Poet Cuts Cellulosic Ethanol Production Costs 43%

Expect CE commercial competitiveness by 2011, says CEO Broin.

April was right: Jeff Broin's Poet Ethanol has achieved a cost breakthrough on cellulosic ethanol

POET announced today that cost reductions achieved over the past year of operating their cellulosic ethanol pilot plant have exceeded expectations in their drive to commercialize the process. Reductions in energy usage, enzyme costs, raw material requirements and capital expenses have reduced POET’s per gallon cost from $4.13 to $2.35 over the course of the past year, and the company’s goal is to be below $2 by commercial plant start-up ["On first anniversary of pilot plant start-up, POET announces cost reductions in cellulosic ethanol," press release, Poet, 2009.11.18].

Poet CEO Jeff Broin expects to get production costs down a commercially viable level below $2 a gallon by 2011, when it plans to open its 25-million-gallon/year cellulosic ethanol plant in Emmettsburg, Iowa (brought to you in part by $100 million dollars from Uncle Sam—you're welcome!).

Dr. Mark Stower, senior Poet sci-tech VP, explains it all:



Forget sending that federal money back; let's roast those corn cobs and start sending oil back to Saudi Arabia and Canada!

Recession Thanksgiving: Upsides of the Downturn

You know me, always looking for the silver lining!

As Thanksgiving approaches, here are some more reasons that the recession may actually be doing some good for the country:

1. AAA says South Dakotans will travel 2.6% less this year for Turkey Day. That's less fuel burned up, less pollution. Travel will be up slightly nationwide... but it almost has to be up from last year's amazing 25.2% drop in Thanksgiving travel.
   
2. From the same report, air travel for Thanksgiving has dropped an "astounding" 62% over the past decade. Thank high prices... but also thank the Patriot Act: AAA cites "stricter airport security" as one of the factors in less air travel (so, the terrorists are winning?).
3. Urban sprawl has been knocked on its can. Bedroom communities that relied on long-distance commutes to coax residents to join their housing booms now are looking for ways to develop rail lines, denser and more efficient housing, and local business.
4. More folks are shopping at Goodwill, Salvation Army, and other thrift stores. The National Association of Resale and Thrist Shops (yes, there is one) reports a 35% increase in resales. Of course, the recession has also cut back donations at some stores, as folks hang on to their old clothes to get as much use as possible from them... although NARTS counters that almost 70% of their members report increases in incoming inventory volume. Good thrift business is good news for the town of Wilmot, South Dakota, which holds the grand opening of its new a community thrift store tomorrow. The Replay Thrift Store is a product of the Whetstone Valley Horizons community revitalization project.

So darn that President Obama, trying to end the recession. Doesn't he see all the good this recession is doing for the country?

We're still far from the hard suffering of the Great Depression that made our grandparents such tough characters. But even the relatively small lemons of this recession may produce some cultural lemonade.

South Dakota Wants de Facto Raw Milk Ban

Anti-Nanny-State Free-Market Advocates Silent
on South Dakota's Continued War on Small Family Farms

Friends in the dairy industry let me know about a South Dakota Department of Agriculture proposal to effectively ban raw milk sales. Small dairy operators could still get permits to sell their product directly to local buyers, but the proposed rules would require small operations to buy the same costly equipment and testing as big factory dairies, a budget-buster for small operators.

Steve Miller of the Rapid City Journal gave the issue some Saturday coverage:

Lila Streff milks about 20 goats at her farm, south of Custer, which she says has passed all state dairy inspections.

But Streff said if she is required by the new rules to buy expensive equipment and conduct more testing, she will be forced to quit selling milk.

...Streff says the requirements are unnecessary and constitute a de facto ban on raw milk sales in South Dakota because most small dairy farmers can’t afford to comply.

She said the bottling machines cost about $9,000, and the specialized jars that fit the machines cost up to $3,000.

“There’s no proof that it’s more sanitary to have a machine do it than to hand cap it,” she said [Steve Miller, "State Proposes New Rules for Raw Milk Sales," Rapid City Journal, 2009.11.14].

The proposed rules also include this Big Brother treat:

Milk plants that provide or offer bottled raw milk for human consumption shall maintain a current list of persons to whom they have provided raw milk for human consumption. The list must be continually updated and include the data for at least 60 days. This customer list shall include customer names, addresses, phone numbers, and quantities of bottled raw milk for human consumption. This list shall be provided to the department upon the department’s request.

