Researchers at the University of Florida have been studying termite guts to figure out what genetic sequencing allows those insects to churn wood into fuel. That ability involves a mixture of enzymes from symbiotic bacteria and other single-celled organisms living in termites’ guts, as well as enzymes from the termites themselves, which could ultimately improve the production of cellulosic ethanol. Once the genetic sequence that produces the enzymes can be isolated, it could be transferred into genetically modified fungi or bacteria, or possibly into other insects, such as caterpillars, to produce the enzymes on an industrial scale.

Meanwhile, scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the and Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) have been doing similar work with leaf cutter ants. In this case, they are looking at the spongy fungus gardens that the insects grow themselves. Some of these ant communities have a picky appetite and only eat certain types of plant leaves; others are omnivores and digest the cellulose in a wide variety of leaves. GLBRC is studying the fungi and bacteria from these communities to identify microbial enzymes that can help generate fuels from the cellulose, or non-edible, part of the leaf.

“Insects have played an important role in how this planet functions for millions of years,” says University of Flrodia entomologist Mike Scharf. “There are still many ways we can learn to benefit from Earth’s six-legged inhabitants.”

Whatever works.

During an interview promoting Gore’s new book “Our Choice,” Stewart said that making choices to help the environment can be confusing for people. “We were told ethanol was the answer, turns out that’s worse for the environment,” Stewart said. The former VP, who supported corn-based ethanol while in office, did little to defend the fuel in response to that statement. “Yeah, but the new forms of ethanol that they’re coming up with now actually are not bad for the environment and we can switch to the new kinds that will be much better,” Gore said.

Nice try, but no cigar. “All ethanol, regardless of its source, is more sustainable and environmentally-friendly than gasoline,” said Renewable Fuels Association President and CEO Bob Dinneen in response to the exchange. “When compared directly to gasoline, ethanol reduces greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 60% - and that is with the technologies we have today. New technologies and processes will make current ethanol production as well as future production even more sustainable.”

“Failing to understand the issue and continuing to propagate factually inaccurate information, even on a faux news show, is dangerous and undermines the legitimate debate about our energy future,” said Dinneen, who hopes that Mr. Gore will “visit any of the nation’s ethanol facilities and to attend the industry’s annual conference next February in Orlando, Florida. The RFA would welcome the Vice President to present his ideas and engage in a frank discussion about the role of biofuels in our environmental future.”

According to CNN, King “goes outside the Beltway to report on issues affecting communities across the country” and his report about ethanol in the Cornhusker State took him from the combine on a farm in Fort Calhoun, to the Advanced BioEnergy ethanol plant in Fairmont, where he stood on a mound of dried distillers grains with ABE Plant Manager Grant Johanson.

The headline for the story was especially gratifying - “Ethanol keeps Nebraska running in tough financial times.” Here’s a nice quote from the article:

In Washington, ethanol is a source of controversy, with many lawmakers arguing it is an industry unfairly propped up by generous federal subsidies. To Nebraska, however, it is the direct source of roughly 1,000 jobs at ethanol production plants across the state, many of them located in small towns where those 40 to 50 plant jobs are the local gold standard.

Pretty positive piece overall for the corn ethanol industry. Read the whole article here.

The ethanol blender pump program was introduced as partnership between the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA), the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) and the American Coalition of Ethanol (ACE) at the 22nd Ethanol Conference & Trade Show in August. Missy Ruff (pictured), RFA’s Market Development Manager, was one of several BYOEthanol representatives at the NACS booth this week telling retailers about the advantages of blender pumps. This annual convention of the Association for Convenience and Petroleum Retailing draws some 10,000 visitors and is the premier event to reach the primary marketers of fuel - convenience store owners.

This edition of “The Ethanol Report” features interviews by Domestic Fuel reporter Joanna Schroeder with Robert White of RFA and Ron Lamberty of ACE about the program, blender pumps in general, and feedback from retailers.

Listen to “The Ethanol Report” here:

Or you can subscribe to this podcast by following this link.

The report, by the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) International Panel for Sustainable Resource Management, appears to say what the ethanol industry in the U.S. has been saying - there is no consensus in the methodology used to determine lifecycle analysis. The bottom line repeated frequently in the report is that more research is needed and there are a number of unanswered questions that would impact any type of long range predictions based on indirect land use change.

For example, the report says, “So far no explicit projection of global land use change induced by changing food demand seems to be available.” If we can’t even predict how much land may be used for food production in the future, how can we predict how much will be diverted to biofuels? The report also says, “Estimates of land requirements for future biofuels vary widely and depend on the basic assumptions made — mainly the type of feedstock, geographical location, and level of input and yield increase.”

You know what they say happens when you ass/u/me. That is the basic problem with all of these attempts at analysis. They are based on assumptions that will likely never be exact. We can never know what will happen in the future until it becomes the present. But, we still have to keep moving forward or we will never make it there.

That is the message that Geoff Cooper with the Renewable Fuels Association took to the annual meeting of the Society of Environmental Journalists in Madison, Wisconsin last weekend.

