DOE Ethanol Workshop Series

Texas Ethanol Workshop
Renewable Fuels for Rural Economic Development & Clean Air in Texas - A Rural-Urban Partnership

September 27, 2000
9:00 am to 5:00 pm

Omni Hotel Austin at South Park
414 Governor's Row
Austin, Texas

TEXAS WORKSHOP SUMMARY
Austin, Texas – September 27, 2000

The Workshop

Legislative Champion of ethanol in the state of Texas, Representative David Swinford, set the stage for the day’s meeting by relaying to the assembly the need for rural economic development in Texas and how ethanol could fill that role while helping the environment at the same time. Developments in the use of ethanol were featured during the forenoon along with and overview of production and infrastructure and economic development. Ron Miller, President of Williams Bio-Energy in Pekin, Illinois, explained the merit of developing strategic partnerships with the petroleum industry. David Kolsrud helped organize and is a farmer-member of Agri-Energy LLC in Luverne, Minnesota. Mr. Kolsrud explained the advantages of the new generation of ethanol cooperatives to the farmer and to the community. Bill Holmberg related a vision for the future of a fully integrated farming-ethanol production system.

A special feature of the day was the presentation of awards to the University of Texas – Austin and the University of Texas – El Paso. Both schools participated in the 2000 Ethanol Vehicle Challenge. They each re-engineered a Chevrolet Silverado to run on E85. Austin took first place in the competition and El Paso placed fourth out of 14 competing colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada. A display of the trucks and several other E85 cars, trucks and vans were open to guests following lunch. The afternoon program focused on ethanol specifically in Texas. The first panel addressed the marketplace including a presentation by Al Melero, who told of the successful air quality program in El Paso. Updates on aviation fuel usage, Ediesel and the demand created by non-attainment cities were also covered. Following further discussions about feedstock availability and advancements in distillers grains use, and opportunities for economic development in Texas, an open forum collected ideas and suggestions from the participants about "Where we should go from here.”

“Where do we go from here?”
Primary points of that discussion:

-Markets
-Meet with other states to learn from their models
-Identify supporters
-Disseminate information
-Transfer wealth from general fund to area of need
-Track cellulose progress with new uses.com and bioenergyupdate.com.
-Convince Governor Bush to support ethanol
-Increase communication in state, for example, the El Paso story
-Representative Swinford and colleagues will educate the legislature/ Minnesota model
-Producers are long on land and commodities and short on capital. Value-added will strengthen their situation
-Keep the dollars in the community. Form a committee that meets regularly to keep the momentum going.
-Work on the infrastructure for E85 refueling
-Support aviation and Ediesel
-Organize a forum for cattlemen, farmers, petroleum and other stakeholders to talk and gain a greater understanding of one another’s position and perspective.

Goal

“To match current use with domestically produced ethanol.”

To meet that goal, the following objectives were recommended:

-Support Representative Swinford’s efforts
-Mandate aquatic fuels
-Commission a resource assessment including biomass
-Every FFV should run on ethanol
-Encourage refiners to offer base gasoline for summer E85 fleets
-Formalize an ethanol task force