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Posted on  

March 28, 2003

Pawlenty boosts biodiesel

By Janet Kubat Willette

Agri News staff writer

ST. PAUL -- Minnesota wants you -- to serve on a statewide biodiesel task force.

Your assignment is to identify hurdles to developing the biodiesel industry in Minnesota. The goal is to smooth a path for adopting 2 percent biodiesel blend in all diesel sold statewide by July 1, 2005.

No plants in Minnesota produce biodiesel. Biodiesel used in the state is mostly imported from Iowa, said Minnesota Agriculture Commissioner Gene Hugoson at a Thursday press conference to announce formation of the task force.

Freeborn County farmer Ron Jacobsen has used biodiesel for four years and said he's never had a problem with the product. For a couple years he blended the biodiesel himself. Now, his cooperative delivers a 2 percent blend.

Jacobsen, who wore a red biodiesel jacket, said biodiesel makes sense because it's renewable, environmentally friendly, biodegradable and grown in Minnesota.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who joined Hugoson at the podium, said the nine-member task force will be on the fast track -- meetings will begin by early summer -- to be sure the biodiesel industry is growing and ready to meet the 8 million gallon threshold established in the 2002 legislation.

The governor said he's an unabashed supporter of value-added agriculture, acknowledging that many people are upset because of his past cuts and additional proposed cuts to the ethanol producer payment program.

"It's not ideal," Pawlenty said, but all state programs are being asked "to take a haircut. The state made a commitment to ethanol, but that commitment isn't higher than the commitment made to nursing homes, schools or poor people who need health care," he said.

Pawlenty said Hugoson will be working with lawmakers to fashion a program to keep the ethanol industry viable, perhaps setting up a system where the payment fluctuates based on the market.

Sen. Dille has introduced counter-cyclical payment legislation in the Senate. The bill, SF378, hasn't advanced from the Senate agriculture committee.

Leon Hopp, Nicollet County Farm Bureau president and a corn and soybean producer, said creating a biodiesel task force is good. Hopp, who farms 450 acres with his brother, Gary, plans to use biodiesel this spring.

It's exciting to be part of developing a new market for soybeans, he said, and also exciting to meet the governor.

Pawlenty also plugged his Job Opportunity Building Zones and suggested that biodiesel plants could fit well into the zones.

He said the bill will pass the House and asked the Farm Bureau members crowded into the room to talk to their senators and encourage them to vote for the bill, saying it needs help in the Senate.







 

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