Conservation Biomass

At the America's Grasslands Conference in Sioux Falls this week, I was joined by Steve Apfelbaum, head scientist of The Earth Partners, to announce the launch of Conservation Biomass. Working together, our organizations aim to develop a source biomass that comes from restored marginal lands and is used to produce power. The ultimate goal is to make that biomass cost competitive with current power sources while delivering real environmental benefits.

The conservation biomass will initially be delivered to POET Biorefining - Chancellor, a 100 million gallon per year grain ethanol production facility in Chancellor, S.D. That facility is powered by landfill gas from the Sioux Falls landfill and a solid fuel boiler, where the biomass will be burned. Eventually, we intend to use it as a feedstock for cellulosic ethanol.

We made the announcement at the America's Grasslands Conference because we wanted to seek out the expertise of those who are managing grasslands and restoring native prairies. Steve and I spoke during lunch on the first day of the conference and you can watch our speeches here or on POET TV.

For more information on Conservation Biomass, check out our press release and this news story from Ethanol Producer Magazine. Also, be sure to visit the web site of The Earth Partners.

Presidential visit is a big day for POET

To say that a presidential visit is a big deal would be like saying that Michael Jordan was a good was a good basketball player. This was the week that POET found out just how big of a deal it really was as President Barack Obama visited POET Biorefining - Macon (Missouri).

The plant first got word of a potential administration visit in late March and quickly started preparing the plant. As the event date got closer, it was confirmed that President Obama was the person considering the visit. For obvious reasons, we had to keep it quiet, but the plant continued to prepare.

We got the final word on Sunday that he would be coming along with Agricultural Secretary Tom Vilsack. The day before, we found out that there were more than 100 members of the press who had requested credentials for the event, not counting the traveling press corp. The morning of the event, there were seven satellite trucks parked outside the grains building and the event was carried live on several TV stations across the country.

It was easy to tell that this was not the first walk around the block for the White House team. They were great to work with and the team at our Macon plant really went the extra mile to make the ethanol plant look its best. Next week is the plant's tenth anniversary and it probably hadn't looked that good since its first.

Although some industry-watchers thought it could have been better, I thought the speech was a ringing endorsement for the work being done by POET and the rest of the ethanol industry. Others concurred. You can read the transcript on the White House web site or watch it here:

Those members of the press generated a lot of coverage. Among the notables was CNN, with the headline: Obama tours, praises ethanol plant. The story from USA TODAY read: Obama: Energy programs can help rescue rural America. TV coverage came from KHQA, KEYC, KTVO, and many more. We'll continue to post stories on our web site news page.

For photos, visit our Flickr page and check out the online gallery from the Kansas City Star.

During the visit, President Obama made it clear that all forms of ethanol have an important role to play in our country's energy future. As POET continues to its ethanol development, we'll do our best not to let the President, or the country, down.

Obama: POET success story proves American Dream still possible

President Barack Obama spoke today at POET Biorefining - Maco  n, an ethanol plant in located in Macon, Mo. The president got a tour of the plant from plant general manager Steve Burnett, Board President John Eggleston and POET CEO Jeff Broin. Following the tour, the President said that the success story of POET proves that the American Dream can still be achieved in rural America.

You can listen to the speech courtesy of audio recorded by ZimmComm. It's a little different from the prepared remarks, which you can read here:

Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for that warm welcome. It is good to be in Missouri, and it’s great to be with all of you at POET. Steve Burnett just gave Secretary Vilsack and me a tour of this fine facility, and I know Steve is very proud of an anniversary that’s coming up.

Ten years ago next month, this plant produced its first gallon of ethanol. Today, 45 employees produce 46 million gallons a year. So one of you is overachieving. Congratulations to all of you.

I’ve come here today, and I visited Iowa yesterday, because there’s a lot that towns in Middle America can share with the rest of America. There’s certainly a lot you can share with Washington. Common sense, for one. So I just wanted to talk with folks like you about what your communities are experiencing – the economic pain, but also the economic possibilities.

Lately, we’ve seen some welcome news after a hard two years. Our economy is growing, our markets are climbing, and our businesses are beginning to create jobs again. But when you get out to this neck of the woods and others like it, you see that the recovery hasn’t reached everyone just yet. Times are tough out here. In some places, they have been for a long time.

In the two years I spent running for President and visiting towns like these, a lot of folks talked about how the American Dream was getting harder and harder to reach. Families were having a tough time getting ahead. Farmers were having a tough time getting by. And worse, many of our young people grew convinced that their only chance to find opportunity was to seek it someplace else.

But success stories like POET prove that doesn’t have to be the case. And I believe we can help companies like yours replicate them across the country.

Since I took office, we had to take a series of steps to rescue our economy and recover from this crisis. But we’ve also taken steps to rebuild our economy on a new foundation for long-term growth and prosperity – to create conditions so that folks who work hard can finally get ahead.

That means making our schools more competitive and college more affordable. That means health insurance reform that gives families and businesses more choice, more competition, and better protection from the worst abuses of the insurance industry. That means commonsense reforms that prevent the irresponsibility of a few on Wall Street from threatening the dreams of millions on Main Street. And that means igniting a new, clean energy economy that generates good jobs right here in America.

For decades, we talked about doing this. For decades, we talked about how our dependence on oil threatened our economy; but our will to act rose and fell with the price at the pump. We talked about how it threatened future generations; even as we witnessed growing evidence of climate change. We talked about how it threatened our security; even as we grew more dependent every year.

