State of Jefferson - Last Tuesday the Klamath Cattlemen's Association invited a guest speaker to talk about if biofuels are feasible and how it will effect them.

Oregon State University professor, Bill Jaeger, from the Department of Agriculture, Resources and Economics Department, presented a study he had completed called  "Corn, Ethanol, Cows, Tortillas and Biofuels. Is Ethanol the future energy source for us or are there other alternatives?"

Jaeger said his study looked at several different aspects of using biofuels. One consideration was cost. This included social cost such as government subsidies and private costs verses private revenue or is this commercially competitive.

The other aspects looked at were whether other goals could be met by producing more biofuel. Could biofuels help the country gain energy independence or meet other environmental goals such as reducing greenhouse gases?

According to Jaeger, he studied corn based ethanol, wood based ethanol and canola based bio-diesel. His report concluded that with current technology, wood based ethanol was not commercially feasible. Using corn for ethanol does work out financially if you have the large amounts of corn and enough cows to eat the corn bi-product. This is why most large ethanol plants are currently based in the Midwest.

The product which showed the most economical promise was bio-diesel made from canola. But, even with this potential, large scale operations had many challenges to face. According to Jaeger, biofuels will not solve our energy situation.

"The idea we can grow all of our oil is not true and for true biofuel believers this is an inconvenient truth," he said.

Jaeger said by increasing gas mileage in Oregon one mile per gallon, all vehicles would save more fuel than 12 large scale ethanol plants could produce. He said it will also have a ripple effect on many other products. From the cost of tortillas to cattle prices, many different industries will suffer from higher feed products used to make biofuel.

Local cattle rancher Glenn Barrett sat down with the Pioneer Press after the meeting. Barrett feeds cattle in the Midwest because of the lower costs of feed. Barrett said the use of corn for ethanol use directly effects the price of feed which effects his profitability.
"We are in a changing energy environment and it is an exciting time," he said.

He fully supports the development of biofuels and said it is here to stay. The problem Barrett sees is that the government provides a large subsidy to the ethanol plants which raises the cost of the feed he uses.

"The government subsidies are not going anywhere," he said.

But it creates an unfair trade balance when the government subsidizes one industry at the cost of another.

Another person who spoke out during this presentation was Rich Roseberg, of the OSU - Klamath Basin Research and Extension Center. Roseburg brought up the point that Jaeger only focused on large scale commercial ethanol plants. He said that smaller scale local biofuel plants which utilize locally grown and processed products showed more potential. Roseberg told the Pioneer Press that what seemed more feasible for our area was diesel from oil seeds such as canola instead of trying to produce ethanol from corn.

"Biofuels are not a silver bullet, but every little bit helps," according to Roseberg.
It would take eight million acres of canola to replace the diesel used in Oregon. He said there is no way we can produce all of the fuel needed, "but can we produce five or ten percent."

Roseberg feels that large growers or even small communities can benefit from the production of biofuels. He said it makes sense for growers to have a fixed fuel cost and a known supply. Roseberg said a grower could take five to ten percent of his acreage and dedicate it to the production of biofuels which would provide enough fuel to operate the farm. In the 1800s it took up to 60 percent of a farms acreage to provide the power to farm. This acreage was hay used to feed the draft animals all year but it was what powered the farm.