is not sure when he will see results from the feedstock research initiative grants USDA has made. Getting results will take time, he said, because it involves constructing biorefineries.
Vilsack said USDA will do all it can to make advanced biofuels competitively priced by trying to help companies reduce feedstock input costs and expenses. But he added that the industry “won’t see” the tax breaks that the ethanol industry got.
Vilsack, who just returned from a trip to Vietnam and China, was asked about U.S. assistance for renewable fuels production in other countries.
He said the United States needs to help developing countries increase food production, citing the need to increase it 70 percent by 2050. China, he noted, has 60 million farmers, many of them with only two, three or four acres and cannot produce enough to feed itself.
Only 230,000 farmers produce 85 percent of the U.S. food supply, he said, adding that when world food production increases, crop residues will be available to be used for renewable energy production.