As we talked, other nations acted; recognizing that the country that leads the clean energy economy will be the country that leads the 21st century global economy. And they made serious investments to win that race and the jobs that come with it.

Well, as I’ve said before, I don’t accept second place for the United States of America. That’s why our energy security has been a top priority for my administration since the day I took office.

We began early last year by making the largest investment in clean energy in our nation’s history. It’s an investment expected to create or save more than 700,000 jobs across America by the end of 2012 – jobs manufacturing next-generation batteries for next-generation vehicles; jobs upgrading to a smarter, stronger power grid; jobs doubling our capacity to generate renewable electricity from sources like the sun and the wind and biofuels, just like you do here.

That investment was part of the Recovery Act. And it included $800 million in funding for ethanol fueling infrastructure, biorefinery construction, and advanced biofuels research to help us reach a goal I’ve set: to more than triple America’s biofuels production in the next twelve years.

I’ve also created a biofuels working group led by Secretary Vilsack, our Energy Secretary Steven Chu, and our EPA Administrator, Lisa Jackson. And they’re working to promote this generation of biofuels and help you deliver the next.

After all, I may be President these days, but I used to be a Senator from Illinois. I didn’t just discover the merits of biofuels like ethanol when I first hopped on the campaign bus. I believe in their potential to contribute to our rural economies and our clean energy economy. So does our military, by the way. Just last week, the Navy tested a fighter jet – appropriately named the Green Hornet – that is now the first plane ever to fly faster than the speed of sound while running on a mix of half biofuel. I actually saw that plane for myself last week. It was pretty cool.

So there shouldn’t be any doubt that renewable, homegrown fuels are a key part of our strategy for a clean energy future – a future of new industries, new jobs in towns like Macon, and new independence.

Here at POET, you do more than just help stake America’s claim on that future. You stake Macon’s claim on America’s future. And I’m committed to making sure that communities like this one have a bright future of opportunity to look forward to. Thank you, everybody.

RETECH

Today at 3:00 EST, POET CEO Jeff Broin will be speaking during the Opening Session as part of a CEO Panel at the Renewable Energy Technology Conference and Exhibition (RETECH) in Washington, DC. Carol Browner, Assistant to the President on Energy and Climate Change will also be presenting. I will post his speech later today.

Posted via email from Breukelman's posterous

Jeff Broin at DC Auto Show

Along with Gen. Wesley Clark and Ricardo President Kent Niederhofer, POET CEO Jeff Broin made comments this morning at the Washington Auto Show. You can listen to part of it here.

  
Download now or listen on posterous

VN00025-20100126-0912.amr (154 KB)

Posted via email from Breukelman's posterous

POET VP Testifies to EPA on Renewable Fuel Rulemaking

Dr. Mark Stowers, Vice President of Science and Technology for POET, testified today at an EPA hearing on their Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for the Renewable Fuel Standard (POET statement here).

Dr. Stowers' testimony took issue with three pieces of the proposed rule:

1. EPA has not provided sufficient time and information for meaningful review and comment regarding the proposed rule.
2. EPA's proposed rule imposes extensive compliance mechanisms that will be costly and difficult to implement on the expedited schedule proposed by EPA.
3. EPA's proposed scheme for assessment and comparison of lifecycle greenhouse gas emission performance is flawed and has no basis in law or science.

On the third point, Dr. Stowers is primarily referring to indirect land use change, which was summarized in a recent post on this blog. To read his entire testimony click here.

President-Elect Obama and Ethanol

As the largest producer of ethanol in the world, POET gets a lot of inquiries about what we expect from an Obama administration. Rather than venture our own guess, we'd like to let the words of his campaign speak for itself.

On October 27, just a few days before the election, Heather Zichal, the Obama National Campaign Policy Director for Energy, Environment and Agriculture, spoke at the grand opening ceremony of POET Biorefining - Marion, our newest of 26 ethanol production facilities. you can watch her speech here in its entirety:

In her speech, she reads a statement from then candidate Obama regarding the opening of the plant in Marion, Ohio and his position on ethanol. The statement reads:

I'm proud to support biofuels, which can reduce our dependence on foreign oil, lower the price of gasoline, and help grow our economy. This plant is both an investment in the Marion Community and a timely reminder of the incredible economic potential of alternative fuels.

Opening a new ethanol plant in Ohio

POET opened its 25th ethanol plant yesterday in Fostoria, Ohio. Approximately 2,500 people attended the event and heard speeches from local dignitaries and elected officials, Ryan Hunter-Reay and POET CEO Jeff Broin. You can find the speeches on POET TV or watch them here:

For photos from the event, click here. For media coverage, visit our news page.

The POET story told to the UN

As I said in a previous post, POET CEO Jeff Broin is at the United Nations for a private sector forum on their Millennium Development Goals. Broin was one of two issue presenters at a roundtable discussion on energy and biofuels. He told other CEOs and UN agency heads the story of POET and why it is applicable to the millennium development goals.

You can download a PDF of his remarks here or read them on the continuation of this post.

Speaking at the North Manchester ethanol plant opening

As mentioned in a previous post, POET held a grand opening ceremony on September 11 for POET Biorefining - North Manchester, the company's 24th ethanol production facility. POET CEO Jeff Broin was joined at the event by Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels and a representative of U.S. Senator Richard Lugar.

Pictures from the event are posted on Flickr. The speeches can be viewed on POET TV or here:

The plant starts grinding corn for ethanol production tomorrow (September 15) and has an annual production capacity of 65 million gallons of ethanol and 178,000 tons of DDGS for animal feed per year.