Biodiesel Conference Blog

I’m going to close out our online coverage of this year’s National Biodiesel Conference with one more post on Emily Richards and Jason Brock. The photo is from one of the screens that was displaying them during their time on stage at the conference.

Emily announced that she and Jason have been working on a music project since last year’s conference. They’re using a service called CCMixster and have published the first of three albums. This first one is available for a free download right now. It’s already on my iPhone.

Emily says they wanted to create an album of music on biodiesel. They created a project called, “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Remix” or R4. They had about 50 musical contributions from the CCMixter community. The Brown album is the first of what will now be 3 albums. You can learn more about how the R4 project worked with this link.

After the final general session concluded I interviewed Emily and Jason along with CCMixster member Bob Nunnally. Jason describes the CCMixster community and how it fits in well with the biodiesel community.

You can listen to Emily’s comments about the new album project and their performance of one of the songs, Harmony, here:

You can listen my interview with Emily, Jason and Bob here:

National Biodiesel Conference Photo Album

With RFS-2 being such an important topic to anyone in the industry right now I conducted another interview on the subject with Larry Schafer, The Diamond Group. Larry moderated one of the panel discussions on the subject at the conference.

He says that the EPA has published the regulatory rules on line and there are a number of forms that will need to be completed for purposes of registration. NBB will conduct a number of webinars on the subject before July 1st which is the date set for the regulatory requirements of RFS-2. He encourages companies to get registered as soon as possible. All plants will need to be registered even if they were under the older RFS program. He says registration will take a while but there is time to get registered before the new start date. He encourages you to go to the EPA website for more information now.

You can download (mp3) or listen to my interview with Larry here:

National Biodiesel Conference Photo Album

It’s about time to fly home from the National Biodiesel Conference so I thought I’d leave you with some more music from Emily Richards and Jason Brock.

This is from their new Brown album which is available via ccMixter. I’ll get a link from them to post for you later.

I have a number of items that I’ll post after getting back to the home office. I hope you’re enjoying our online coverage of this year’s conference.

You can listen to Biodiesel Family here:

National Biodiesel Conference Photo Album

Joe Jobe, CEO of the National Biodiesel Board took the stage to lead the final general session today. I spoke to him afterward to get his comments on the conference and the industry in light of what the speakers have said during the last several days.

Joe says “it’s really been good” referring to the conference. There was an expectation that attendance would be down and especially with the weather and the announcement of the final rule on the RFS-2 last week but people showed up. Joe says that NBB is planning webinars to help the industry understand the new rules. He says that he echoes a feeling of optimism as expressed by many of the speakers who were on the program. Looking ahead he says that the industry is policy driven and NBB will work as hard as it can to “get the policy right.” That includes not only the RFS-2 but a long term biodiesel tax credit.

You can download (mp3 file) or listen to my interview with Joe here:

National Biodiesel Conference Photo Album

We have had three panels discussions on the new RFS-2 and they had to be moved to larger than scheduled rooms to handle all the people who want to hear about the new rules. You are encouraged to look to the National Biodiesel Board as a significant source of information on this very important subject. They will be compiling more information and are planning some instructional webinars too.

In the meantime, to learn more about it, I spoke with Paul Argyropoulos, EPA Senior Policy Advisor, Office of Transportation & Air Quality, who spoke at one of the sessions. I asked him what’s most important for the industry to know now. To start with he says, “We have a final rule which I think provides certainty to the market.” He then provides some additional points of importance specific to the biodiesel industry. I can’t figure out how to summarize them and they’re too long to translate so you’ll have to listen to the interview to hear them. That’s just the way it is with regulations this long and complicated. At this point he encourages you to dig into the regulations and understand what the reporting requirements are. He says they’re willing to work with you and they’re planning to produce some webinars as well. Paul says you can go to their website to get more information.

