Grow Oklahoma Biofuels Conference starts today
Kwai Wah Pang, president of Synergy Flash Mart, describes earlier this year how he labled his fuel pumps to inform consumers about the fuels he offers. Initially, he used yellow lables beneath the two selection buttons on the right tell to buyers those fuels were 5-percent ethanol and ethanol free. Later, state officials required him to sell the two fuels in completely different pumps to prevent cross-contamination. BY JACK MONEY, THE OKLAHOMAN
Well, today is the first day of the Grow Oklahoma Biofuels Conference.And some of the folks on the agenda are people who work in the petroleum industry, who are expected to talk about the growing presence of biofuels in Oklahoma’s marketplace.
Readers often have called me during the past year to talk about the introduction of those fuels. During these conversations, they often have suggested petroleum marketers only are interested in using biofuels to save themselves some money and to stick it to the consumer by using fuels that give vehicles poorer gas mileage and more vehicle problems.
Generally, I tell my readers three things. The first is that while the loss of fuel mileage is well documented with E85, or fuel that is 85 percent ethanol, it isn’t with E10 — a mixture of fuel used here by many marketers that is only 10 percent ethanol. The second thing I tell them is that today’s engine manufacturers — whether it be for automobiles, lawnmowers or boats — commonly say their motors can operate using E10.
Finally, I tell them that our governments are mandating its use.On a federal government level, you can trace renewable fuel and conservation initiatives back as far as the Clean Air Act of 1970. That act created initiatives to reduce pollutants from mobile sources, such as cars.
In 1988, Congress offered incentives to automakers that increased fuel economy for automobiles. The Energy Policy Act of 1992 required the establishment of alternative fuel vehicle fleets. In 2005, Congress approved the Energy Policy Act, which emphasized using alternative fuels.
The Energy Indepence and Security Act required fuel distributors to increase the use of renewable fuels, requiring that transportation fuel sold in the U.S. to be a minimum of 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels by 2022, and told automobile makers they had to raise fuel mileage standards to 35 miles per gallon by 2020.
Most recently, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, signed by President Bush, included the Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008.
The act:
Extends tax credits for biodiesel mixture and agri-biodiesel production tax credits through the end of 2009;
Allows most biodiesel to qualify for the $1.00 per gallon mixture incentive;
Extends the excise tax credit for alternative fuels to the end of 2009;
Creates a new tax credit for qualified plug-in hybrid electric vehicles bought between Dec. 31, 2008, and Dec. 31, 2014;
Extends the tax credit for existing alternative fuel infrastructure through Dec. 31, 2010, and adds electricity to the list of qualified alternative fuels.
By Jack Money, Business Writer
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