Culver seeks EPA waiver to boost ethanol production

CEDAR RAPIDS – Iowa's bio-economy has helped the state weather the current “economic storm,” Gov. Chet Culver said July 7 after touring ADM's ethanol production facility in Cedar Rapids.

“In a lot of ways, the bio-economy is the backbone of our economy in Iowa and we need to do all we can to support it,” he said.

Iowa is on track to create 9,000 jobs in biofuels if it continues on its current trajectory, Culver said at a news conference at the Linn County Administrative Building West.

However, Iowa needs help from the federal government if the biofuels industry is to continue to grow and produce jobs, he said.

Culver has joined Iowa Sens. Chuck Grassley and Tom Harkin in calling on the Environmental Protection Agency to approve the use of E15, a fuel blend of 15 percent ethanol and 85 percent gasoline, in all gasoline-fueled vehicles. Currently, biofuels producers can add only 10 percent ethanol to gasoline.

An EPA waiver would allow Iowa producers to move more biofuels products, Culver, Harkin and Grassley have told the administration. Allowing the E15 blend also would increase opportunity for domestic ethanol production, lessen dependence on foreign oil and provide opportunities for job creation.

An EPA decision was expected this fall, however, Grassley said its “unnecessarily complicated plan” would delay a decision until February 2011.

“In the wake of the worst oil spill in our nation's history, we believe our government should operate with a great sense of urgency to utilize more homegrown biofuels,” Harkin said in a letter to the Obama administration.

The biofuels industry, which has been stymied by the EPA rules and the failure of Congress to extend tax credits, estimates the waiver would create 136,000 jobs nationwide.

Culver said as chairman of the National Governors Association Biofuels Coalition he “doing everything I can” to promote biofuels use and expand markets.

A goal of a second term as governor would be to work with the private sector to build out the biofuels infrastructure, said Culver, who is seeking re-election. That would include improving rail service to ADM and other producers, and improving the power grid so wind-generated electricity could be moved to urban markets.

Culver hopes in the “very near future” Iowa will be a net energy exporter.