ACGF Reminds Consumers That E-15 Ethanol Blends Can Be $1/gallon Less at The Pump Than Straight Gas

By Gale Lush: email: galelush77@gmail.com

WILCOX, NE, May 8, 2024--- “We’re pleased that on April 19, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the White House announced a waiver so that E15 (15% ethanol blend in gasoline) sales will continue uninterrupted, nationwide this year. E15 is a lower-cost, lower-carbon gasoline blend approved for use in more than 95% of vehicles on the road. Motorists typically save about 25 cents per gallon with E15. American motorists and consumers, planning summer vacation can thank the ethanol industry for gas prices at the pump currently being nearly $1 per gallon cheaper for E85 flex-fuel ethanol blends than 87-octane Plus with 10% ethanol,” said Gale Lush, ACGF Chairman from Wilcox, NE, a corn, soybean and wheat producer. read more...

ACGF: Calls for Stronger Federal Policies That Facilitate Greater Corn Use for Ethanol

By Gale Lush: email: galelush77@gmail.com

WILCOX, NE, February 22, 2024--- “The very low $3.28-$4.06 per bushel corn price range in Nebraska on February 21, 2024, versus $6.71 to $7.30 one year ago is a big concern. $3.51-$4.09 was the corn price range in South Dakota on the same day. Fortunately, USDA projects that the U.S. will use 5.375 billion bushels of corn for ethanol production in the 2023-2024 marketing year.”

“Without that ethanol-driven corn demand just imagine how low the corn price would be right now. If that corn-use-for-ethanol demand dropped by 1 billion bushels the price would likely be below $2.00,” said Gale Lush, Chairman of the American Corn Growers Foundation (ACGF), a corn, soybean and wheat farmer from Wilcox, Nebraska. read more...

ACGF: 2023 Farm Bill Should Prioritize Renewable Energy, Sustainability, Crop Insurance and SNAP

By Gale Lush: email: galelush77@gmail.com

WILCOX, NE, February 18, 2023---“Congress should prioritize biofuels, renewable energy policies (ethanol, biodiesel, wind, solar, hybrid storage systems), crop insurance, sustainable farming practices and SNAP in the 2023 Farm Bill,” says Gale Lush, Chairman of the ACGF, a corn, soybean, and wheat farmer.

“All corn demand is important (domestic feed, seed, industrial use, and exports) but corn use for ethanol is the prime new demand corn price driver. There are not enough rural votes in Congress to pass a Farm Bill. Urban votes are essential. That means supplemental nutrition assistance (SNAP).” read more...

The ACGF news release below also appeared in the November 23, 2022 Kearney Hub on the editorial page under the headline, "Be thankful for renewable energy"

Americans Can Be Thankful for Renewable Energy Addressing Climate Change Impacts. Traditional Fuels and Renewables Are Complementary, Especially in The Near-Term.

November 2022:

By Gale Lush: 308-991-4138

WILCOX, NE, November 21, 2022---“With the Thanksgiving Holiday celebration here Americans can be thankful for our abundance of agriculture/food resources and energy sources, especially renewable energy,” said Gale Lush, corn, soybean and wheat farmer from Wilcox, NE and Chairman of the American Corn Growers Foundation (ACGF). “Renewable energy (ethanol/biofuels, wind, solar and hybrid battery storage systems) are essential for America’s sustainable energy future and the energy needs of American consumers. Likewise, Americans need traditional fuel supplies because renewables and traditional fuels complement each other. For instance, ethanol blends enhance gasoline by providing the consumer cheaper motor fuels that are higher octane and cleaner burning. Farmers are environmental stewards of the soil and focused on sustainable practices as articulated in a video segment on the American Corn Growers Foundation (ACGF) website, at ACGF.org, “Land and Water: Farmers Adapt to Climate Change” produced by University of NE Journalism students. It covers timeframes when Nebraska went from extremes, excessive rainfall in 2019, to excessive drought. The segment interviews farmers and experts on renewable energy, sustainability, and local food production.”

Source: National Renewable Energy Labratory, https://www.nrel.gov

Lush added, “America needs both older and newer energy generation sources and resources, working together, just as we need older and younger generations working together to transition our farming operations into the future. My generation implemented sustainable, no-tillage and lower water-use irrigation technology. My son and his generation are implementing IT and modern technology on everything from precision GPS-driven planting, fertilizing, production and pest management to grain harvesting and storage, all for the benefit of the American economy and the American consumer. Energy and food go hand-in-hand, just like farming from one generation to the next. This is a timely and timeless renewable perspective.” read more...

