Tennessee FFA Team Wins Second in State Competition for BioWillie Demonstration

A Portland, TN, Future Farmers of America team, in a state wide competition, won second place performing a skit about a current agriculture issue, showing the advantages of biodiesel over regular diesel. Using Willie Nelson’s BioWillie premium biodiesel, as sold at the Middle Tennessee Truck Plaza as their fuel, they demonstrated and debated use of this clean burning fuel.
 
“We are pleased that America’s next generation of consumers are educating themselves on the advantages of clean burning, renewable fuels such as biodiesel,” said Randy Hepler, senior vice president sales and operations of Earth Biofuels. “This encourages me that we are making progress in lessening our dependence on foreign energy while helping our future farmers. It’s a win-win for all.”

Tommy Foltz is President of Earth Biofuels. He was invited by the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources to testify at the committee’s “Transportation and Biofuels Conference” on February 1, 2007 in Washington, D.C.

Once again, Congress is teed up to debate energy security. The President is calling for the implementation of a 35 billion gallon renewable fuel standard, by the year 2017, to combat global warming and our growing dependence on foreign oil to be met by biodiesel, ethanol and other non-petroleum fuels.

For this, we should be proud of our elected leaders. Normally, on this issue, the interest of the politicians is linked to the public’s interest, and that is directly related to the price at the pump. And the price at the pump is down.

Of course, the cynics of alternative energy will use this temporary dip in energy prices to tell you that we have nothing to worry about, and will ask why we would spend America’s tax dollars if there is nothing to worry about.

This has been our curse since the 1970s. We’ve ignored the gathering storm because low prices have made us believe that it’s not yet raining on us.

Here are the facts. Demand for oil is on the rise. Production is on the decline. This is true, not just for America, but for the planet.

That is why last year the average price of oil was $66 per barrel. Therefore, on average, we sent roughly $800 million overseas every day. Of that amount, about $350 million went to the OPEC nations. That’s about $2 billion per week.

Consider this: World demand is about 85 million barrels per day and is projected to be 119 million barrels per day in 2020. This 34 million barrel per day increase is roughly equivalent to total world demand in 1970. To supply that demand, some have estimated that a trillion dollars will need to be invested in production, processing, pipelines, etc.

There are two fundamental problems with this. First, there is a basic philosophical question: why would a producer of any product with a virtual monopoly finance improvements that will more quickly deplete its resource, thus bringing down the price of its product?

This leads us to the second challenge: the regions with the most oil are reluctant to allow foreign investment.

Venezuela recently made it known that it will take a majority position in all oil projects in their country. Russia has made heavy-handed moves toward nationalization of its oil industry. Nigeria is riddled with oil-related violence. I don’t have to list the pitfalls resulting from Middle Eastern dependence.

So, we’re in a quandary extending well beyond any anti-corporate disdain for the record profits of the oil companies. We’re well beyond the very prescient thoughts on reducing greenhouse gases. It’s about economic survival. It’s about averting economic calamity while maintaining a semblance of our 21st century way of life.

No amount of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge or royalty relief in the Gulf of Mexico will alleviate this problem over the long-term. I’m not here to say those are terrible ideas, just don’t be fooled into believing they are silver bullets.

The trick is to accelerate the marketplace for energy alternatives that are available today like grain-based ethanol, biodiesel and liquefied natural gas, while we continually strive to build a better alternative energy mousetrap.

The better mousetraps are not necessarily grain-based ethanol, but cellulosic ethanol, which is far more efficient and can use waste products instead of valuable grains. It’s also the hydrogen fuel cell, which can use the most plentiful element in the universe to propel a vehicle, or heat a house. These technologies are still in development, yet our massive dependence/energy security threat must be addressed today.

Therefore, we have to promote the solutions we have while continuing to develop the solutions we want. I have great hope that our best minds will create technology that will push the envelope in the right direction.

Our beating the Soviets to the moon was motivated by national pride as well as national security. National pride is a luxury that countries get to experience only when they’ve achieved national security.

The current thought in some corners is that there is “too much at stake” to leave our current foreign entanglements. However, this same principle should be applied to our continued reliance on imported oil.

The world is running out of oil, and what oil is left is owned by people whom, by their own words and conduct, are overtly hostile towards us.

This storm has been gathering for decades now, and it’s time that we build a Biofuels umbrella. There’s simply “too much at stake” not to.