Corn stats shift Valero stance
Energy giant reverses its food vs. fuel concernsBy JESSE HELLING, Messenger city editor
Times change.
On March 11, 2008, Bill Kless, chief executive officer of the Valero Energy Corporation, spoke against ethanol during a National Petrochemical and Refiners Association conference in San Diego.
Corn-based ethanol, said Kless, would drive up food prices in developing countries - impacting the world in a "much more acute negative way than greenhouse gas emissions and climate change ever will."
Jump ahead.
These days, the newly established Valero Renewables is on track to produce 780 million gallons of ethanol in seven plants acquired from the bankrupt VeraSun Energy on April 1.
Increased corn production has stanched fears of fuel-fueled famine, Bill Day, director of media relations for the San Antonio, Texas-based Valero, explained Thursday.
"The American farmer continues to increase their productivity," said Day. "The amount of production they're getting per acre is amazing."
In Iowa, the corn crop is slated to break records this year.
According to a report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2.47 billion bushels of corn will be harvested, topping the previous record of 2.38 billion bushels in 2007.
Increasing yields translate into plenty of corn for both fuel and food, according to Day.
Valero executives traveled to Fort Dodge as part of a larger tour of the company's ethanol production plants that included a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the company's Hartley plant.
Day reiterated the company's commitment to ethanol production.
"We're not just coming in to make a quick buck and go away," he said.
As the largest petroleum refiner in North America, Valero was a consumer of ethanol prior to entering the production field.
Indeed, the company uses twice as much ethanol as the newly acquired plants generate - and that amount is likely to increase with more stringent renewable fuel standards, Day said.
Established under the Energy Policy Act of 2005, renewable fuel standards mandate the volume of renewable fuels, such as ethanol, that must be used in transportation fuel each year.
A plan promoted by the Environmental Protection Agency would increase that volume to 36 billion gallons by 2022.
That translates into ready-made markets for ethanol, Day said.
The Fort Dodge plant has the capacity to product 110 million gallons of ethanol per year, using 39 million bushels of corn.
Future expansions in production may come through use of as-yet experimental means, ditching corn kernels for the stalks and leaves, Day said.
Valero is also investing in companies that research other alternative fuels that could someday be produced at the Fort Dodge plant.
Earlier this year, Valero became a lead investor in Terrabon LLC, a Houston, Texas-based company that is developing technology to convert landfill waste into synthetic gasoline.
Contact Jesse Helling at (515) 573-2141 or jhelling@messengernews.net
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Anderson
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08-25-09 3:29 PM
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It's a "profitability" thing, folks; something out State Capitalists don't have to consider - for a time, at least. Then, the deluge.
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