From the University of Nebraska College of Journalism and Mass Communication Alumni News, Huskers On The Move

November 2021:

Dan McGuire '76---received a REpowering Schools Special Recognition Award acknowledging his decades of work as a supporter and advocate of renewable energy in agriculture and student learning. Currently, McGuire is director of the American Corn Growers Foundation.  Read more..

REpowering Schools Special Recognition Award to Dan McGuire and ACGF

Wilcox, NE—November 17, 2021:

By Gale Lush

WILCOX, NE-October 19, 2021---“The American Corn Growers Foundation (ACGF) is pleased to announce that ACGF Director Dan McGuire just received a REpowering Schools Special Recognition Award at their Annual Awards Ceremony on October 15, 2021,” said Gale Lush, ACGF Chairman, a corn, soybean and wheat farmer from Wilcox, Nebraska.

“The Special Recognition Award acknowledges McGuire’s decades of work in articulating the role that renewable energy can play in support of farming communities and their students nation-wide.”

Dan McGuire and the ACGF have been national leaders on renewable energy for decades, beginning with ethanol, especially advocating for a strong federal Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) policy.  Read more..

Growing Ethanol and Carbon Markets Strengthen Biden Climate and Jobs Plan.

It Will Be A “Rare Earth Day” When the U.S. Isn’t Importing Rare Earths/Metals from China.

Wilcox, NE—April 22, 2021:

By Gale Lush

"The bipartisan Growing Climate Solutions Act which will set up a structure in USDA to help farmers fight climate change by sequestering carbon and accessing carbon markets is supported by 50 agricultural groups including the National Farmers Union and American Farm Bureau Federation, as it should be,” says Gale Lush, Chairman of the American Corn Growers Foundation (ACGF), a corn, soybean and wheat farmer from Wilcox, NE. “This new legislation is a logical approach by incentivizing farmers to address climate change concerns by storing carbon in the soil. Taken together with no-till farming practices and the increased use of ethanol in gasoline to clean the air these multi-pronged strategies will also create jobs and help mitigate the inevitable environmental concerns inherent with the mining of rare earths needed to power electric vehicles and rare metals such as lithium, which are essential for lithium-ion batteries. If the U.S. is going to create new clean energy industries in our own economy beyond ethanol, we will need to do the extraction mining here rather than importing the rare earths and rare metals and their components from China, Bolivia, Chile or other countries. Storing carbon through modern farming practices while improving the current liquid fuel infrastructure with higher ethanol blends, without needing to replace fuel storage tanks, is a great climate-smart strategy.  Read more..

Land and Water: Farmers Adapt to Climate Change

LINCOLN, NE—January 12, 2020:

By Brandon Thomas and Brandon VanDeMortel 

As climate predictions remain ominous, farmers utilize sustainable methods toward their farming practice. But will they be able to keep up with a drastically varied climate? Farmers have been adapting since the beginning of agriculture, but will their methods be enough to keep up?  Read more...

Dan McGuire and UNL Journalism Student Brandon Thomas

Job Opportunities in Renewable Energy

LINCOLN, NE—February 28, 2020:

By Dan McGuire

A panel session on job opportunities in renewable energy incorporating multiple perspectives  Read more...

Foundation chair says competitors taking advantage of U.S. trade wars

GRAND ISLAND, NE—April 21, 2019:

The Trump Administration’s trade war and the related rural economic meltdown is not coincidental, said Gale Lush, American Corn Growers Foundation chairman.

According to Lush, who lives in Wilcox, Trump’s tariffs are a major cause of current low corn and soybean prices.  Read more...

Local View: Tariffs jeopardize wind farm growth.

WILCOX, NE—February 6, 2019: Sometimes, it feels like farmers are the ultimate gamblers -- their livelihoods depend on so many factors that must be left to chance.

They can’t control the weather: too much rain, too little rain or rain at the wrong time can be devastating. They can’t control the commodities market; they’re at the mercy of changing prices for necessities like fuel and fertilizer. And they can’t control the marketplace: Whether it’s corn, cattle or soybeans, prices can crash -- and remain stubbornly low -- as they have now for several years.  Read more...

