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36–106 PDF 2007

SUBCOMMITTEE HEARING ON MEETING

THE WORKFORCE DEMANDS OF SMALL

BIO-ENERGY BUSINESSES

SUBCOMMITTEE ON CONTRACTING & 

TECHNOLOGY 

COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS 

UNITED STATES HOUSE OF 

REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS

FIRST SESSION

JUNE 20, 2007

Serial Number 110-31

Printed for the use of the Committee on Small Business

(

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/house 

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS 

NYDIA M. VELA ́ ZQUEZ, New York, Chairwoman 

WILLIAM JEFFERSON, Louisiana 

HEATH SHULER, North Carolina 

CHARLIE GONZA ́ LEZ, Texas 

RICK LARSEN, Washington 

RAUL GRIJALVA, Arizona 

MICHAEL MICHAUD, Maine 

MELISSA BEAN, Illinois 

HENRY CUELLAR, Texas 

DAN LIPINSKI, Illinois 

GWEN MOORE, Wisconsin 

JASON ALTMIRE, Pennsylvania 

BRUCE BRALEY, Iowa 

YVETTE CLARKE, New York 

BRAD ELLSWORTH, Indiana 

HANK JOHNSON, Georgia 

JOE SESTAK, Pennsylvania 

STEVE CHABOT, Ohio, Ranking Member 

ROSCOE BARTLETT, Maryland 

SAM GRAVES, Missouri 

TODD AKIN, Missouri 

BILL SHUSTER, Pennsylvania 

MARILYN MUSGRAVE, Colorado 

STEVE KING, Iowa 

JEFF FORTENBERRY, Nebraska 

LYNN WESTMORELAND, Georgia 

LOUIE GOHMERT, Texas 

DEAN HELLER, Nevada 

DAVID DAVIS, Tennessee 

MARY FALLIN, Oklahoma 

VERN BUCHANAN, Florida 

JIM JORDAN, Ohio

MICHAEL DAY, Majority Staff Director 

ADAM MINEHARDT, Deputy Staff Director 

TIM SLATTERY, Chief Counsel 

KEVIN FITZPATRICK, Minority Staff Director

SUBCOMMITTEE ON CONTRACTING & TECHNOLOGY

BRUCE BRALEY, IOWA, Chairman 

HENRY CUELLAR, Texas 

GWEN MOORE, Wisconsin 

YVETTE CLARKE, New York 

JOE SESTAK, Pennsylvania 

DAVID DAVIS, Tennessee, Ranking 

ROSCOE BARTLETT, Maryland 

SAM GRAVES, Missouri 

TODD AKIN, Missouri 

MARY FALLIN, Oklahoma

(II) 

C O N T E N T S 

OPENING STATEMENTS 

Page

Braley, Hon. Bruce .................................................................................................. 1

Davis, Hon. David .................................................................................................... 3

WITNESSES

PANEL I 

Harkin, Tom Hon., U.S. Senator ............................................................................ 4

PANEL II 

Caupert, John, National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center ................................ 8

Litterer, Ron, National Corn Growers Association ............................................... 9

Rastetter, Bruce, Hawkeye Renewables ................................................................ 11

Keir, Dr. Patricia, Eastern Iowa Community College District Office ................. 13

Tiller, Dr. Kelly J., Agricultural Policy Analysis Center, The University of 

Tennessee .............................................................................................................. 15

South, Dr. Colin R., Mascoma Corporation ........................................................... 17

APPENDIX 

Prepared Statements: 

Braley, Hon. Bruce .................................................................................................. 33

Davis, Hon. David .................................................................................................... 36

Caupert, John, National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center ................................ 38

Litterer, Ron, National Corn Growers Association ............................................... 52

Rastetter, Bruce, Hawkeye Renewables ................................................................ 56

Keir, Dr. Patricia (and Attachments), Eastern Iowa Community College District Office ............................................................................................................. 62

Tiller, Dr. Kelly J., Agricultural Policy Analysis Center, The University of 

Tennessee .............................................................................................................. 72

South, Dr. Colin R., Mascoma Corporation ........................................................... 77

(III) 

(1)

SUBCOMMITTEE HEARING ON MEETING THE 

WORKFORCE DEMANDS OF SMALL BIOENERGY 

BUSINESSES 

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20, 2007

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON CONTRACTING & TECHNOLOGY

COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS, 

Washington, DC. 

The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:00 a.m., in Room 

2360, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Bruce Braley [Chairman of the Subcommittee] presiding. 

Present: Representatives Braley, Clarke, Davis, and Chabot (ex 

officio). 

OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN BRALEY 

ChairmanBRALEY. Good morning. I call this Subcommittee hearing to order to examine the issues of the workforce demands in the 

renewable fuels industry. We have a distinguished panel of witnesses today, and I am very excited about the opportunity to discuss this very important topic. 

I would first like to take a moment to thank the great panel of 

witnesses we have today, and I would like to extend a special 

thank you to my Senator, Tom Harkin, for taking time out of his 

extremely busy schedule to attend. His role as chairman of the 

Senate Agriculture Committee makes Senator Harkin an ideal witness to come testify on this issue. Senator Harkin was chiefly responsible for including the energy title in the 2002 Farm Bill and 

has been at the forefront of the bio-energy boom throughout his 

long career in the United States Senate. 

Today, the Subcommittee will have the opportunity to explore 

the potential for sustaining the renewable fuel sector in rural 

America. Members will hear from expert witnesses on issues associated with industry growth and expansion as well as the need for 

future investment in human capital to address worker shortages. 

Growth in the renewable fuels industry has been a significant 

stimulus for the United States economy, particularly for small 

firms. More than 75 percent of all renewable fuels producers are 

small businesses. On average, these plants employ fewer than 50 

people. These small businesses have been revitalizing stagnant 

local economies in rural America. In Iowa, where I live, the exploding renewable energy sector is creating thousands of jobs. As of 

early 2005, it was projected that ethanol could create over 5,000 diVerDate 0ct 09 2002 09:13 Dec 20, 2007 Jkt 033615 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 G:\CLERK SB\HEARINGS\TRANSCRIPTS\36106.TXT LEANN
2

rect and indirect jobs in my State and pay $82.4 million in wages 

per year. 

To meet the future demand of this expanding industry, however, 

it will be necessary to train thousands of new workers in the next 

6 to 12 months. The increasing number of job opportunities has 

caused concerns about access to a trained workforce. As the demand for a highly skilled workforce to operate this industry 

emerges, plant managers are faced with the need for skilled workers to run the high-tech bio-energy facilities that are sprouting 

across this country. The human capital needs that these plants will 

face as more production facilities come on line present a serious 

challenge to the biofuels industry. 

The job skills needed to work in the bio-energy plants of today 

are much more sophisticated than the manual labor required at the 

grain elevators I worked at, in Iowa, growing up in the 1970s. Today’s workers need computer training and lab skills to handle the 

increasingly complex tasks of processing large quantities of feedstocks into energy that fuels our Nation. 

In the ethanol sector alone, extensive and costly on-the-job training is often required. Some States and local communities have 

begun to address this problem by creating training and mentoring 

programs at community colleges and at other institutions of learning. I believe that Congress must also take action to address this 

issue. We need to recognize this growing demand for skilled workers and technicians to meet the expected needs of the ag-based bioenergy sector, particularly for small businesses. 

That is why I have introduced legislation, H.R. 872, the National 

Endowment for Workforce Education and Renewables and Agriculture Act. The NEW ERA Act would enhance the training of instructors at educational facilities like community colleges in the 

areas of agricultural-based bio-energy research, technology, efficiency, and conservation. We need to act now to meet this growing 

demand to capitalize on the unique opportunity to transform our 

energy economy and to improve our international security by 

switching our energy focus from the Middle East to the Midwest. 

