Wisconsin Bio Industry Alliance

Didion Milling and Didion Ethanol will be featured on the television show “Into the Outdoors” which airs this weekend on local channels. The TV program aims to educate kids about the outdoors and nature. The episode featuring Didion “Big Things from Small Stuff” follows the full life of a corn kernel from the planting by area corn farmers using modern combines to the harvest phase.   

“Into the Outdoors” may be found on multiple Wisconsin channels. Madison channel WKOW TV-27 on Saturdays at 6:30am, Green Bay channel WFRV TV-5 on Saturdays at 11:00am, Wausau channel WAOW TV-9 on Sundays at 10:00am and Milwaukee channel WITI TV-6 on Sundays at 10:30am.

Check out a clip from Didion’s episode, click here.

In a recent article from Bloomberg, the International Energy Agency reports subsidies given to fossil fuels are six times more than those for renewable energy. As a result, the enormous subsidies awarded to fossil fuels are creating a market distortion where the costs are greatly outweighing the benefits.

G-20 nations spent a $160 billion supporting the production of fossil fuels and its consumption last year alone. To continue spending on an increasingly inefficient fuel source will only further set the US back in becoming an energy independent nation.

Though aid for renewable energy projects rose 10 percent, the US faces significant hurdles building a competitive energy market if fossil fuels continue to receive large government subsidies. Whereas Europe and China are making strides in building competitive renewable energy markets, at the current pace, the IEA predicts the US renewable energy market will need aid until at 2035.

To read more about International Energy Agency’s report, click here.

Freedom, the new documentary confronting the dependence on foreign oil in the United Sates and the search for a sustainable solution will be coming to Wisconsin. Award-winning filmmakers Josh and Rebecca Tickell will be screening their documentary at two different events in Madison and Milwaukee on September 26th and 27th. A panel discussion will take place after the film where the audience will about to ask questions about the future of oil in the United States.

The Madison screening will be held at the Sundance Theater at 7pm.

The Milwaukee screening will be held at the UWM Union Theater at 7pm.

To view a trailer, click here.

For more information on Freedom, click here.

Check out this new television ad from the Wisconsin Corn Growers Association which shows that without ethanol, gasoline prices would be about 90 cents more per gallon.

Dear Congressman Sensenbrenner:

As Wisconsin ethanol producers, we represent an industry that has created hundreds of jobs and generated more than a billion dollars in economic activity in the state.

Continued growth for homegrown, domestic energy supplies relies on market access for the fuel we produce.  For producers, E15 means market access.  For consumers, E15 means the option to choose a more affordable and clean-burning fuel.  We respectfully submit that your opinion editorial in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel last week overlooked key facts about E15.

Small engine owners and motorists are not required to use E15 as a result of the EPA’s approval of this new fuel.  To the contrary, we’ve advocated for – and the EPA is allowing – the continued availability of E10 blends (which are approved for use in all small engines) and fuel containing no ethanol whatsoever.  What’s more, the EPA has gone out of its way to require a label at gas stations offering E15, which makes it clear the fuel is not approved for small and non-road engines.  Therefore, it is dangerous to rely on anecdotal spook stories about what E15 might do to engines.  The EPA has already prohibited E15 use in small engines, and the scientific data the organization relied on to approve E15 for motor vehicles is sound.

Opening more fuel markets to a greater percentage of this homegrown fuel will help power future generations of rural success.  We want to give the public a chance to decide whether they want to help keep fuel proceeds at home instead of sending them overseas.

We believe consumers deserve to have choices at the pump.  Furthermore, Congressman Sensenbrenner, our industry has worked in good faith, unlike the oil industry, to reform the current government support that the industry receives by sacrificing over 1 billion dollars toward deficit reduction.  In this time of fiscal belt-tightening in Washington D.C., we are one of the few industries working with lawmakers on a sensible reform.  Please consider the advantages ethanol provides the nation and the state you represent, and the value of supporting consumer fuel choice at the pump.

Sincerely,

Joshua Morby
Executive Director
Wisconsin Bio Industry Alliance

Wisconsin has the potential to be a leader in renewable fuels, but recent setbacks in biomass development in Madison along with regulations that slow down development of renewable energy only reinforce our dependency on oil.

In ‘Tapping Into Wisconsin’s Energy Potential Should Be Bipartisan Goal,’ Tom Still discusses how recent events could make Wisconsin lose momentum in developing energy technologies:

“Gov. Scott Walker introduced regulations that would make it harder to build wind-power projects in some parts of Wisconsin and he canceled plans to convert a UW-Madison power plant from coal to biomass.”

Wisconsin has the potential to support many forms of renewable energy – wind energy, biomass such as switchgrass, biofuels such as ethanol, and as Still points out:

“[ … ] New engine technologies, advancements in nuclear fission and fusion research, energy storage and solar power. Through the state’s engineering colleges and other centers such as the U.S. Forest Products Laboratory and the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, work continues on a mix of technologies that will position Wisconsin for the years and decades ahead. “

If Wisconsin is to retain its position as a state with the potential to be a leader in renewable energy, we can not afford to lose momentum.

Read more: Tapping Into Wisconsin’s Energy Potential Should Be Bipartisan Goal