ACGF Chairman Says Low Commodity Prices from Trump Trade War Justify On-Farm Storage Payments to Farmers. A Trade War Is National Policy Requiring Mitigation for Lost Farm Income.

WILCOX, NE—November 29, 2018: “Trump’s trade war with China was initiated to protect intellectual property rights at the expense of farmers, who must export. When the farm sector of the National Economy is sacrificedfor the benefit of steel, aluminum and intellectual property rights economic mitigation is required,” says Gale Lush, a corn, soybean and wheat farmer from Wilcox, NE and Chairman of the American Corn Growers Foundation (ACGF). “The U. S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Congress should implement and expedite on-farm storage payments to farmers using USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation. A Nov. 26, 2018 University of Illinois, Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics report states, ‘The December corn futures contract closed lower for the third straight week on Friday.  Read more...

Corn Farmers Deserve $.50-$1.00 Per Bushel Compensation For Lost Corn-Ethanol Demand Loss of 800 Million Bushels of Corn-Ethanol Demand Raises Ending Stocks-Depresses Prices 2017-2018 U.S. Corn Exports Only Hit The 1980 Export Level. The 39-Year Average is only 1.8 Billion Bushels.

WILCOX, NE—October 1, 2018: “The Trump Administration should be paying corn farmers at least $.50 per bushel if not $1.00 per bushel in compensation for the low prices resulting from an estimated 800 million bushels of lost domestic corn demand resulting from the ethanol waivers EPA and the Administration has provided big oil companies since 2017,” said Gale Lush, American Corn Growers Foundation (ACGF) Chairman, a corn, soybeans and wheat farmer from Wilcox, NE. “It’s one thing to kill export markets for corn with this tariff war. It’s even worse to kill homegrown domestic ethanol-driven corn demand right here in our own American market. Congress also needs to prove they have learned the farm policy lessons of the past 40 years, including the fact that U.S. corn exports in 2018 are only back to the level of 1980. Fortunately, ethanol had stepped in and was saving us temporarily with stronger corn prices.  Read more...

Reduced Global Grain Supply and Drought Conditions in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Northern Europe, FSU and Australia Are Bailing Out US Grain Exports During Trump’s Trade War.

WILCOX, NE—August 20, 2018: “U.S. farmers and farm organizations should analyze world grain conditions and supply constantly in order to have an honest assessment of the real grain export and commodity price impact of the current tariff trade war that is underway,” said Gale Lush, Chairman of the American Corn Growers Foundation (ACGF), a corn, soybeans and wheat farmer from Wilcox, Nebraska. “On August 10 the U.S. Department of Agriculture World Agricultural Outlook Board (USDA-WAOB) released its world supply and U.S. supply and use projection for grains for marketing year (MY) 2018/2019. The report projects world grain supply at 3,199 million metric tons (MMT), down from 3,217 MMT in MY 2017/18, a reduction of 18 MMT, or about 685 million bushels. MY 2017/18 estimated total world grain supply was down from 3,234 MMT in MY 2016/2017, a reduction of 35 MMT, a reduction of about 1.3 billion bushels.  Read more...

Trump’s Tariff-Driven Trade War May Be Worse than Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan Embargoes. Ethanol RFS Level Must Be Raised to 15% Year-Round to Help Mitigate Low Corn Prices.

July 20, 2018 - WILCOX, NE: “The Trump Administration’s tariff regime and trade war may well have a worse, negative economic impact on American farmers and the rural economy than the Nixon, Ford, Carter and Reagan embargoes and trade restrictions,” said Gale Lush, American Corn Growers Foundation (ACGF) Chairman, a corn, soybean and wheat farmer from Wilcox, Nebraska. "President Nixon’s 1973 U.S. soybean embargo against Japan resulted in Brazil becoming a long term permanent U.S. export competitor as Japan diversified its future sources of soybean supplies by investing in Brazil’s soybean production infrastructure. Today Brazil exceeds the U.S. in soybean exports. President Ford embargoed the Soviet Union in 1974-1975. Corn prices dropped from $3.02 in 1974 to $2.54/bushel in 1975."  Read more...