There is a promising future for the next generation of bio-energy, 

including potential growth in the evolving cellulosic industry. Exciting potential in the bio-energy industry exists in every congressional district in this country. We need to provide opportunities for 

the skilled workforce that will be needed to take us to the next 

level of energy freedom. 

Despite all of the successes in the bio-energy business, we still 

have a long way to go. Though renewable fuels have grown exponentially over the past decade, they still make up less than 1 percent of current U.S. production. At a time when this country is facing record energy prices, it is critical that we continue to develop 

our alternative energy supplies. Small businesses can help achieve 

this goal but only if they have the skilled employees necessary to 

make that happen. If we truly care about the security of our children and of our children’s children, we need to continue to push the 

envelope on the bio-energy economy. 

I am excited to hear from our distinguished panel of witnesses, 

and I look forward to today’s discussion. 

3

Now I yield to my colleague and friend from Tennessee, Ranking 

Member Davis, for his opening statement. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF MR. DAVIS 

Mr.DAVIS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Good morning. Thank you all for being here today with special 

recognition to our witnesses, many of whom have traveled great 

distances to be with us today. 

I would like to especially thank Dr. Kelly Tiller, journeying up 

all the way from east Tennessee. It is great to see you, and thank 

you for being with us today. 

I would also like to thank Chairman Braley for calling this timely hearing. 

Renewable energy provides a great opportunity for U.S. agriculture and for rural America to be leaders in the new era of energy production. Just like most emerging industries, it will be a 

small business that leads the way. All of us recognize the strategic 

imperative for reducing our dependence on imported oil. We import 

nearly two-thirds of the oil that we consume. With gas prices at or 

above the $3 per gallon range, it is very important to discuss ways 

to increase our energy output to keep up with the demand. 

We also recognize the immense potential for renewable energy in 

spreading growth, jobs and wealth creation in rural America. There 

can be little doubt that increased demand of renewable fuels has 

a great positive impact on our Nation’s economy, including small 

business. Diversifying and improving our Nation’s energy production and consumption increases competition, which we all know 

drives prices down, spurs innovation and creates opportunities for 

niche industries to crop up and to begin to thrive. 

We need to promote the expansion of new plants and aid research in improving this new industry’s technology. Our scientists, 

farmers and entrepreneurs will continue to lead the world in developing and in investing the cutting edge technology, infrastructure 

and farming methods. Advances in many fields will play an important role such as the continued improvement in crop yields, the optimization of crop material and fuel feedstock, the cost reduction 

and production of ethanol and of other alternative fuels. 

With any emerging industry, there will be a period of growing 

pains, including the topic of this hearing—the need for additional 

qualified and trained technicians to build, to operate and to maintain these new plants. This phenomenon is not new. When an industry grows as quickly as this one has, there are going to be problems finding qualified employees. In this instance, I am reminded 

of the famous quote from the movie Field of Dreams. ′′if you build 

it, they will come.′′ I believe that, as the bio-energy industry grows 

and becomes more prevalent, potential workers will recognize that 

there is an inherent value in learning a trade specific to bio-energy 

production. High-paying, secure jobs are their own best advertisement. Hardworking Americans will take the positive steps necessary to fill these jobs for the future. 

In helping this industry grow and prosper, we must ensure that 

Federal dollars are put to the best use. The artificial subsidizing 

of growth of this or of any specific workforce would cause potential 

problems in the future. With that said, I do believe that the FedVerDate 0ct 09 2002 09:13 Dec 20, 2007 Jkt 033615 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 G:\CLERK SB\HEARINGS\TRANSCRIPTS\36106.TXT LEANN
4

eral Government can and will have an important impact on helping 

these emerging bio-energy firms to grow. 

We have asked our expert panels of witnesses to identify some 

of the stumbling blocks to finding, hiring and training these new 

employees. Meetings like this today bring people together to discuss the challenges and the opportunities of renewable energy that 

will pave the way for producers and consumers in the future. I look 

forward to hearing their testimony and to working with each of you 

to find solutions that best fit the American bio-energy industry. 

Again, I thank Chairman Braley for calling this hearing, and I 

yield back the remainder of my time. 

ChairmanBRALEY. I thank the ranking member, and I am very, 

very proud to have the Field of Dreams in my district, and any 

time you would like to come visit, we would love to have you. 

Our first witness is no stranger to the bio-energy industry. The 

recent issue of the National Journal had an energy special on corn 

power, and included prominently in this issue was our first witness, Senator Harkin, who needs no introduction. He was first 

elected to the United States Senate in 1984. Iowans returned him 

in 2002 for his fourth term in the Senate. Previously, he served in 

the House of Representatives for a decade. He is currently chairman of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee 

and the Committee that is currently considering the Farm Bill. 

Senator Harkin has been a leader in the biofuels industry in 

Congress, and he has successfully worked to increase the country’s 

production of biofuels. 

Welcome to the hearing, Senator. 

STATEMENT OF THE HON. TOM HARKIN, A UNITED STATES 

SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF IOWA 

SenatorHARKIN. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. 

Congressman Davis, thanks for having me here. 

Above all, thank you for having this hearing, and thank you for 

being on the cutting edge of this legislation to try to get the workforce that we are going to need in the future. 

I have to apologize. I just got notice. I thought that our vote was 

going to start at 10:15. They moved it up. It actually is called at 

10:11. Now, that is a rarity in the Senate. Usually, our votes are 

pushed back. You may be witnessing a first here where a vote actually occurred before they scheduled it. 

Let me just say that as I was coming over here—let me just ask 

that my statement be made a part of the record. 

When I was coming over here, Congressman, through the Rotunda, I looked up. There is that scene that goes around that main 

Rotunda of the Capitol. You see the history of the United States 

depicted up there. The last panel is the flight of the Wright Brothers’ airplane. Right before that is the Industrial Revolution. I submit to you that we are on the cusp of a bio-energy revolution in 

this country, a bio-energy/biochemical revolution in this country, 

and it will change things as dramatically as the Industrial Revolution changed America at that time. 

Now, we have got to be ready for it, just as you said, Congressman. I think both of you alluded to the fact that a lot of this would 

be small businesses. We think of the Industrial Revolution a lot of 

5

times as the big factories and the big plants, but really it was in 

our small machine shops, in our small foundries that people experimented and devised the kinds of equipment and tools that we needed for our farms and for our mechanization in America. It was not 

the big plants. The big plants may have forged the steel and stuff, 

but it was the small plants and the small businesses that really enabled us to take advantage of the Industrial Revolution. 

I think the same thing is going to be happening with our bio-energy revolution. I mentioned that picture. I also have a picture in 

my office, one of my favorite pictures. It is of Henry Ford, the original Henry Ford. It was taken in 1939. It is of old Henry Ford. He 

was fairly old at that time. He passed away, I think, in 1946. He 

had a baseball bat, and he was striking the trunk of a 1939 Ford 

to demonstrate that the trunk, made from soybeans, would not 

dent and would not break. That was in 1939. I also have a picture 

of Henry Ford wearing a soybean suit. He predicted at that time 

that, of the cars of the future, much of the composites of the steering wheels, the dashboards and things like that would be made 

from bio-based products. But what happened to Henry Ford’s 

dream? 

Well, what happened was World War II. We had to have an immense, immediate demand for petrochemicals, for petroleum to conduct the war, and then we have been living on that ever since. We 

just sort of have been living off of the generation of that ever since. 

Well, we now know what is happening. We are depleting our oil 

supplies. Plus, the places where we get our oil from are very unstable. As you said, Mr. Chairman, this has a lot to do with national 

security and what we are going to do about our national security, 

and you are right. We have to act now. We cannot afford to just 

sort of let this dribble along. 

So, in order to move this—as you mentioned, we put in the last 

Farm Bill the first ever energy title—I have been in constant consultation with my counterpart on the House side, Chairman Peterson, and Mr. Goodlatte, Senator Chambliss on our side. We have 

been working on a bipartisan basis to kind of push the envelope 

even more on energy production from biomass. So cellulose is going 

to be a big part of the future. 

