Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin this morning said he expects cellulosic ethanol plants to develop south of Interstate 80 in Iowa in much the same way corn-fed ethanol facilities dot the Hawkeye State's countryside north of the federal highway.
In a conference call with Iowa Independent and other media, Harkin said he believes the science is “five years away” from allowing investors in cellulosic ethanol plants to make money. What’s more, Harkin said that by 2017 he expected cellulosic ethanol to play a substantial role in the nation’s energy mix — and boost the economy of southern Iowa.
“They can grow a lot of grasses down there,” Harkin said.
Harkin said that “corn alone” cannot meet the nation’s ethanol needs.
Chris Somerville, professor of biological sciences at Stanford University and director of the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Plant Biology, tells ScienceDaily that the ideal plant for cellulosic ethanol is a perennial grass.
“The body of a plant is composed of polysaccharides, such as cellulose, which can be converted to ethanol by fermentation. Using the entire plant body as a starting raw material will result in a higher yield of fermentable sugar per unit of land,” ScienceDaily quotes Somerville as saying.
The publication reports that the best plant for producing cellulosic ethanol is Miscanthus, a perennial grass native to subtropical and tropical regions of Africa and southern Asia, which is used as an ornamental plant in the United States.
Cellulosic ethanol has its advocates in the financial community as well.
Venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, one of the leading financiers of green technology companies, told Fortune magazine that 2007 will be a defining year for cellulosic ethanol.
“This will be the year of cellulosic ethanol — fuel made from grasses, wood chips and other underutilized biomass,” Khosla told Fortune. “New fuels like butanol will also come along. I wouldn’t be surprised to see biogasoline either. We’ll see biofuels move from their role as an additive to gasoline to a primary fuel for automobiles.”
Khosla’s bullish view on cellulosic ethanol is one he shares with Harkin, an Iowa Democrat and chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee.
“The big thing is going to be of course moving into cellulosic ethanol,” Harkin said in an earlier interview. “That’s going to take some time. But I think in the next five years you’re going to see the march toward cellulosic ethanol and more plants being built and more and more biomass crops being raised for that.”
Kholsa said in the Fortune article that oil prices may be manipulated in an effort to thwart the transition to more green sources.
“You’ll see critics, often funded by the petroleum interests, increase their attacks on biofuels through surreptitious PR campaigns, while publicly supporting these renewable fuels,” Kholsa told Fortune.
Do you know where to vote on Election Day? Do you know what to bring with you? Get comprehensive voter information for your state here.
Sign up for our email newsletter