Joe's Blog

February 17, 2009

Although I am rarely awake past 11:00 on weeknights these days, I did catch Josh Tickell’s appearance on the “Tonight Show” with Jay Leno last night.   Jay is a hero of mine, not just because of his affable wit, but because of his appreciation for classic cars and innovative fuels.   He uses biodiesel himself in his Ecojet.  Unfortunately, although it was exciting to see biodiesel take center stage on a show viewed by millions, anything positive that may have come out of his appearance was undone in one breath.  

I am beyond disappointed that Tickell has apparently decided to use his documentary, Fuel,  as a tool to attack biodiesel made from agricultural products.  Or at least that is what it seemed like when he said that he realized during the making of the movie that using some types of biodiesel was starving people.  It goes to show how insidious the campaign to thwart progress really is.  Even biodiesel champions have fallen victim to the smear campaign that would have us remain addicted to foreign oil.

About 60 percent of U.S. biodiesel is made from soybean oil.  Tickell should know that in reality, current and future biodiesel production from soybean oil has a net positive impact on the food supply.  Soybeans are grown for their 80% protein meal, and by using the 20% oil portion for biodiesel, we increase the value of the oil portion and the whole bean, and decrease the price of the 80% protein portion, which is what is used for food and feed. 

Nobody will ever starve because of biodiesel use, unless they subsist solely on Italian dressing, mayonnaise, french fries, margarine and candy bars, and they inexplicably have no ability to switch to healthier and more abundant sources of plant protein.  Furthermore, biodiesel comes from a diverse array of raw material, which offers unique opportunities for expansion and growth of the overall base of materials from which biodiesel can be made. 

The Grocery Manufacturers Association just waged a $15 million PR campaign to brand biofuels as the reason for their high food prices (in order to divert negative attention away from their record profits).  They have been fairly successful in branding the public’s perception of “biofuels from corn and soy” as a bad thing.  But corn ethanol is completely different than soy biodiesel.  It is inexplicable to me that Tickell has jumped on this bandwagon of helping to brand current biodiesel production as bad.  Especially, in light of the good work he has done in the past, in authoring the book Biodiesel America.  The National Biodiesel Board partnered with him on that book, and I even wrote the forward for it.

In the book, Tickell says “…an excess of 133 million gallons of soybean oil had been produced.  Biodiesel demand can help ‘soak up’ much of the excess vegetable oil on the market, while stabilizing oilseed prices and giving farmers a much needed break from market swings.”  It is still true today.  In December 2008, there were approximately 350 million gallons of soybean oil in inventory. 

The NBB has invested in developing many feedstocks to further extend our supply of oils for biodiesel production.  This includes our full support of biodiesel produced from algae.  We are investing research dollars into algae development, so we know what the challenges are.  The fact is that algal biodiesel does not yet exist on a commercial level.  Soy biodiesel does, and it is <<sustainable. >>  

Biodiesel should power the bus, not be thrown under it. 

Don't buy what the grocers are trying to feed you.  The recent attacks from the Grocery Manufacturers Association blaming biofuels for rising food costs are deceptive and just plain wrong.  The GMA's attacks are not based on sound science, sound economics or common sense.  Rather, they are based on the GMA's desire to find an easy target for defending profits, despite the economic hardships placed on American families by skyrocketing gas prices, the mortgage meltdown and tumbling stock markets.

The NBB is committed to fighting the political and corporate interests that are more concerned with protecting their own profits over the health, security and pocketbooks of American families.

I recently testified in a closed meeting of the Senate Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee, along with other renewable energy groups and with Cal Dooley, President and CEO of the GMA. Some of the points I made that day were that crude oil has risen in price by 100 percent in the last 12 months. In 1974 after the Arab oil embargo, there were significant food price increases, too, but at the time biofuels weren't around to blame for those increases. Energy prices are more than 30 percent higher now than they were in 1974, after being adjusted for inflation, but grain prices now are more than 100 percent less than they were in 1974 after being adjusted for inflation.

Meanwhile, Senator Charles Grassley has recently spoken out forcefully about the driving force behind the uptick in food prices, saying, "The biggest culprit behind the rising food cost is $135 barrel oil."  Biofuels are currently contributing more than eight billion gallons of fuel to the nation's fuel supply, without which fuel prices, and consequently food prices, would be even higher than they are today, according to a Merrill Lynch strategist.

Since Sen. Grassley exposed the GMA's documented public relations smear campaign against biofuels, many others have joined him in his sharp criticism of GMA's efforts, including Senators Byron Dorgan (ND), John Thune (SD), Ben Nelson (NE), Kit Bond (MO), and Ken Salazar (CO).  The Senators recognize the critical role of biofuels to reducing our country's dependence on foreign oil and have expressed strong support for continued federal programs that encourage biofuel production and use.

In comments made recently to the National Biodiesel Board at our board meeting in Washington D.C., Sen. Grassley strongly rebuked the GMA for attempting to make biofuels the scapegoat to defend its members' bottom lines.  Sen. Grassley told NBB members that America's family farmers are producing more food and fuel than ever before and stressed the importance of keeping our energy dollars here instead of sending them overseas to countries not friendly to the U.S.