I saw a map, Congressman Davis, of the United States and the 

estimates. Actually, this was a study done by the University of 

Tennessee, and it showed the United States in terms of increases 

in net farm income in the next 25 years, I believe it was. I may 

be mistaken there. The places where net income is going to be the 

biggest are the States that had the best biomass production. Tennessee was one of them, by the way, of course with Iowa, where 

you will see big gains because of the demands that are going to be 

put on us. 

So, as we move ahead in all of these areas, we are going to need, 

Congressman Braley, what you have so appreciably, I think, 

thought about, and that is where is the workforce coming from. 

Who are all of these people going to be? 

Now, if you do not mind, I will brag a little bit about Iowa. We 

are now number one, as you know, in the production of ethanol. In 

fact, we have sort of reached a milestone of energy independence 

of our own in Iowa. If we did not export ethanol out of Iowa, we 

6

would have enough ethanol in Iowa to replace 100 percent of our 

gasoline in the State of Iowa right now. It is true. 

Now, we are also building wind generators. Now we are third in 

the Nation in the production of wind energy. California is first, 

Texas and then us, but in per capita, we are number one. I always 

like to point that out. We are number one in wind energy production on a per capita basis, and we are building even more. We will 

surpass Texas very soon and probably reach California in a short 

time. These require technicians. They require people who know 

how to repair them. These are huge windmills. These are not 1-1/

2 megawatts. These are 2-1/2-megawatt generators. We need the 

workforce, people trained not only in how to make them, to construct them, but in how to modify them, in how to maintain them, 

in how to work on them when they break down. So it is going to 

take a new kind of workforce there, then, in the biofuels with the 

ethanol and with cellulose coming on line. 

Now, we are going to move rapidly into cellulose. We cannot 

meet either what President Bush has wanted or what we have in 

our energy bill on the Senate side in terms of renewable fuel standards. We will not be able to meet that just by corn alone. We are 

going to have to have cellulose. So that is going to generate a whole 

new kind of basis of input. How do we grow the crops? How do we 

process them? What are the enzymes we are going to use? What 

are the pyrolytic processes that we might have to use in conjunction with that? More research money is going to—and we are going 

to do that in our Farm Bill. We are going to put more research 

money into the cellulose conversion, but now again, we are going 

to have to think about the new kind of plants that are going to 

have to be built and how they are going to be maintained. Where 

is that workforce going to come from? 

I can tell you, Congressman, like you, I visited a lot of our ethanol plants in Iowa, and you would be amazed at how many of 

those plants I have talked to the managers or to some of the people 

working there who graduated from Iowa State and who got good 

degrees in engineering, chemical engineering, maybe, mechanical 

engineering, whatever, who left the State because there were no 

jobs. They are now back in Iowa. They are now back because there 

are good-paying jobs there for them. 

So I can see this as sort of a win-win-win for everyone. It is better for the environment with all of the impact of global warming 

that we are seeing. It is good for our national security. The more 

fuels we can get from our fields and trees and whatever else it 

might be, then the less we have to get from unstable countries that 

are not necessarily acting in our best interests. 

Third, it is going to provide new jobs, a whole new culture of jobs 

and of job opportunities in our society, but we cannot just sit back 

and say, ′′Well, fine. When they build them, you know, they will 

come.′′ well, I appreciate the Field of Dreams analogy, but I do not 

just want to let these plants go ahead, because we have to do everything we can to push it as rapidly as possible. If you build the 

plants but they cannot get the workforce, that is going to slow everything down. 

So I am just here to say thank you for this legislation and to add 

whatever support I can to help move it along, Congressman Braley 

7

and Congressman Davis. I think you are on to something, and 

there is no better place to do this than at our community colleges. 

There is no better place. They are out there where the action is 

taking place. They have the expertise to do it. Oh, I am not saying 

that our universities and stuff cannot do that, too, but it just seems 

uniquely designed for our community college structure to be able 

to train, educate and to maybe even have retraining, skill upgrading as we go along because these plants are not going to be static. 

What we start with will not be what they are going to be 10 and 

20 years from now. They are going to change and modify and become more efficient. So it is going to require a constant adaptation 

by our workforce to maintain those. 

So I just wanted to be here to again thank you for this and to 

lend whatever support I can and to commend you for holding the 

hearing and introducing the legislation, and I hope we can get it 

through as rapidly as possible as a good adjunct to what we are 

going to be doing in the Farm Bill. 

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

ChairmanBRALEY. Thank you for taking time from your busy 

schedule. We appreciate it very much, and I hope you make your 

vote. 

SenatorHARKIN. Oh, we will make it. Thank you very much for 

your leadership. It is great legislation, and I hope we can get it 

done. 

Thank you very much, Congressman Davis. 

Mr.DAVIS. Thank you. 

SenatorHARKIN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

ChairmanBRALEY. Now we will set up for our second panel and 

begin as soon as we are ready. 

It looks like our panel is seated. Let me just go over some of the 

basic ground rules. 

Witnesses will be allowed 5 minutes to deliver their prepared 

statements. All of your written statements will be included as part 

of the official records of the hearing. The way that the lights work 

is, when you have 1 minute remaining, the yellow light will come 

on, and when your time is up, the red light will come on, and because we have such a distinguished and large panel this morning, 

we appreciate your cooperation in that regard. 

I will be introducing the first four witnesses right before they 

give their opening statements, and then Ranking Member Davis 

will be introducing the last two witnesses before they give their 

opening statements. 

So I would like to begin with John Caupert. John has been the 

Director of the National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center at 

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville since October 2006. Prior 

to joining NCERC, he was the Area Manager for the North American Business Unit of Romer Labs, Inc. NCERC facilitates the commercialization of new technologies for producing fuel ethanol more 

effectively. 

Welcome, Mr. Caupert. 

8

STATEMENT OF JOHN CAUPERT, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL CORNTO-ETHANOL RESEARCH CENTER 

Mr.CAUPERT. Thank you, Chairman Braley. 

Good morning, Chairman Braley, Ranking Member Davis and 

members of the Subcommittee. 

My name is John Caupert, and I am the Director of the National 

Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center located in University Park of 

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. I was just thinking what 

an honor to be following Senator Harkin, but at the same time it 

is a challenge to follow distinguished Senator Harkin. 

This hearing is crucial to assure that a qualified and trained 

workforce is ready and able to fill the thousands of jobs being created by the biofuels industry. In order to supply this workforce, a 

comprehensive education and workforce training program must be 

developed. With more than 110 ethanol plants in operation and another 80 plants under construction, the need for qualified applicants is urgent. The need for qualified employees is now. 

Our refineries are being built from the East Coast to the West 

Coast, from the Canadian border to the border with Mexico. With 

rapid industry growth, it is becoming increasingly difficult to locate 

employees with the proper training and educational background required to work in these technical fuel refineries. 

Chairman Braley said the majority of biofuel producers, greater 

than 75 percent, are individual plants with fewer than 50 employees. On average, these plants do not have the infrastructure which 

is necessary to support thorough in-house training programs. Designers of fuel ethanol plants offer condensed training programs for 

the staff of a newly constructed facility. 

Generally speaking, these programs do not extend beyond startup guarantees. A comprehensive workforce training program is 

necessary to increase efficiency and productivity, to develop a technical workforce, to improve workplace safety, to increase environmental awareness, to minimize natural resource usage, and to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. 