South Dakota's agricultural policies have already contributed to the growth of massive, polluting CAFOs and the near extinction of genuine small family dairies. The proposed de facto ban on raw milk sales is a travesty against small family farms and against the free market.

But where are the defenders of family farms and personal freedom on this issue? Pat Powers likens supporters of a smoking ban to Nazis and protest government "telling businessowners what they can do in their place of business," but he never says a word about Pierre regulating small farmers out of business. If Pierre proposed convenience stores record the names, addresses and phone numbers of their cigarette buyers, Powers would go ape.

Troy Hadrick, self-proclaimed "Advocate for Agriculture," is even more deeply hypocritical. He howls about the Humane Society and eco-vandals and vegans, slaps the word "family" on factory farms and takes the Big Ag line on pasteurization, but he says nothing to defend real family farmers who haven't adopted the industrial agricultural production model. Worse, Hadrick whines about federal legislation that would increase testing for e. Coli in hamburger at slaughterhouses and grinding houses (i.e., the meat factories) and says consumers should do their part to prevent food-borne illness.

Do you think Hadrick and the Farm Bureau for whom he propagandizes (at $2000 a pop!) will apply that same standard to protect small South Dakota dairy farms? I would welcome some consistency from my Big-Ag, free-market neighbors to defend the rights of small dairy farmers to sell their products locally.

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Update 10:35 CST: Dakota Rural Action is at least speaking up on this issue to protect small farmers. Dakota Rural Action: you know, the group Sibby tries to say is "not a rural South Dakota organization" (black has never been more white). The group Dakota War College mocks as cowardly, unscientific whiners. Seems to me Dakota Rural Action shows more courage than anyone else around here in standing up for rural South Dakotans.

Wasson Proposes Trade with North Korea, Cut DoD by Half

GOP U.S. House candidate Thad Wasson keeps the ideas coming: He extends his proposal for bear-hug diplomacy with Iran to include agricultural trade with North Korea. He also proposes the most serious federal deficit-cutting plan I've heard from anyone this year: withdraw from Kosovo, Italy, Japan, and Korea and cut the U.S. military budget by half. Wasson makes the interesting argument that other countries look at our enormous military spending and assume that such expenditures are the route to greatness. A paradigm shift to a less bristly America could lead to a paradigm shift in other nations.

Or so Wasson proposes, and so Wasson would like to discuss on the campaign trail. Not that the mainstream media or even the Republican Party chiefs are interested in hearing big ideas like that. They're more interested in R. Blake Curd's ability to count words. in the health insurance reform bill.

Governor Rounds on Big Stone II and Transmission for Wind: What, No Sales Pitch?

I sometimes criticize local and state politicians for putting a happy face on setbacks or ignoring real problems. Of course, mayors and governors have their agendae, their own need to keep the positive spin coming, to put the best face forward to keep investors interested and promote economic development.

So why, if he is really committed to promoting alternative energy, would Governor Mike Rounds (through spokesman Joe Kafka) so vocally bemoan the demise of Big Stone II?

"The governor feels it's a setback to development of the wind-energy sector in the state, because enhanced transmission capacity was tied to the project," Kafka wrote. "Without the ability to move larger amounts of wind energy to markets in large cities to the east, plans for future wind-energy projects may be sidetracked" [Ross Dolan, "End of Big Stone II Could Be Trouble for South Dakota Wind," Mitchell Daily Republic via Rapid City Journal, 2009.11.18].

Now I know the governor has obligations to his lieutenant and the Dakota Dunes donor base. I know it's oh so satisfying for the conservative commentariat to say President Obama and climate change legislation and we liberal bloggers killed Big Stone II and wind power all in one shot. We have to keep reminding the other side of the aisle that BSII backers themselves were saying all along that climate change legislation was actually making the plant a better deal.

But my question this evening is why would the governor insist on shedding his usual boosterism and being such a wet blanket about wind power? He dispatches his spokesman to tell alternative energy investors, essentially, gee, it's going to be awfully hard to justify building wind farms here in South Dakota. Golly, you investors, I don't know why you'd even think of spending your money here after a big setback like this. Does that sound like a sales pitch to you?

