Governors focus on getting biofuels to market

Bestirred by weird weather, bothered by dependence on foreign oil, and blitzed by advertising, many a motoring do-gooder has purchased a flex-fuel vehicle.
If said motorist lives here in Florida, a cruel surprise awaits: Sioux Falls has more ethanol stations than all of Florida.
Bringing biofuels to Floridians -- and to other ethanol-hungry parts of the U.S. -- is the theme of a two-day National Governors Association conference at Tampa’s InterContinental Hotel. Gov. Charlie Crist joined the governors of Minnesota, Montana, and Kansas on Thursday morning to voice their commitment to getting biofuels flowing.
“Governors have the opportunity in states across the country to drive a national conversation, and, frankly, to make some national policy by the agreements we forge with one another,” said Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius.

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, chairman of the governors association, said states can act as “laboratories of democracy.” They are smaller and more “nimble” than the federal government, he said.
Crist has styled himself a climate-change warrior in recent months, joining state-by-state efforts to reform energy policy in the Sunshine State and around the country. On Thursday, he cautioned against pessimism and politics, billing his green crusade as a bipartisan effort. He consistently side-stepped the issue of cost, an issue his critics have hammered in recent weeks.
“If you look at this full of gloom and pessimism, then you will depress people from moving forward and doing what’s right,” Crist said.
Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer echoed Crist’s optimism. “American has always led by converting adversity to opportunity.”
When it comes to reforming transportation, alternative fuels face several hurdles on their way to our cars, explained Rick Eggebrecht, co-founder of VeraSun Energy, a South Dakota company that produces 560-million gallons of ethanol each year.
First, many states don’t make the fuels at home, and don’t have the rail resources to get it cheaply to market, Eggebrecht explained. Then there aren’t enough places that can store the fuels, and blend them with gasoline. Finally, retail stations face enormous costs to retrofit their stations to sell biofuels. This is where governors and legislators can help, creating tax breaks and incentives to help speed infrastructure development, he said.
Florida doesn’t yet produce ethanol, and has limited production of biodiesel. Several alternative fuel projects in the state have run into delays.
--Asjylyn Loder, Times staff writer