For the reasons stated above, the National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center developed a workforce education and development 

training program. The template of our program is a 5-day, 50-hour 

comprehensive overview of the ethanol production process. In addition, we offer a 1-year internship program with a second year option. These programs, titled Fundamentals of Applied Ethanol 

Process Operations, assist in filling a void that exists in today’s 

biofuels industry, the void of qualified applicants. Our programs 

ensure that the employees of the biofuels industry will not only be 

technology analysts, but more importantly, they will be analyzers 

of technology. These programs are unique in that the National 

Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center is the only facility in the world 

where a person will receive classroom instruction on biofuels, computer simulation of the biofuels production process and hands-on 

applied learning at a pilot-scaled dry-grind and wet-mill ethanol 

plant, all of which takes place under one roof. 

The National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center supports the 

NEW ERA as it recognizes the opportunity at hand, the opportunity being collaborative efforts between community colleges, 4-

year institutions and the National Corn-to-Ethanol Research CenVerDate 0ct 09 2002 09:13 Dec 20, 2007 Jkt 033615 PO 00000 Frm 00012 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 G:\CLERK SB\HEARINGS\TRANSCRIPTS\36106.TXT LEANN
9

ter. By working together, we will address the need for qualified applicants in the biofuels industry. Qualified employees of the 

biofuels industry will help to create energy independence for the 

United States of America. The National Corn-to-Ethanol Research 

Center looks forward to working with the 110th Congress and this 

Subcommittee. 

Thank you. 

[The statement of Mr. Caupert may be found in the Appendix on 

page 38.]

ChairmanBRALEY. Thank you. 

Our second witness is Ron Litterer. Ron is the first Vice President of the National Corn Growers Association, and he has held 

various leadership positions, including Chairman of the Disaster 

Task Force, Chairman of the NCGA Public Policy Action Team, and 

President of the Iowa Corn Growers Association. As a representative of NCGA, Mr. Litterer has advocated the development of biotechnology, emphasizing the importance of responsible, accountable 

management by biotechnology providers, producers, suppliers, and 

grain merchandisers. The NCGA is a producer-directed trade association, headquartered in St. Louis, that represents the interests of 

more than 30,000 farmers. 

Welcome. 

STATEMENT OF RON LITTERER, FIRST VICE PRESIDENT, 

NATIONAL CORN GROWERS ASSOCIATION 

Mr.LITTERER. Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member Davis, on behalf of the National Corn Growers Association, I appreciate the opportunity this morning to discuss the renewable fuels industry and 

the growing need for a trained workforce in the field of bio-energy. 

I am a corn farmer from Greene, Iowa. I am the first Vice President of the National Corn Growers, and we represent, as Congressman Braley said, over 32,000 members from 48 States. NCGA also 

represents more than 300,000 farmers who contribute to corn 

check-off programs and 27 affiliated State organizations across our 

country, working together to create new opportunities in markets 

for corn growers. 

The National Corn Growers Association applauds your efforts, 

Mr. Chairman, and this committee’s for recognizing and addressing 

the critical need for a strong, trained workforce for the bio-energy 

industry. Today, there are 121 ethanol plants on line with 75 

plants under construction with each plant creating around 40 new 

jobs in rural America. In my home State of Iowa, there are 28 ethanol plants with more than 1.7 billion gallons of annual capacity. 

These plants have created more than 27,000 jobs across Iowa, stimulating the local economies and invigorating rural development 

across the State. 

As you may know, the ethanol industry has been one of the most 

significant success stories in American manufacturing over the past 

quarter century. From a cottage industry that produced 175 million 

gallons of ethanol in 1980, the American ethanol industry has 

grown to include 121 manufacturing facilities with an annual capacity of nearly 6.2 billion gallons. 

10

Today, renewable fuels have become a critical part of the U.S. 

energy policy. As a consequence of continued high petroleum prices, 

regional instabilities and America’s commitment to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, ethanol and other renewable energies are 

now a critical component in our efforts to build a strong domestic 

energy supply. 

These developments in the biofuels industry have spurred new 

value-added agriculture businesses, employment opportunities and 

ethanol plant investments throughout our country. In the Midwest, 

corn ethanol has made a significant contribution to rural communities and has created thousands of jobs in much needed areas. As 

corn ethanol continues to grow and cellulosic ethanol begins to develop, we must have a dedicated and trained workforce to operate 

these facilities in all regions of the United States. 

According to a study by John Urbanchuk on the economic contributions of the ethanol industry, in 2006 alone the U.S. saw the 

creation of 163,000 jobs in all sectors of the economy due to the increase in gross outputs resulting from the ongoing production and 

construction of new ethanol capacity. These include more than 

20,000 jobs in America’s manufacturing sector, American jobs making ethanol from grain produced by American farmers. 

Again, a key component of the success of the U.S. ethanol industry over the next decade will be to ensure the industry has a ready 

and available workforce. Community colleges, land-grant universities and technology education centers are well positioned to train 

and to educate a robust and productive workforce. These institutions will play a unique role in serving both the educational needs 

as well as meeting the growing needs of the booming bio-energy 

sector by making available a dedicated grant program to these institutions. 

The critical hands-on training required to operate these facilities 

will be available to all persons interested in pursuing a career in 

bio-energy, and it will provide countless new opportunities for 

American workers. The collaborative efforts of the industry, of the 

educational institutions, along with government investment will 

grow the bio-energy field and create good jobs and clean energy. 

The National Corn Growers Association believes legislation like 

the National Endowment For Workforce Education and Renewables 

and Agriculture Act, the NEW ERA Act, will help to expand our 

Nation’s capacity to identify and to track new jobs and skills associated with a growing renewable energy sector as well as to develop 

and to support national and State skill training programs that will 

demonstrate best practices in addressing skill shortages that have 

already begun to affect the expansion of renewable energy. 

Already, the renewable and energy efficiency industries are feeling the pinch of labor shortages. A 2006 study from the National 

Renewable Energy Lab identified the shortage of skills and of 

training as a leading nontechnical barrier to renewable energy and 

to energy growth. 

The National Corn Growers believes strongly in the continued 

commitment to build a strong domestic renewable energy workforce. Ethanol and other bio-energy technologies will play a significant role in reducing our dependence on foreign oil, in building up 

11

hundreds of rural economies, and in creating thousands of new job 

opportunities across the country. 

The renewable fuels industry has proven to be one of the greatest 

success stories in rural America in this country, bringing with it 

opportunity and prosperity for the American farmer. 

Thank you. 

[The statement of Mr. Litterer may be found in the Appendix on 

page 52.]

ChairmanBRALEY. Thank you. 

Our third witness is Bruce Rastetter, who is the Chief Executive 

Officer of Hawkeye Renewables and who serves on the board of directors of the Renewable Fuels Association. Prior to joining Hawkeye Renewables, Mr. Rastetter was founder and CEO of Heartland 

Pork. Hawkeye Renewables operates two ethanol plants in Iowa, 

with a combined capacity for producing 215 million gallons of ethanol annually. On my last trip back to the district, I had the pleasure of getting a tour of one of the facilities in Hawkeye, Iowa from 

Mr. Rastetter. 

Welcome. 

STATEMENT OF BRUCE RASTETTER, CEO, HAWKEYE 

RENEWABLES 

Mr.RASTETTER. Well, good morning, Mr. Chairman and Congressman Davis. I really appreciate the opportunity to be here today. 

Certainly, in growing up on a small farm in rural Iowa and being 

encouraged to get a good education and being able then to come 

back to agriculture and to see a dynamic industry that continues 

to grow and that offers both great opportunity and hope for our 

country in terms of energy and increased food production and all 

of the benefits that are going to come with it, I certainly appreciate 

the opportunity to visit with you today about your initiative on 

education. 

As founder and CEO of Hawkeye, as you mentioned, today we 

currently have two plants, one in Iowa Falls and one in Fairbank. 

We are engaged in building two more 100 million-gallon plants in 

Iowa. Each of those plants employs about 45 people. As an operator, I can absolutely tell you that there is no lack of demand or 

interest in renewable energy in terms of jobs and people’s interest 

in this. 