Governor Rounds sounds a lot more like the crabbing conservative bloggers who are big on blame but short on innovative thinking and solutions. They keep forgetting that Otter Tail bailed out of Big Stone II even while adding 180 megawatts of wind power over the last three years. The Western Area Power Administration is working on another 200 megawatts of wind power.

Instead of moping and fueling bogus anti-Obama, anti-environmentalist rhetoric, maybe the state's cheerleader-in-chief could show some leadership and salesmanship. He could make it his mission to sell utilities on the business case for building transmission lines to cash in on the Saudi Arabia of wind.

Or he could one-up his Republican counterpart in California, Governor Schwarzenegger, and sign an executive order requiring South Dakota utilities to get 33% of their energy from renewable sources by 2020. Maybe the governor could exhort the Legislature to pass real renewable quotas, not the fluff-ball paperwork charade that Senator Russell Olson likes to tout as progress. Utilities like Pacific Gas and Electric have responded to that mandate with all sorts of great energy initiatives (including poo-power!).

Of course, this argument assumes Governor Rounds really wants wind energy to thrive. It assumes Governor Rounds really wants to see alternatives rise to compete with the fossil fuel industry. If that's what I were selling, that's what I'd be saying.

But Governor Rounds isn't saying that, is he? Hmmm... I'm feeling contrapositive....

Madison Swine Flu Clinic Gives 775 Shots

I went to the Lake County H1N1/sine flu free vaccine clinic yesterday—not to get a shot (I'm not in Tier 1), but to enter data. That meant I got to be one of the first people to see the shot totals for the day.

Our vaccine clinic gave out all 775 doses of H1N1 vaccine it had available. 23% of the shots went to kids 5 and under. 50% went to kids 6-18. 19% went to young people 19–24.

Everyone [edit!] under 10 years oldwho got a shot yesterday has to come back in a month to get a second shot to make the vaccine stick (careful, moms: now those little ones know what's coming!). And given that we used up our full supply yesterday, there's that much more chance that, as more vaccine comes available, we may get another such clinic later this season.

And for my Glenn Beck readers, there were no signs of microchips in the injections or the lollipops. There didn't appear to be any government mismanagement either. The whole show at the Playhouse ran quite smoothly, ably planned and managed by local emergency director Don Thomson*. That's government for you: just getting the job done.

Update 12:15 CST: The local press adds to the list of folks deserving credit for a smoothly run ship yesterday: "Cathy Hanson from the Madison Community Hospital,
CHN Jen Fouberg and Peggy Young (also from the public health nurse's office)" also coordinated the Lake County vaccine clinic.

Lake County Water Data Shows Need for Environmental Action

Dakota Water Watch has issued a report on this year's water monitoring projects around eastern South Dakota. For Lake County lakes, the news mixed:

1. Lakes Madison and Brant showed higher than average water clarity, as measured by Secchi disk readings. Lake Herman was a little murkier than the average for all bodies of water monitored. Round Lake was really murky in the summer, but cleared up fast come September and October.
2. Brant Lake had the lowest E. coli readings in the county. Lake Madison had higher but still not bad bacteria counts. Lake Herman's bacteria counts were higher yet, including one spike in June to 232 colony-forming units per 100 mL, the highest reading found during the entire 2009 monitoring project. 232 cfu/100mL is still below the EPA standard (and newly adopted South Dakota standard) of 235 cfu/mL as the maximum single sample level for immersion recreation waters... but it's awfully close.

One way to read this data: Folks on Lake Madison continue to owe Lake Herman a big thank-you for filtering out the crap and supporting their McMansion property values (top current asking price: $870K on Woodland Drive). Of course, I'd still rather live on the rich folks' settling pond than the rich folks' jet ski range.

