Thicke: Promote bio-oil instead of ethanol

Francis Thicke, the Democrat running for Iowa secretary of agriculture, had a news conference this morning to promote his ideas for the next generation of renewable energy in Iowa.

Unfortunately for Thicke, he was upstaged by Gov. Chet Culver and Iowa Democratic Party Chairwoman Sue Dvorsky, who scheduled their own news conference about the same time. So goes life below the top of the ticket.

I talked with Thicke earlier, however, and he makes a good point about the need to look beyond corn-based ethanol to help wean Iowa farmers off petroleum.

He notes that about a third of Iowa’s corn crop is going to ethanol, but very little of that is being used to power agriculture. Farmers are being paid commodity prices for corn, but using increasingly costly retail prices for the fuel used to grow it, Thicke says.

He is promoting a new product called bio-oil, which is made from perennial plants. Bio-oil can be turned into diesel gasoline, which can be used in tractors and combines. Processing can be done locally, allowing farmers to own or control production and keep the profits, Thicke says.

He is calling for Iowa to divert all of the public money it might spent on new ethanol plants in the future toward this new technology. He doesn’t have a guess as to what a gallon of diesel from bio-oil might cost. He argues that the specter of future oil prices and shortages can make it seem economical by comparison.

Republican incumbent Bill Northey doesn’t discount the potential of new technologies, but says he wouldn’t abandon ethanol to maximize spending on a still-developing product. Iowa is the top ethanol-producing state in the country.

Northey’s position is politically wise, and he’s a pretty safe bet for re-election at this point. But since no new ethanol plants are in the works, maybe it wouldn’t hurt to diversify Iowa’s renewable energy investments.

Knowing that Thicke is an organic dairy farmer from Fairfield, I was expecting him to be a pie-eyed granola cruncher. He takes the expected positions in favor of local control for livestock confinement operations and promotion of smaller-scale, sustainable agricultural operations. But he also has a Ph.D. in agronomy/soil fertility and experience with the USDA in Washington. He comes off more like a college professor than someone who wants to turn the clock back 50 years on farming.

He makes a strong case that Iowa’s renewable fuel strategy in the future needs to consider what happens when Iowa farmers can’t afford the petroleum to grow, process and distribute our biofuel. Even if he’s not the next agriculture secretary, I hope he succeeds in starting that conversation with Iowa voters.