As an example, when our Fairbank plant was set to open, we received over 800 applications for the 45 jobs. However, I can also 

tell you that it was easy to sift through those prospective hires 

based on the degree of education, training or experience that the 

applicants had. In fact, of the 45 people per plant, on an average, 

only seven to 10 had any degree of experience in biofuels. For the 

remaining employees, Hawkeye, like many other ethanol producers, 

has implemented wide-ranging, comprehensive training programs 

for each plant. At Hawkeye, we partnered with our technology provider to implement that training and education as part of bringing 

those employees on and teaching them some basic skills of biofuels. 

Moving forward, this is an exciting industry to be involved with, 

and frankly, in being located in America’s heartland, there is a 

great degree of hope and excitement about the quality of jobs being 

12

offered as well as the overall effect of contributing to our national 

economy and energy security. 

As with any growing industry, the biofuels industry faces a number of issues related to its continued and sustained growth. One of 

the most important challenges is the access to a quality workforce 

that is educated and trained to work in the biofuels space. 

That is why I am pleased to be with you today, Congressman 

Braley, to discuss your initiative on training and to help bolster the 

education process at community colleges in Iowa and across the 

country. 

Across the country, biofuel plants have sought to build collaborative relationships with educational institutions at all levels, be it 

in research and development with research universities or in training and education with community colleges like we are discussing 

today. The relationships between these that are active and operational in the industry with those in the educational community 

will provide long-lasting, positive effects on our communities. 

It is also noteworthy, I think, to remember that this industry is 

still relatively new and is undergoing massive growth. Because of 

that, there is an incredible amount of work to be done in research 

and development with biofuels, but also that research and development will no doubt lead to more and better jobs as well. This industry will continue to grow through the use and development of 

additional technologies, and that will require additional education 

and training to ensure there is a prepared workforce for these jobs 

that will come on line. 

A friend of mine reminded me of what happened in the oil industry years ago in Texas, in that part of our country. Because of the 

new discoveries, the new jobs and the new technologies that continued to develop, many educational institutions invested in training 

and education for jobs and research related to that industry. While 

the country has to continue to look for oil elsewhere today, people 

from around the world come to learn from the very best about the 

oil production and discovery space here in America. 

The center of intellect and potential for renewable and alternative energy should be in America, and I would further argue that 

it makes sense for that to be located in the Midwest, and with the 

encouraging pieces of legislation like this bill, we can continue to 

move toward real potential as a reality of part of this industry. 

Hawkeye has a great relationship with our local community college, Ellsworth Community College, in Iowa Falls. Today, with me 

is Mollie Teckenberg, the provost of Ellsworth. One of the initiatives community colleges are taking around this country is to look 

forward and to pass bond issues. Ellsworth did one last fall to fund 

a renewable center. Your bill is very timely in terms of additional 

funding towards training and education and outreach to high 

schools and to other parts of the community to bring those people 

to have interest in continuing to move forward with renewable energy and to matching programs the communities are investing in 

rural America today and going forward. 

Thank you for your time. 

[The statement of Mr. Rastetter may be found in the Appendix 

on page 56.]

13

ChairmanBRALEY. Thank you. 

Our fourth witness is Dr. Patricia Keir, who is the first Chancellor of the Eastern Iowa Community College District. Prior to her 

arrival in Iowa, Dr. Keir spent 5 years as President of San Diego 

Miramar College. She was also the Executive Vice President/Provost at Lansing Community College in Michigan. As Chancellor, 

Dr. Keir oversees the Eastern Iowa Business and Industry Center, 

which offers a number of services and programs to aid local business development. 

Welcome. 

STATEMENT OF DR. PATRICIA KEIR, CHANCELLOR, EASTERN 

IOWA COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT OFFICE 

Ms.KEIR. Thank you. Thank you very much, Chairman Braley 

and Ranking Member Davis. 

I am the Chancellor of Eastern Iowa Community College District, 

a district which includes Clinton, Muscatine and Scott Community 

Colleges and incorporates small urban, suburban and primarily 

rural communities. Since all three of our colleges sit on the Mississippi River, our district also participates in a number of bistate 

economic and workforce development initiatives with Illinois, particularly in the Quad City. 

I would like to address the role the Nation’s community colleges 

can play in preparing the workforce for this emerging and exciting 

biofuels and ag-based products small business sector and how our 

participation could best be led and structured. How are we going 

to efficiently and effectively prepare our workforce to meet the 

needs that everyone is talking about? 

I confidently recommend a leadership role for community colleges. There are more than 1,200 community colleges distributed 

across the United States. Community colleges are often the only 

educational institutions and, thus, the primary source of workforce 

training for many rural areas. No other segment of higher education is more responsive to its local community and workforce 

needs. Given the explosion of interest in bio-energy, particularly in 

the Midwest, we need to rapidly develop and deploy education and 

training programs to meet the emerging needs of the many related 

small businesses popping up everywhere. 

In general, the types of jobs key to supporting projected growth 

in ethanol could be divided into thirds: Individuals needing shortterm training; individuals needing associate degrees, technicians, 

and graduates with 4-year and advanced degrees. Community colleges are the starting point for all of these levels of training with 

their noncredit and short-term program options, their 2-year associate degree programs, and their mission to prepare students to 

transfer successfully into 4-year colleges and universities. 

Building awareness of the small business workforce opportunities 

in this new field is also essential. Clearly, the U.S. needs to gear 

up to create and prime the pipeline with up and coming agricultural-based technicians, scientists and engineers, but today’s young 

people and reentry adults are entering a buyer’s market. There is 

no shortage of industries and types of business vying for their attention and their career choice. We must make career awareness 

of the bio-energy field a priority in our Nation’s middle schools, 

14

particularly in rural areas, since middle school years are the best 

times to influence students and parents regarding career choice 

and how to prepare for that career. 

Again, because community colleges and particularly community 

colleges in rural areas are so tightly connected to their local K-12 

systems and have articulated a seamless transition for many students in high school into college level coursework, we are well positioned to fill the pipeline with short-term certificate training to upgrade the current workforce for these jobs. There is no doubt, certainly in Iowa, that individual community colleges have already eagerly stepped up to individually develop bio-energy programs to 

meet local needs. 

However, I would like to make the point that a more systematic, 

collaborative approach would streamline the process, reducing duplication or an excess of training programs, making sure everyone 

has access to the most up-to-date, thorough curriculum and acting 

in concert to be sure that we do not create an oversupply of technicians in some parts of Iowa and an insufficient number in others. 

There is a model for optimum preparation of coordination and responsiveness. Through its Advanced Technology Education program, the National Science Foundation has created a system 

through the Nation’s community colleges to educate technicians for 

all of the high technology fields critical to our Nation. The ATE 

program fosters partnerships between academic institutions and 

employers to promote improvement in the education of science and 

engineering technicians at the undergraduate and secondary school 

levels. 

At the Eastern Iowa Community College District, for example, 

we host the National Science Foundation Center of Excellence in 

the area of energy and the environment. Our ATE Center serves 

as a resource and clearinghouse for curricula and training material, the professional development of faculty and program improvement strategies, and then the results of our work are shared with 

other community colleges throughout the Nation and, through 

them, into their K-12 and business partners. Reinventing the wheel 

is minimized, and a community college seeking to meet local training needs can quickly turn to us as a resource to implement needed 

programs in their local areas. 

To me, America’s rural landscape is a very exciting place. Our 

farms are emerging as primary sources of materials to address our 

Nation’s energy and sustainability challenges. Research is showing 

us more and more interesting uses of biomass. Small businesses 

are popping up everywhere in response to this ongoing transformation. However, given the intellectual challenges of this new 

field and the, quote, ′′depopulation′′ of many of our rural areas, we 

must commit to choosing a systematic, efficient and forward-thinking system of bringing workers into the field and training them to 

meet its demands at every level. I believe that our agricultural sector, long known for feeding the Nation, will assume the role of fueling the Nation. Small business will play a key role in making this 

transformation a reality, located throughout the Nation, accessible 

to all, closely tied to K-12 and to our universities. Known to be responsive to local business and to move quickly, community colleges 

15

should be regarded as a leader in the meeting of workforce demands of small bio-energy businesses. 

Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to share my 

thinking with you and my enthusiasm for the Nation’s community 

college system. 

[The statement of Ms. Keir may be found in the Appendix on 

page 62.]

ChairmanBRALEY. Thank you. 

At this time, I would yield to Ranking Member Davis to introduce the remaining witnesses on the panel. 

Mr.DAVIS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Dr. Kelly Tiller is a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Tennessee Agricultural Policy Analysis Center. Dr. Tiller 

has extensively researched the potential of new agricultural products and the expanded uses in bio-energy to provide income opportunities for the traditional agriculture sector in rural communities. 

Dr. Tiller. 

STATEMENT OF DR. KELLY J. TILLER, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, 

AGRICULTURAL POLICY ANALYSIS CENTER, THE UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE 

Ms.TILLER. Chairman Braley and Ranking Member Davis and 

members of the Committee, thank you very much for the opportunity to be here today. 

The biotechnology, biofuels and bio-energy industries have experienced unprecedented growth over the last few years, but I think 

most industry watchers suggest that the growth we could see over 

the next few years could make the past growth look like the flat 

part of an exponential growth curve yet to come, and much of this 

biofuels growth over the mid to long term is expected to be through 

the commercial scale development of cellulosic biofuels industries 

where cellulosic biomass materials from a wide variety of locally 

appropriate sources contribute feedstock for a range of technically 

appropriate biorefinery processes. 

As Senator Harkin mentioned, a group of my colleagues at the 

University of Tennessee have recently conducted a study for the 

25x25 Work Group and have provided projections of economic and 

ag sector impacts associated with a scenario where U.S. farms, 

ranches and forests would provide 25 percent of total U.S. energy 

needs along with the continued production of safe, affordable and 

abundant food supplies. 

The study estimates that by 2025 we will be producing 86 billion 

gallons of ethanol and 1.2 billion gallons of biodiesel from America’s fields, farms and forests, including the net addition of over 

100 million acres of switchgrass. In total, the economic gains in the 

renewable energy in ag sectors plus interstate commerce top more 

than $700 billion by 2025 and support the creation of more than 

5 million new jobs. 

Achieving these levels of biofuels and particularly cellulosic 

biofuels would truly be transformational. Additional policies and 

goals supporting further expansion of this industry are also in 

place and under discussion right now. Taking some fairly conservative estimates of the growth in this sector, there could be required 

16

between 720 and 1,720 operational biofuels plants spread across 

the U.S. in less than 20 years. By any standard or goal, with the 

significant advances in cellulosic skill and commercial skill, cellulosic biofuels manufacturing is required with no time to spare. As 

we progress toward these manufacturing expansions in cellulosic 

biofuels, there are four considerations that I think we should bear 

in mind. 

First, it is important to recognize that regional approaches to cellulosic biofuels will need to be developed. We need careful assessments of regional feedstock opportunities and comparative advantages to tailor appropriate technologies and approaches for which 

a region has a comparative advantage. 

Second, we need to remember that the cellulosic biofuels manufacturing is an emerging industry with a very infant workforce 

available today. Some workers have skills in other fields that will 

transfer well to this industry, but we still have tremendous needs 

as have been discussed. 

Third, progressive research programs are imperative. As of 

today, we do not have a track record of commercially proven technology in a business model for cellulosic biofuels in the U.S. We 

certainly expect that to change very quickly, but it emphasizes the 

need for significant investments in research and in demonstration, 

and it is important also that these technologies and processes that 

are developed in the U.S. be retained through intellectual property 

that remains in the U.S. 

Fourth, local ownership provides additional developmental benefits. To the extent that farmers and other stakeholders in local 

communities can be actively invested and involved in the cellulosic 

biofuels industry development, they can retain those economic returns in local communities, promoting further investments and improvements in education health care, social services, as well as economic development. 

It is important, too, to remember, though, that farms are small 

businesses as well. Dedicated energy crops produced today are 

largely research and demonstration in nature. Achieving significant 

long-term growth in the bio-energy will require widespread development of entirely new crop systems and models and significant 

educational efforts to spread the knowledge and improve production processes. 

With regard to the ag sector, I think it is important to recognize 

that significant research efforts are required to develop these new 

crops and processes. We are essentially starting from scratch. Significant research is needed in the areas of crop breeding, crop genetics, agronomic practices, crop management systems, harvesting 

methods, production and harvesting equipment, preprocessing, 

transportation, storage, risk management, and contracting, to 

name a few. 

Second, it is important to note that sustainable systems are imperative. 

Third, the energy crop solutions as well are very region-specific 

and must be adapted to local conditions and to local communities 

and resources and infrastructure. 

How do we support the development of this cellulosic biofuels industry? I believe land-grant colleges and universities have a very 

17

important role to play in the development. The three primary functions on which they are built—research, education and extension—

are all critical to successfully achieving the bioeconomy vision, and 

integrating these functions is necessary for developing a viable and 

a sustainable bioeconomy. The ag extension service certainly has a 

long and successful track record and can contribute significantly. 

Investments in research to support this emerging industry are also 

critical to its success. Training the next generation of biofuels researchers and workers requires tailored graduate and undergraduate curricula that largely still need to be developed and implemented. 

Thank you again for the opportunity to appear before you today. 

Certainly, bioeconomy growth is on a fast track, but it will not happen overnight. We have the opportunity now to make investments 

in developing and in growing a skilled and sufficient workforce and 

ag sector for the bioeconomy in a manner that is sustainable and 

that maximizes benefits especially for our rural communities. 

Thank you. 

[The statement of Ms. Tiller may be found in the Appendix on 

page 72.]

Mr.DAVIS. Thank you for your testimony. 

I would like now to recognize Dr. Colin South. He is President 

of Mascoma Corporation, which focuses on the development of technologies for the production of ethanol from cellulosic biomass. Dr. 

South has over 10 years of bioprocess design, construction and 

operational experience in the biotech industry, acquired while he 

was with BioMetics Consulting. He was the former CEO of 

ViaLactia Biosciences, a gene discovery and commercialization company, and was Fonterra Cooperative Group’s General Manager of 

Health and Nutrition in Auckland, New Zealand. 

Dr. South. 

STATEMENT OF DR. COLIN R. SOUTH, PRESIDENT, MASCOMA 

CORPORATION 

Mr.SOUTH. Thank you. 

Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member Davis, I am pleased to be 

here today to testify on behalf of Mascoma Corporation on this important issue, meeting the workforce needs of small bio-energy 

businesses. The Mascoma Corporation is a cellulosic biomass-to-energy company with offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts and research and development offices in Lebanon, New Hampshire. 

Mascoma is focused on commercializing cellulosic ethanol technologies that will work in every region of the country. Fueling locally rather than trucking fuel across the country or the globe is 

an important component of what we see as our Nation’s energy future strategy. Mascoma is developing advanced cellulosic ethanol 

technologies in its labs, partnering with many academic institutions to further research in the conversion of biomass, and is also 

developing demonstration- and commercialization-scale production 

facilities in several locations, including facilities in New York and 

in Tennessee. 

As Mascoma looks to site cellulosic ethanol facilities, strong partnerships with local academic institutions play a critical role. This, 

18

in part, comes from our beginnings at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, but it is also born out of necessity. Unlike 

other bio-energy businesses such as corn ethanol, the academic 

needs for cellulosic ethanol go beyond training workers to work at 

an ethanol biorefinery. We need individuals who can help us solve 

the remaining hurdles to decreasing the cost of the production of 

cellulosic ethanol, and our academic institutions are poised to help 

us do so. 