Ethanol Industry is supporting farmers despite failed farm policy

June 20, 2018 - "The anti-ethanol letter to the editor in the June 19 Independent, “Ethanol program led to ag economy woes,” lacks facts. The Nebraska Ethanol Board reports positive economic benefits to Nebraska, stating, “In 2014, the total labor income impact was $319 million. This income was earned by an estimated 4,443 jobs shown as total employment (FTE). The ethanol industry creates a substantial annual impact on the Nebraska labor market by supporting approximately 4,500 jobs with average annual earnings (wages, salaries and benefits) of $72,000. The average earnings includes direct jobs in the ethanol industry as well as jobs throughout the state. Most of these jobs are created in non-metropolitan Nebraska. Over the entire 2010 to 2014 time period, the annual labor income impact varied between $287 and $352 million per year.””  Read more...

ACGF Chairman Demands 15%-30% Ethanol RFS to Mitigate Negative China Trade Policy Fallout

April 4, 2018 - "The Trump Administration should immediately announce that they are going to raise the current 10% ethanol Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) to 15% or 30% to mitigate the depressed commodity price and rural farm income and economic damage that’s coming from the trade war they have launched. Ironically, Chinese soybean buyers could have bought U. S. soybeans in overnight trade for 50 cents per bushel less than Tuesday’s market close because of the price drop from retaliatory tariff talk,” says Gale Lush, American Corn Growers Foundation (ACGF) Chairman, a corn, soybean and wheat farmer from Wilcox, Nebraska. “This negative trade action comes on the heels of news that the EPA gave an RFS waiver to one of the nation’s largest oil companies. Such indefensible action further weakens farm-level grain prices in the nation’s heartland. Meanwhile, the politicians in charge of writing and passing a new farm bill are stuck in the mud like an old low horsepower 1950’s tractor. U. S. corn exports are not what they were projected to be but weakening our export market further is no answer. Rural America deserves better policy than this.”  Read more...

Nebraska farm organization says holding ground on ethanol not good enough

July 9, 2017 - The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) announced last week that it will maintain the conventional biofuel requirement at the 15 billion gallon level in renewable volume obligations (RVOs) for 2018.

“Holding ground is not good enough,” said Gale Lush of Wilcox, chairman of the American Corn Growers Foundation (ACGF). “It’s a minimal, inadequate corn ethanol demand strategy.”

“The Environmental Protection Agency announcement will do little or nothing to move corn markets according to one market analyst,” he added.

Lush said the U.S. corn industry needs to be “doing more than just ‘holding ground’ in terms of our domestic U.S. corn use because exports are forecast to drop substantially in the 2017-2018 marketing year.”

“As a longtime grain farmer and co-op patron what’s needed is for the farmer-owned co-ops to make a major commitment toward installing as many ethanol blender pumps as possible at all of their gas stations,” Lush said. “E-10 ethanol is great, but we need coops to be marketing a lot more of it plus E-15, E-30 and E-85 ethanol blended gasoline to drive demand growth in our domestic market.”

Lush said that strategy makes “more economic sense for farmer-owned cops than investing in risky foreign grain export ventures that promote U.S. competitor grain exports which compete directly against U.S. exports.”  Read more...

“Holding Ground” With EPA 15 Billion Gallon Target Not Good Enough and Won’t Move Markets
MY 2017-2018 U. S. Corn Exports Forecast Down by 350 Million Bu. To 1.875 Billion Bushels. Co-ops Need to Install Blender Pumps More Aggressively

WILCOX, NE---July 7, 2017 - “Holding ground is not good enough. It’s a minimal, inadequate corn ethanol demand strategy,” says Gale Lush, Wilcox, NE corn farmer and ACGF Chairman. “The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announcement of the corn ethanol blending requirement of 15 billion gallons for 2018 will do little or nothing to move corn markets according to one market analyst,” said Lush. “The U.S. corn industry needs to be doing more than just ‘holding ground’ in terms of our domestic U.S. corn use because exports are forecast to drop substantially in the 2017-2018 marketing year. As a long time grain farmer and co-op patron what’s needed is for the farmer-owned co-ops to make a major commitment toward installing as many ethanol blender pumps as possible at all of their gas stations. E-10 ethanol is great but we need co-ops to be marketing a lot more of it plus E-15, E-30 and E-85 ethanol blended gasoline to drive demand growth for corn ethanol right here in our domestic market. That strategy makes more economic sense for farmer-owned co-ops than investing in risky foreign grain export ventures that promote U.S. competitor grain exports which compete directly against U.S. exports. A major U.S. cooperative recently announced suffering a sharp decline in income and confirmed it was a $200 million creditor of a failing Brazilian commodities trader. Domestic U.S. corn ethanol is a much better bet than exporting foreign grain. It’s the America-First oriented thing to do.”  Read more...