You can download (mp3 file) or listen to my interview with Paul here:

National Biodiesel Conference Photo Album

Besides our panel discussion this morning addressing feedstock realities we also heard from Anne Frick, Prudential, who also addressed the topic.

To start her comments Anne says the industry depends on an ample supply of reasonably priced feedstocks. She talks about the international market since soybean oil is currently the major feedstock and it is impacted so much by what happens outside the country.

You can download (mp3 file) or listen to her comments here:

National Biodiesel Conference Photo Album

The final general session of the conference featured a panel session titled, “Feeding the Biodiesel Machine: Understanding Feedstock Realities of Today and Tomorrow.”

Captivating new feedstocks for biodiesel have grabbed headlines around the world. But which hold the most promise for expanding the biodiesel industry’s immediate and long-term feedstock needs? What’s the secret behind playing the commodities market… and winning? In this panel we heard from industry experts with the inside track on feeding the feedstock machine. They included Dr. Dick Auld – Texas Tech University, Anne Frick – Prudential, Dallas Hanks – Utah State University, FreeWays to Fuel, Mary Rosenthal – Algal Biomass Organization and David Slade – Renewable Energy Group.

You can download (mp3 file) or listen to the panel discussion here:

National Biodiesel Conference Photo Album

Enterprise Holdings made a major announcement this morning at the Conference.

Enterprise Holdings today announced plans for its entire fleet of more than 600 Alamo Rent A Car, Enterprise Rent-A-Car and National Car Rental airport shuttle buses across more than 50 North American markets to begin using at least 5 percent biodiesel (B5).

Pictured at the press conference are (l-r) Joe Jobe, CEO NBB, Dr. Richard Sayre, Director, Enterprise Rent-A-Car Institute for Renewable Fuels, and Lee Broughton, director of corporate identity and sustainability for Enterprise Holdings. Each of them spoke at a morning press conference.

Further, the company will immediately convert buses in nine markets to 20 percent biodiesel (B20) as a first step toward the company’s goal of converting its entire bus fleet to B20 over the next five years.

In addition to embracing biodiesel and other alternative fuels as they become commercially viable, Enterprise Holdings also provides strong support for renewable fuels research. In 2007, the company’s owners, the Taylor family, made a $25 million grant to the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis to create the Enterprise Rent-A-Car Institute for Renewable Fuels. Led by renowned plant researcher Dr. Richard Sayre, top scientists work at the Institute to develop alternatives to finite fossil fuels by finding new ways to create fuel from renewable, reliable plant sources.

You can download (mp3 file) or listen to their press conference comments here:

National Biodiesel Conference Photo Album

If you’re wanting to know where biodiesel will sit at the oil company table then you’re in luck because we had a morning panel discussion that included experts in the field to talk about it. The RFS-2 will likely mean that these companies will be adding biofuels to their product lines which has the potential to double biodiesel production in a single year. You’ll hear this talked about in the discussion.

The moderator for the discussion was Ron Marr, Minnesota Soybean Processors and presenters included David Blatnik, Marathon Petroleum Company, LLC; John Cusick, Morgan Stanley Capital Group, Inc.; Bruce Heine, Magellan Midstream Partners; Jim Lelio, Kinder Morgan Pipeline Group; Mike Reed, Northville Product Services.

You can download (mp3 file) or listen to the panel discussion here:

National Biodiesel Conference Photo Album

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack couldn’t be with us in person but he was via pre-recorded video.

He says the the President has made revitalizing rural America a priority at USDA and that renewable energy production, including biodiesel must be a part of it. He says that he knows how important the extension of the biodiesel tax credit is and he hopes that Congress will support it sooner rather than later. He talked about the RFS-2 mandate and says that USDA is prepared to use its resources to help the industry meet those mandates. He says that USDA is already making matching payments to folks delivering biomass for the Biomass Crop Assistance Program and that they have qualified nearly 450 biomass conversion facilities

You can download (mp3 file) or listen to Sec. Vilsack’s comments here:

National Biodiesel Conference Photo Album