Specifically, cellulosic ethanol facilities have several additional 

needs that require the focus of our postsecondary educational system. These include expertise in feedstock cultivation and regional 

agronomics with an energy crop focus, feedstock aggregation and 

handling, and unique processing operations of cellulosic ethanol facilities. This last part is especially important because of the variety 

of feedstocks that cellulosic ethanol needs to accommodate. Even 

within a single plant, this will require a much more sophisticated 

workforce. 

Mascoma continues to find talent from Dartmouth and from others for our own labs in Lebanon, New Hampshire. There we are focused on the development of commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol 

production, including consolidated bioprocessing, fermentation development and process support. Also, in Tennessee, Mascoma is 

working closely with the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge 

National Laboratory on the development of a cellulosic biomass-toethanol production facility in eastern Tennessee. Initial research 

conducted by the University of Tennessee’s Institute of Agriculture 

indicates that Tennessee alone is capable of generating over 1 billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol annually from switchgrass alone. 

The University of Tennessee is committing research funding and 

lending valuable expertise to this project, and among other benefits, this project will further the economic development of the State 

of Tennessee, create investment opportunities for rural farmers and 

attract future research dollars to the State. 

In New York, Mascoma is working with the State of New York 

to design and build a demonstration-scale cellulosic ethanol plant, 

capable of piloting new technologies and processes across multiple 

feedstocks. In addition to the State government, we are partnering 

with Cornell University to focus on the development of feedstock 

supply options and aligning efforts of academic institutions with regional development initiatives. 

Policymakers have set very aggressive, yet achievable, goals for 

the growth of the cellulosic ethanol industry. This ambitious rampup in cellulosic ethanol production will require an equally rapid 

buildup in funding for our Nation’s schools. This country’s schools 

of higher education need an infusion of funding to continue the important research and development of cellulosic technologies. 

For example, in 2003, Congress enacted and the President signed 

into law the Sun Grant Research Initiative, designed to enhance 

the efficiency of bio-energy and biomass research and development 

programs through improved coordination and collaboration with 

the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Energy and the 

land-grant colleges and universities. The University of Tennessee 

was named as one of the five regional centers to foster that critical 

19

research. Congress should do more for this initiative and for research funding in general as it debates the Farm Bill this year. 

Beyond providing valuable research, our Nation’s academic institutions will also be asked to train the next generation of bio-energy 

workers. At least initially, cellulosic ethanol is intrinsically more 

labor-intensive than corn-based ethanol and will likely require 

twice as many full-time workers than corn-based facilities. Schools 

across the country will be asked to train these workers. To this 

end, the Federal Government should also focus additional resources 

on helping schools build programs and curriculum to do so. 

Mr. Chairman, we applaud your interest in this area and appreciate the focus that you have brought to this issue with your legislation authorizing the Secretary of Agriculture to make competitive 

grants to community colleges to support the education and training 

of technicians in the fields of bio-energy. We think the Federal Government must do more, and I hope that this type of program can 

be included in the Farm Bill on a national basis. 

In conclusion, we at Mascoma are excited about the future of the 

cellulosic ethanol industry, and we appreciate this subcommittee’s 

efforts to help us solve our Nation’s energy security needs while 

creating new opportunities in rural America. 

Thank you. 

[The statement of Mr. South may be found in the Appendix on 

page 77.]

ChairmanBRALEY. Thank you for that opening statement. 

Members will have 5 minutes each for the questioning of witnesses. We may do more than one round of questions, depending 

upon what else is happening on the floor today. 

Let me begin by asking Mr. Rastetter, who operates a renewable 

fuels facility in my district, if you can help us understand a little 

bit more about some of the basic demands of the workforce in operating a plant that is engaged in producing renewable fuels. One of 

the things that struck me when I visited your facility in Fairbank 

was that it was being run in a control room which had a virtual 

production facility that was visible on computer screens in the control room, and I think, as we start talking about the employment 

demands of this exciting new industry, it would be helpful if you 

could tell us a little bit about some of the basic components of your 

workforce and what you see as some of the employment needs as 

we move forward from here. 

Mr.RASTETTER. I appreciate that, Congressman Braley. 

As you walk through the plants, the first impression is that the 

technology advancements have been so significant that they essentially run on their own when you look at the screen, which has 

really led to part of the whole energy positiveness of the industry 

and the fast-forwarding of that, but as you dive into the quality of 

the workforce needed to both run those facilities, the computers, to 

interpret what they are telling them, you need to be able to graph 

and maximize whether it be in fermentation or in quality control 

in taking the water off so that there are not issues when it gets 

to the supplier, in the lab in testing the distiller’s grain so that we 

are sending high-quality distiller’s grain back to livestock feed, and 

understanding the protein and the nutritional value of that. 

20

Beyond that, clearly, with all of the technology, there continues 

to be more of an art than a science in terms of employees’ knowledge base of the basic biosciences of the quality control of the incoming corn, of the product that is presently being put out and 

then, beyond that, what new technology is on the forefront. 

We may just employ 45 people at that plant, but clearly it is all 

of the auxiliary services and enzyme companies and technology providers that come and offer new technologies that we have to then 

either have engineers who do not have the background to always 

interpret or they need to go to the industry and develop. 

Beyond that, one of the things I had mentioned is, with these 

complexes that you saw in Iowa, ultimately they will become 

biotech complexes. Today, we produce two products—ethanol and 

distiller’s grain. We will use fractionalization on corn. We will be 

using biomass. We will be having cellulosic ethanol. We will be 

spinning the oil off. So all of those new technologies are going to 

require a workforce to deal with and to focus on that. 

ChairmanBRALEY. Thank you. 

Mr. Litterer, my question for you is you have a lot of members 

of your association who have a very thorough understanding of one 

of the principal food stocks that is being used to manufacture ethanol in this country, corn, but when I went back to my 30-year 

class reunion last year, I pulled out my high school yearbook and 

looked at the photograph of the FFA members with whom I went 

to high school, and when I went to my class reunion I asked that 

group of individuals how many of them were actively engaged in 

farming. Can you guess how many of them out of the 10 from my 

class were? 

Mr.LITTERER. One? 

ChairmanBRALEY. One. What that tells me is that there are a lot 

of people who I grew up with who have moved on to other components of the agribusiness segment of our economy because of their 

love for the land but who are not able to earn a living from farming 

for a lot of different reasons. 

As you look forward to this new bio-energy explosion and think 

about the members and the children of the members of your association, what are you seeing in terms of the types of workforce 

choices that some of the people are making who grew up as children of members of your association? 

Mr.LITTERER. Well, as you alluded to, it is quite obvious that the 

opportunities in agriculture are changing. Technology allows farmers to farm a lot more acres than they have in the past, and that 

probably is going to continue to happen, so we have to have other 

opportunities for our children and offspring if they want to stay in 

the State of Iowa and in the rural areas and stay in the rural communities. We think the bio-energy field is going to help us achieve 

that. So it is a good thing for our families and for our rural communities. 

Beyond that, I think the thing that we see as a vision of the National Corn Growers is that starch-based ethanol probably will 

produce about 15 billion gallons of ethanol by the year 2015, and 

a lot of that expansion is front-loaded, and the uncertainty is probably on the cellulosic portion and how fast that can be economically 

21

viable, and the cellulosic portion has a lot more job opportunities 

in addition to what is coming from starch-based corn. 

So, to sum up, I would say that the opportunities in rural America are really enhanced by what is going on with the bio-energy expansion, and it is good for rural communities, and it is good for our 

rural workforce. 

ChairmanBRALEY. Thank you. 

Dr. Keir, one of the things that we know is that community colleges across the country are playing an increasing role in preparing 

students for a whole host of different occupations. 

What is it about this bio-energy segment of the economy that is 

attractive to community colleges as we move forward in pursuing 

a new energy policy? 

