Biofuels' future may hinge on funding
SPOKANE -- The future of biofuels in the Northwest will depend on two things -- money and more money.
That was the message delivered Monday to Northwest farmers looking for new cash crops in biodiesel and ethanol. The demand for those fuels could surge under newly proposed federal fuel standards.
Plans to grow crops and build plants for the two products in the Northwest dominated discussion at the fourth annual Harvesting Clean Energy forum.
Despite excitement about the two fuels' prospects in the Northwest, experts voiced caution.
"Ethanol and biodiesel are getting close to viability without -- without -- subsidies," Tom Dorr, U.S. Department of Agriculture undersecretary for rural development, told a crowd of more than 500.
He cited President Bush's State of the Union address last month, in which Bush said America was "addicted" to oil and that reducing dependence on foreign oil is a matter of national security.
But, Dorr added, "Government can't do this alone," and with limited government involvement, "private industry will carry most of the load."
That worried some farmers and biofuel experts, who expressed concerns the Northwest could lose out to the Midwest.
The crops required to supply makers of biodiesel and ethanol aren't common in the Northwest yet -- and farmers are leery of growing a crop unless they have a market.
Jim Armstrong of the Spokane County Conservation District said large-scale production of mustard and canola, two crops for making biodiesel, isn't economically viable in the Northwest because no crushing and oil-extraction facilities exist. Washington legislation setting mandates for use of ethanol and biodiesel has spurred plans to build ethanol plants and seed crushers and refineries for biodiesel.
Still, Armstrong said, "Right now we need to establish an oil seed industry" for state farmers to capitalize on biodiesel. "Growers have to be convinced they can grow crops and have a market they'll actually make money at."
It will take more than 100,000 acres of oil seed crops to satisfy the mandate being considered by the Washington Legislature that 2 percent of the diesel used in the state, or about 20 million gallons, be biodiesel, he said. "That's more than all the cropland in Spokane Valley," he said.
It's also more than 10 times the 7,000-plus acres in those crops in Washington, said Fred Fleming, owner of Reardon Seed in Reardon.
But Fleming, the Odessa Union farmers' co-op and Seattle Biodiesel, the state's only commercial producer of biodiesel, want to change that. They are working to open an oil seed crushing plant in Odessa to provide oil for Seattle Biodiesel's refinery.
"We're about ready to burst out of our seams," said Todd Ellis, business services director for Seattle Biodiesel. The company anticipates significant growth above the approximately 5 million gallons a year it makes now.
The company is importing soybean oil from the Midwest for feedstock, but "I'd sure like to see some of the feedstock come from right here in our state," Ellis said.
For that to happen, "the agricultural community is going to really have to step up to the plate," Fleming said, and grow canola or other oil seeds, most likely as a rotation crop for wheat.
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Biofuels' future may hinge on funding
