Energy bill fuels interest in Sutter

Energy legislation signed last week by President Bush gives new hope for agricultural counties to get into producing alternative fuels such as ethanol, according to Sutter County supervisors.

“I’d be supportive of any technology that makes us less dependent on foreign oil,” Supervisor Jim Whiteaker said about larger-scale ethanol production in the county.

The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, which Bush signed Dec. 18, creates several new mandates aimed at lowering the nation’s energy consumption and foreign oil dependence, including increasing the average gas mileage of automobile fleets to 35 miles per gallon by 2020 from 25 miles per gallon average and increasing standards in the energy efficiency of household appliances.

There are also goals in the production of new biofuels, such as ethanol. The bill proposes a more than 500 percent increase in American ethanol production to 36 billion gallonsannually in 15 years.

Currently, most ethanol is produced through the fermentation of glucose in crops, such as corn and beets. Sutter County’s corn crop is relatively small, producing less than $1 million in 2006, according to the county’s most recent crop report.

But by 2015, the bill says, the focus of ethanol production should switch to cellulosic ethanol, which derives the glucose from cellulose, a common material in all plant cells - such as the leftover rice straw produced by Sutter County’s 93,000-acre, $106 million rice industry.

Or, as Supervisor Stan Cleveland says, there’s a potential that even yard waste could be an productive source of cellulosic ethanol in the future.

“By grinding everything into a compost,” Cleveland said of yard waste ethanol production. “Our orchard (waste) could be used and ground up like that.”

But one issue facing cellulosic ethanol in the immediate future is that it is not currently cost-effective to make. In June, supervisors held a study session to hear a proposal from local resident Wade Arnold on developing a corn ethanol production plant in the county, a proposal Cleveland heavily supported.

“Cellulosic (ethanol) has some very, very promising locations that are working, but there’s a lot of proprietary technology on that,” Cleveland said.

But both supervisors said all options have to be looked at, whether that means going for already-profitable corn ethanol and encouraging a switch in local agriculture production or playing the waiting game for heavily encouraged cellulosic ethanol industry more in line with local crop growth.

“I don’t think (ethanol) is too far off in the future, but we have to keep all our options open,” Whiteaker said.

Cleveland said a community meeting on alternative fuels is scheduled for early January, likely at the county agricultural building on Garden Highway.

The focus of that meeting will primarily be biodiesel, but there will be discussion of ethanol as well.

“It’s all up to the people of Sutter County if they want to move forward with this,” Cleveland said.

Appeal-Democrat reporter Robert LaHue can be reached at 749-4713. You may e-mail him at rlahue@appealdemocrat.com