December 22, 2008 - President-elect Barack Obama made a strong move in support of ethanol and other non-petroleum biofuels the week ended December 19, naming former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack, a major renewable-fuels advocate, to be his agriculture secretary.
At a news conference in Chicago on December 17, Obama said Vilsack would play a key role in shifting the US away from the current oil-based energy infrastructure to one that is fueled by corn, switchgrass and other biofuel feedstocks.
"Tom understands that the solution to our energy crisis will be found not in oil fields abroad but in our farm fields here at home," Obama said.
Vilsack, a Democrat, was elected governor of Iowa in 1998 and re-elected in 2002. As a governor from a farm state, Vilsack has been vocal in his support for the farm bill and for renewable sources of energy.
In 2003, Vilsack prodded the Iowa state legislature to pass the "Grow Iowa Values Fund," a $503-million appropriation designed to boost the state's economy by offering grants to corporations and initiatives to create higher-income jobs.
Before serving as Governor, Vilsack was mayor of Mount Pleasant, Iowa. He was elected to the Iowa State Senate in 1992.
Vilsack mounted a brief run for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, but he dropped out early on and endorsed Obama's chief rival, Senator Hillary Clinton.
During his brief campaign, Vilsack ran on a platform based on energy security.
Iowa is the country's largest producer of corn, which is currently the feedstock that is used to produce the vast majority of the country's ethanol.
Vilsack bragged that his state has transformed its "farm fields into energy fields" punctuating his endorsement of turning corn and other agriculture products into renewable fuels.
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"We changed the traditional idea of agriculture and became the national leader in renewable fuel and energy production," Vilsack said in announcing his short-lived presidential bid.
Vilsack's nomination could help the US meet the renewable-fuels mandate that Congress included in major energy bills that President Bush signed in 2005 and 2007.
The mandate requires the US to blend increasing amounts of ethanol into gasoline supplies over the next 14 years, ramping up to 36 billion gallons annually by 2022.
The standard requires 9 billion gallons to be used this year, and 11.1 billion gallons in 2009.
Some entities, including the food and livestock industries and their allies on Capitol Hill, say the push to use corn and other crops for fuel is driving up food prices.
Congress has held a host of hearings on the so-called "food vs. fuel" debate this year, and some lawmakers urged the Bush administration to scale back the requirements of the federal renewable-fuels standard, or RFS.
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Texas Republican, introduced legislation to freeze the RFS mandate at the 9 billion-gallon level.
And Texas Governor Rick Perry formally asked the Environmental Protection Agency to scale back the RFS mandate by 50%, saying higher corn prices were hurting cattle ranchers in his state.
But EPA announced in August that it would not grant the Lone Star State's request, saying there was "no compelling evidence" that the RFS was causing the sort of "severe economic harm" that would have allowed a modification.
A Hutchison spokesman declined to comment on the Vilsack announcement the week ended December 19 other than to say that Obama's choice for agriculture secretary "obviously still has to be confirmed" by the Senate.
Industry groups expressed mixed reaction to the Vilsack appointment. Scott Openshaw, spokesman for the Grocery Manufacturers Association, which staunchly opposes using corn and other foodstocks for fuel, said the group is actually happy about Vilsack's nomination.
This is because Vilsack has expressed his support for moving beyond corn and using switchgrass and other non-food feedstocks to produce cellulosic ethanol, Openshaw said.
Openshaw said the group is hopeful that Vilsack would craft policies on biofuels that reflect recommendations outlined in a report released this summer by the Council on Foreign Relations Task Force on Climate Change.
Vilsack, who has been working as an attorney for a Des Moines-based law firm, was co-chair of the task force that wrote the report.
Among other things, the report calls for phasing out government subsidies for corn-based ethanol and other "mature" types of biofuels.
"He's been on the record as saying corn ethanol is not the end-all, be-all," Openshaw said. "We view his appointment an opportunity to change course."
Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, another ethanol booster who chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee, said he was "extremely pleased" by the Vilsack appointment.
The Vilsack appointment came on the same day that the Energy Information Administration forecast that the US would not meet the RFS target of producing 36 billion gallons of renewable fuel by 2022.
EIA said the projected shortfall was related to the economic crisis and other factors that have driven some biofuel companies into bankruptcy.
But EIA said the ethanol industry would rebound, and would surpass the 36-billion-gallon mandate by 2030.
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