“Every energy decision we make has indirect effects associated with those decisions and we’re not looking at any of those other fuels and their indirect impacts,” Cooper says. “If we’re going to look at indirect effects for biofuels, we need to look at indirect effects for every energy source and we need to be fair.”

Cooper says the environmental journalists he addressed seemed to be surprised that only biofuels were being subjected to indirect effects and he was happy to share some of the new studies that analyze the carbon footprint of such practices as petroleum production from the Canadian tar sands. “Most previous reports excluded emissions from land use change and exploration and development of the natural gas used in the tar sands process.”

This edition of “The Ethanol Report” features an interview with Geoff about these topics and others related to ethanol and the environment.

You can listen to “The Ethanol Report” on-line here:

Or you can subscribe to this podcast by following this link.

Ethanol producers have been seeing some pretty good profit margins lately, especially compared to last year at this time. Last week, ethanol processing margins nearly doubled to a dollar a bushel. Since early July, ethanol futures on the Chicago Board of Trade have increased more than 20%, while corn futures have only gone up about five percent.

Commodity analyst Joe Victor of Allendale, Inc says that profitability has returned to the ethanol industry. “We know that over the past three months that there is profit returning, above and beyond all costs. Ethanol companies are turning a profit over the past three months.”

Proof of that is more ethanol plants returning to production. Ethanol Producer Magazine reports that the number of plants idled has decreased from 36 in the spring to 24 this fall. The publication’s latest plant map shows total U.S. ethanol production capacity is nearly 12 billion gallons.

This is all great news, but what producers are really hoping for is a nice early Christmas present from the Environmental Protection Agency, which is due to rule on the industry request allowing gasoline blends to contain up to 15 percent ethanol by December 1. That would make for a very Merry Christmas in Ethanol Land.

The latest market basket survey from the American Farm Bureau Federation shows that retail food prices at the supermarket are about 10 percent lower than last year at this time.

Meanwhile, ethanol production is up compared to last year, according to Energy Information Administration statistics. As of June, ethanol production this year is well over 4.9 billion gallons - compared to just over 4.3 billion this time last year - which is up about 15 percent.

According to USDA’s June Agricultural Prices report, the price of corn was $3.93 per bushel, which was down $1.54 from June 2008.

I’m not an economist - I don’t even play one on the Internet - but what these numbers say to me is that there is no direct correlation between food prices and ethanol production. But, that’s just me, what do I know?

Baltimore city officials blamed an ”unusually high amount of ethanol in gasoline” when over 200 police cars experienced engine problems after fueling up at a city-run pump.

Bad publicity when the ethanol industry is asking for approval to allow higher blends of ethanol in gasoline, no doubt. Problem is - this may be a case of the wrong suspect being accused of the crime.

A Baltimore Sun blogger is now reporting that the gasoline supplier, IsoBunkers, conducted its own tests and “found the gas was 10 percent ethanol — just what it was supposed to be.” IsoBunkers officials noted that only police cars were affected by the breakdowns, not other city vehicles that used the same pump. City officials are now saying they will continue the investigation to determine exactly what did cause the problem.

Unfortunately, the IsoBunkers revelation today was relegated to the blog (not that there is anything wrong with blogs, mind you) - but it didn’t make front page news like the original story did last week. If it turns out they pinned the crime on the wrong suspect, the damage may already be done. The innocent will still be tainted.

The evidence was flawed from the start, however. City officials said only it was an “unusually high amount of ethanol” but did not quantify that. Sure, if there was 50 percent ethanol in the gasoline that could very likely cause problems in vehicles that are not flex-fuel. Maybe as little as 20-30 percent could even be a problem. And there is a possibility that a blender could have made an error and blended ethanol at a higher than approved rate. The city needed to do a more thorough investigation before “making an arrest” in this case. They tainted the reputation of both the supplier and the fuel by jumping the gun.

I certainly hope the media in Baltimore follows up on this story and not only gets to the bottom of this who-done-it mystery but reports it to the public as well.

In a letter this week to Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson used the word “uncertainty” four times in referring to using ILUC modeling for implementation of the expanded Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS2).

Jackson said in her letter that it is “clear that there are significant uncertainties associated with these estimates and in particular, with the estimate of indirect land use change.”

“Therefore, I have asked my staff to quantify the uncertainty associated with specifically the international indirect land use change emissions. They are working closely with USDA as well as incorporating feedback from experts who are commenting on the rule. This analysis will allow us to quantify the impact of the uncertainty on the lifecycle emissions. We will present these estimates in the final rule, and I plan to incorporate those estimates of uncertainty in my regulatory decisions.”

After receiving the letter, Sen. Harkin withdrew an amendment to the Senate Interior and Environment Appropriations Act which would have prohibited the EPA from spending funds to include international ILUC emissions in the implementation of the RFS2 for a period of one year. “I think our amendment got EPA’s attention,” Harkin said.

The comment period on the implementation of the RFS2 will end tomorrow, September 25 and according to Jackson, the EPA has already received “thousands of comments, and expect to get many more by the closing deadline.” She is certain about that.