The non-class-warfare way to read this data: we need to take action to improve water quality on Lake Herman. While my neighbor Larry Dirks continues to fantasize about building a giant central sewer system with someone else's tax dollars, I would suggest some practical action we can take locally, through combined action of the Lake Herman Sanitary District and Lake County:

1. Begin inspection of all on-site septic systems. There are some folks on Lake Herman and around the county who may have bought property and don't even know where their septic tanks and drainfields are, let alone whether they are in working order. Whether we require inspection and cleaning according to some timetable or pass a transfer inspection requirement like what Iowa just enacted this summer, we should inventory and monitor the onsite systems around the county.
2. Enforce zoning regulations. I've heard some folks grumble about houses being built on land around the Madison Country Club that doesn't have the right soil for an effective drainfield. The county and the state DENR have some pretty clear rules about soil quality and other requirements for installing onsite wastewater systems. If a lot doesn't meet those rules, the county needs to get serious about saying to developers they either can't build there or they need to make improvements.
3. Establish more buffer zones: the south side of Lake Herman has cattle pasture right at the water's edge. Many of our tributaries have cultivation very close to the watercourse. Lake County should seek funds to support its own CRP-style program to expand the riparian buffers in these areas to absorb more nutrients before they reach the lake.
   
4. Continue monitoring. We can't make good policy without good data. The East Dakota Water Development District and Interlakes Water Quality Committee have provided a valuable service by starting the water monitoring project that has gathered this data about our lakes for three years now. Lake County's soon-to-be-formed water quality committee should recommend continuing this project so we can base our local water policies on science, not wishes and guesses.

New Study: World Does Health Care Better Than U.S.

As the Senate gets ready to debate health insurance reform, lets take a look at some of the latest data on the status quo that the GOP (and the Blue Dogs) will try to defend. A new study just published this month in Health Affairs finds the following shortcomings in the American health care system compared to ten other countries: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom:

• Americans can't get non-emergency room care after hours: Only 29% of American primary care doctors and nurses report making after-hours arrangements to see patients without having to resort to the emergency room. Norway and Canada are also low on this count (38% and 43%, respectively); every other country in the survey scored 50% or better.
• Cost is a greater barrier to care in America than anywhere else: 58% of American doctors say out-of-pocket cost "often" makes it hard for their patients to get medicine or other treatment. Norway (37%) and Italy (33%) are next on the list. Everyone else is below 30%. In Norway, only 5% of doctors report cost creating a problem for patients.
• American insurance is a barrier to care: 48% of American doctors report "a major problem" with insurance coverage restrictions getting in the way of giving patients the medicine and treatment they need. The problem is next worst on this count in Italy (42%) and Germany (34%). Everyone else is below 20%.
• American health care lags in information technology innovation: Only Canada has been slower than the United States in adopting electronic medical records (EMR), which have been shown to save money and save lives, not to mention catch drug addicts faking illnesses. Various forms of government health insurance have not stopped the near-universal use of EMRs in places like Sweden (94% of primary care physicians report using EMR), the U.K. (96%), Norway (97%), and the Netherlands (97%).
• American health care lags in improving chronic care: American doctors are at or below average in using written guidelines for treatment, using care teams to increase contact times with patients, and giving patients written lists of their medications. We only slightly outperform the average in giving chronically ill patients written instructions on managing their care at home.
• American doctors get fewer performance incentives. For all our talk about how the free market rewards good work, more doctors in socialist dystopias like Canada and the U.K. report having the chance to receive incentives for providing better health care.

Americans pay more—way more—for health care than citizens of any other country, but we aren't getting better care. America's health care system—and the GOP's staunch defense of it—doesn't make sense.

Flush High Water Bills with Greywater!

Noting a recent surge in wastewater-related posts, an eager reader mentions greywater for conservation. He notes that long-time Madison resident and inventor Paul Redfield plumbed in a system that piped his laundry and shower water into his toilet tanks. I've heard others mention how silly it is that we Americans use gallons of drinkable water to flush away a cup of urine or a little bit of poo. My correspondent wonders how many millions of gallons of water we might save by repurposing our greywater.

Ah! A numbers question!

A little Googling takes me to this Miller-McClune article about California's relaxation of its greywater rules last summer. California officials estimate a family of four recycling just its laundry greywater can save 22,000 gallons of water per year.

Let's see... family of four... Madison has about 6500 people... carry the two... almost 36 million gallons of water per year, just from recycling laundry greywater. 36 million gallons: that's over a month's worth of the water the Lewis and Clark water pipeline is supposed to bring our fair city after 2019.

Or, for my dry little family of three, 22,000 gallons equals seven months of household water consumption. Yowza!

Now don't just go busting through your drywall and looping new pipes through your walls; greywater takes a little thought. And don't go running that shower drain straight out to your garden: the state has rules on that.