Ethanol, Wind Energy and Solar Power Are Strong Rural Economic Engines and Key Job Drivers
ACGF Sponsoring 9th Annual Nebraska Wind and Solar Conference in Lincoln November 7-8, 2016

WILCOX, NE---May 2, 2016 - “The American Corn Growers Foundation (ACGF) continues to advocate renewable energy as an essential economic development component for the future of the rural economy. It’s our top priority,” said Gale Lush, ACGF Chairman from Wilcox, Nebraska. “Ethanol is a well-established and powerful economic driver for rural America, underpinning corn prices when exports are stagnant or fail to deliver as projected or promised by free trade policy deals. In 2015 ethanol-driven domestic corn demand did a lot more than defend corn prices. It delivered 85,967 well paying, stable, direct jobs and 271,440 indirect or induced jobs across the U. S., fueling domestic economic growth.”

Lush announced that the ACGF continues to lead on wind and solar energy advocacy with ACGF Director Dan McGuire as Co-Chair of the 9th Annual Nebraska Wind and Solar Conference to be held at the Cornhusker hotel in Lincoln on November 7-8, 2016. “ACGF is proud to again be a Kilowatt sponsor of the 2016 conference,” said Lush. “We’re pleased to join other key national and state wind and solar industry leaders that are sponsoring this year’s Nebraska conference. We urge local, county and state officials to register for the conference at www.NebraskaWindandSolarConference.com.   Read more...

30+ Years of Failed ‘Free Trade’ Export Promises Confirms Ethanol RFS Policy Must Stay Permanent

WILCOX, NEB –February 4, 2016 – “Presidential candidates and their political handlers in both parties would be wise to learn from the thirty-plus year failed record of U.S. ‘free trade’ corn export promises before attacking the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), the most successful domestic rural economic development policy in modern history,” said Gale Lush, a farmer from Wilcox, NE and Chairman of the American Corn Growers Foundation (ACGF). “Had we relied on exports without the ethanol RFS for essential new corn demand market growth since 2005 the rural economy would have experienced a meltdown. So why would any presidential candidate want to dismantle such a successful, economic development infrastructure? The ethanol RFS and ethanol industry create hundreds of thousands of jobs and keep the price of gasoline at the pump as much as $1 per gallon lower for consumers. RFS energy policy is ‘all American’ vs U.S. fossil fuel incentives that subsidize foreign oil interests. The ethanol RFS serves the economic security of America.” Read more...

Local View: Fossil fuel subsidies dwarf wind energy incentives

In response to the opinion column “Support affordable energy by ending corporate welfare” LJS, Nov. 14) here are three questions for author Thomas J. Pyle, president of the American Energy Alliance, with ties to the Koch Brothers oil company.

Why did you fail to call for an end to government/taxpayer-funded fossil fuel subsidies? Are you going to call on Nebraska’s U. S. senators and representatives to repeal oil, coal and gas subsidies? Aren’t oil companies able to stand on their own without subsidies? The fossil fuel industry has been getting federal subsidies for 100 years. The cumulative cost of oil, coal and gas subsidies dwarf wind energy incentives.

It’s ironic, if not downright hypocritical, for Mr. Pyle to complain about the wind production tax credit.  Read more...

Above: ACGF's Dan McGuire address 2014 Nebraska Wind-Solar Conference

Above: Dan McGuire at ACGF information booth at 2014 Nebraska Wind/Solar Conference

September 4, 2014

Dan McGuire, Director of the ACGF Wealth From The Wind program, co-chair of the Nebraska Wind and Solar Conference, and NREL Facilitator of the Nebraska Wind for Schools program presented on all topics "wind" on September 4, 2014. With a Nebraska farm background and a degree in journalism from the University of Nebraska– Lincoln, he has spent his career leading agricultural organizations and developing and advocating for state and national renewable energy policy and programs for the benefit of rural America. ...read more

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