USA
June 26, 2007
The Context Network
released a white paper responding to President Bush’s January
2007 State of the Union Address where he calls for a “mandatory
fuels standard to require 35 billion gallons of renewable and
alternate fuels in 2017”. The paper focuses on the feasibility
of this standard along with the impact to agriculture and the
economy.
The white paper covers the current status of the alternative
fuels industry. The 35 billion gallon renewable and alternate
fuels standard requires a nearly six-fold increase of
consumption of alternative fuels used in 2006, and a three time
increase in the rate of growth of the Renewable Fuels Standard
(RFS). Due to this drastic increase, many changes would be
required in various agricultural industries.
The fuels used to contribute to this standard would exclusively
include fuels already in commercial production, or fuels that
are currently ready to be introduced into commercial production.
New fuel production plants would be necessary and the amount of
land for corn production would be required to increase.
Potential constraints and contributing conditions to the
proposed plan are also examined.
The prospective impact of the standard includes specific sectors
of the agricultural industry. Detailed explanations are outlined
regarding the impact to grain farmers, livestock producers, the
seed industry, crop protection suppliers and applicators,
equipment suppliers, and grain storage and handling companies.
The white paper also addresses the response of others to the
President’s proposal. “The president’s goals are ambitious but
eminently achievable with investment in new technologies,” says
Bob Dinneen of the Renewable Fuels Association. While Bob
supports the proposal, others question or reject it.
The Context Network’s evaluation of the President’s proposed
plan is that it is not feasible to reach the 35 billion gallon
alternative fuels standard in the time allotted. The paper
covers important changes needed to rapidly increase alternative
fuel consumption and addresses the potential of reaching this
goal by the year 2020 or 2025 with the momentum gained in the
industry in the next ten years.
To download the free white paper, visit the news and features
section of
www.contextnet.com.
The Context Network provides business management consulting
services to the world’s leading agribusiness and food companies,
as well as associations and government agencies. The firm is
composed of a core of professional consultants, complemented by
an extensive network of industry and subject area experts. In
addition to proprietary consulting, The Context Network conducts
multi-client projects on key industry topics that we, or our
major clients, believe will be driving factors for the future of
agribusiness – these reports are very deep and broad and are
written to give our clients a deep understanding of the
potential of the given topic to impact the future agribusiness
business climate.
The white paper was written by
Jim Murphy of The
Context Network. Jim has over 20 years of experience in business
and management consulting and has worked with clients as diverse
as sporting goods and commercial aircraft manufacturers. He has
a particular interest in renewable energy and bio-based
materials. |
|