But if you plumbers out there are looking for a little recession business, greywater systems might be the ticket. Tell your customers you can save them money: Go green, go grey!

Madville Times Readers Want Primary Challenge to Herseth Sandlin

The most recent Madville Times asked you, dear readers, "Would you like to see a Democrat challenge Herseth in the primary?" 108 of you took time to tell us all what you think (thank you!). The results: we want a rumble!

Yes: Replace SHS with a real Dem!	42 (38%)
Yes: SHS will win, but she needs a challenge.	24 (22%)
Yes: Dem primary helps GOP!	9 (8%)
No: SHS is the best!	12 (11%)
No: SHS will win; why bother?	15 (13%)
No: Dem primary helps GOP!	6 (5%)

68% of you would like to see some brave Dem find his or her inner Wellstone (or Wasson?) and challenge the status quo. Only a handful of those respondents indicated they were Republicans chomping at the bit for a Dem bloodbath.

The number I'd worry about if I were sitting in 331 Cannon or the Sioux Falls office: only 11% of respondents on this Democrat-leaning blog rejected a primary on the basis of SHS being "the best."

Opportunity is knocking, young rising Dems! The incumbent is weak, voters want a discussion, and there's a new open primary offering the chance to draw Dems and Independents to your cause. Now's the perfect time to jump in and lead the conversation!

Repower SD in Madison Today: Put Your Energy Security Shout-Out on the Wall!

Repower America is coming to Madison today! Susan and Elana from the Repower South Dakota office in Sioux Falls will be at the Trojan Center on the Dakota State University campus from noon to 4 p.m., spreading the good word and giving students and other passersby a chance to add their support to the Repower Wall. (John Thune only wishes his website looked this good.)

The Repower Wall is filled with videos of regular folks (and a few famous ones) looking the webcam and the world in the eye and saying why they support legislation to promote clean energy, American economic independence, military security... oh yeah, and saving the planet.

As Badlands Blue ably reminds us, taking action to stop climate change is also about protecting wildlife habitat and hunting. Jordan LaRue from Helena, Montana, gets that message, too:


(My fellow DSU students: if you want to visit Susan and Elana at their table in the TC today, don't bring your hunting rifles!!!)

Wilmot farmer and veteran Orrie Swayze doesn't need to pack heat to make his point:



Marilyn Teske from Fort Pierre sees the benefits (remember, 5000 green jobs!) for small-town South Dakota:



State Senator Dan Ahlers (D-25/Dell Rapids) makes the argument for stewardship, efficiency, and just plain good business:



So does State Senator Pam Merchant (D-7/Brookings):



And there's fellow NFL alum Jennifer Chase, looking out for her own future:



Like jobs? Like staying out of global conflicts? Like the planet? Then get your voice up on the Repower Wall!

Farmers Union Holds Climate Change Forum in Brookings Wednesday

While the Farm Bureau gets a little free press for its pro-Big-Ag, anti-Michael-Pollan propaganda, the Farmers Union provides a forum Wednesday for all sides to discuss climate change legislation. Tomorrow night, Wednesday, November 18, 7 p.m., speakers and interested citizens will gather on the SDSU campus in Rotunda D to talk about what we need to do about clean energy and American energy security.

Among the speakers are two fellas known to be on opposite sides of the issue: Matt McGovern of Repower America and Rep. Todd Schlekeway (R-11/Sioux Falls). Rep. Schlekeway signed the misnamed "No Climate Tax Pledge" for the Americans for Prosperity last summer, but he did vote for limiting some local carbon emissions last winter; perhaps he and McGovern can find some common ground after all! Maybe they'll even promote conservation and carpool from Sioux Falls....

Also serving on Wednesday's forum panel:

• Jay Bender, President of Falcon Plastics, Inc., Former Chairman, SD Chamber of Commerce (let's see if he takes the Apple line on the Chamber's climate change denial)
  
• Doug Sombke, President of South Dakota Farmers Union (get ready for a check on the pro-corporate line)
  
• Steve Wegman, Executive Director of the SD Wind Energy Association
• Moderator: David J. Law, KXLG Radio News Director

Note to all forum participants: see the really cool map (maybe cool isn't the right word) Badlands Blue provides of NASA data on global temperatures. Pass the lemonade... or the supermodels.