Ms.KEIR. That is a very good point because I think sometimes, 

when we are looking at workforce preparation in Iowa and then 

across the country, we have a very siloesque approach to it, so we 

have a lot of advance manufacturing in Iowa, and so we are trying 

to prepare workers for them. We are trying to prepare workers for 

all of the various industries, all competing for diminishing high 

school classes. This particular field, though, I think will be extremely appealing to young people, and we have seen in community 

colleges how hesitant a lot of students are to really plunge into 

science and math and engineering and the tougher subjects, but 

this, at the end, has that motivational aspect of something new and 

exciting, and it is good for America, and so I think our biggest challenge here with such low unemployment, at least in Iowa, is to 

really clarify what is involved in this industry and why it is exciting and get down into the middle schools and start filling the pipeline. 

When I heard someone say that we needed to fill the workforce 

in 6 months, that is kind of frightening because even community 

colleges, which can turn on a dime, cannot go from nothing to a 

fully trained technician in 6 months. There is a curriculum development and things that have to be done with the business, but I 

think this is going to attract a lot of students if we promote it correctly, and I think we can more than meet the need. 

ChairmanBRALEY. Thank you. 

Mr. Caupert, one of the comments you made that really struck 

me was when you were talking about the role of your program you 

were talking about the void of qualified applicants; and as I was 

listening to Mr. Rastetter’s opening statement it sounds to me like 

the key emphasis of that phrase was ′′qualified.′′ because it appears 

that there is no lack of applicants in rural America for the job opportunities that are being created by the biofuels industry, but the 

real critical component of that is creating opportunities for qualified and skilled workers to fill the need. 

Your program has been on the cutting edge of identifying a need, 

trying to provide training and educational opportunities. Can you 

talk a little bit about how this idea formed and how you went 

through the difficult process of identifying what type of skills and 

programs would be necessary to provide skilled workers in this sector of the economy? 

Mr.CAUPERT. Absolutely. Great question, Mr. Chairman. 

22

Our phone rings off the hook every day from folks just like Mr. 

Rastetter saying, do you know somebody out there that is qualified? We have a phrase at the National Corn-to-Ethanol Research 

Center that this biofuels industry— ′′There is a need from GEDs 

to Ph.D.s.′′ The need is out there. What is lacking is the qualified 

person. 

We can bring somebody to the National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center, and within 48 hours we can make that person an 

analytical technologist. We can put them in our pilot plant, and 

they can start pulling samples of ethanol off of a distillation column and inject it on HPLC, and they can get a number, they can 

record a number. That is an analytical technologist. 

The need is for those folks who can actually analyze the analytical technology, and that is what our program is doing. 

In addition to recording a number, they are analyzing that data. 

What does 14 percent alcohol versus 18 percent alcohol, what does 

that mean? To Mr. Rastetter’s ethanol plant, that means 4 percent 

more ethanol yield per year, which is millions of dollars in production. That is the difference. 

How did we start this collaboration? Simple. We worked with a 

number of community colleges and 4-year institutions to apply for 

an NSF grant. We didn’t get it, but we weren’t disappointed. Because what grew out of it was a collaborative effort in which young 

folks are coming out of community colleges, 4-year schools, trade 

schools, vocational tech programs, coming to our facility and going 

through these intense programs. We can’t keep people in-house 

long enough before enzyme manufactures, yeast companies, and 

ethanol producers hire these folks away. 

ChairmanBRALEY. I have some very important questions for our 

other two panelists, but I would like to give Ranking Member 

Davis the first opportunity in asking you questions. I yield the time 

at this time. 

Mr.DAVIS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Dr. Tiller, you mentioned the need to develop region-specific energy crop solutions. What types of crops do you foresee could be 

used across the country? 

Ms.TILLER. I think it varies tremendously by region, and that is 

one of the reasons that the Sun Grant Initiative which Dr. South 

alluded to earlier was developed as a regional research approach to 

harnessing the land-grant system and identifying what these specific advantages are, region by region. 

So, for example, in the Southeast, if you look—and Senator Harkin mentioned, too, the maps he has seen for projections for switch 

grass and other dedicated energy crops. Because of the climate, the 

growing conditions, the infrastructure we have in place, I think in 

the Southeast we have tremendous comparative advantages in 

some dedicated energy crops like switch grass and perhaps some 

others that are being examined as well but similar in nature, the 

short rotation woody crops, hybrid poplars, other things like that. 

Forest biomass resources is certainly very important in the Southeast. 

As you move across the Nation, the particular advantages change 

a little bit. So do the infrastructure requirements, the training and 

know-how to improve those entire systems of production. But I 

23

think that, throughout the country, dedicated energy crops and forest crops specific to that region are going to be important. And as 

far as whether it is, you know, camelina, lesporilla, metham—who 

knows what these oilseed or other crops are going to be in the future—I think that we have a lot of research still to go to determine 

exactly specifically which crops are best suited to each region. 

Mr.DAVIS. As we move forward as a Congress and try to come 

up with a national solution, do you feel like we need to limit it to 

one region and one product? Or do you think we need to be looking 

at all regions and different products as we look to educate our 

workforce for the future? 

Ms.TILLER. I think it is very important that we look to all regions and try to identify specifically what those needs and advantages—comparative advantages are in those regions. I think that 

we need a fairly careful and thorough assessment to help guide 

those regional approaches, but I do think that we would do ourselves a disservice if we focussed specifically on one region, because 

the needs and the resources available are so diverse. 

Mr.DAVIS. This appears to me to be a very science-intensive undertaking that we are talking about. Are we doing a good enough 

job in K-12 preparing our workforce for the future, in your estimation? And leading from the K-12, do you feel like we ought to 

limit our help to just community colleges? Do you think we ought 

to be looking at land-grant institutions? Universities? 

Ms.TILLER. Well, I think that one of our successes historically 

has been this very integrated, broad approach that we have to our 

educational system. I think it starts early, and it continues on, and 

I think that all of the different approaches are a good fit for particular needs. 

I do think in the case especially of the future as we look toward 

cellulosic biofuels, I think that the role that the land grant universities and the postsecondary schools can play is tremendous. I 

think that the integrated research, education, and extension—so 

not only doing the research in these research institutions but also 

bringing students into the labs to work with the researchers, to integrate that information into the courses that are being taught at 

the graduate level in particular, and the opportunity then to work 

through extension and take that information out to the public 

being—I think that is a tremendous advantage and going to be a 

very important approach, although part of an integrated approach 

that starts K through 12 in moving this forward. 

Mr.DAVIS. Looking back at K-12 just a little bit, I know there are 

programs in vocational education, Future Farmers of America, 

FFA. Do you know if they are starting to integrate this into their 

training? 

Ms.TILLER. I am only aware of some local programs that we have 

in east Tennessee. We have a Young Biodiesel Leaders Program 

that our clean cities group, East Tennessee Clean Fields Coalition, 

has started where they go into high schools starting as young as 

sixth grade and work with the students to educate them about alternative fuels, how they can use them locally. They then go and 

educate their bus drivers about potentially using biodiesel in their 

fleets and others in their community. 

24

So there are programs. I am not aware of others except some 

that are very local in nature. 

Mr.DAVIS. Moving a little bit from education over to industry, do 

you know if any of the major agriculture firms like John Deere are 

helping assist with financial benefits of moving in this direction in 

agriculture? 

Ms.TILLER. Certainly agribusinesses look down the road and see 

this as their future as well. So, yes, I think that they are recognizing the opportunities that they have today to invest in this area 

and are looking for opportunities to do so. 

Mr.DAVIS. Dr. South, I know that you are based in the Northeast, and I am certainly glad that you are working with the University of Tennessee and Tennessee in particular, but it sounds like 

other States as well. Why did you choose Tennessee, why did you 

choose New York, and why are you looking across the country? 

Mr.SOUTH. The commonality between New York and Tennessee 

that was seen as some great leadership at the Governor level, the 

State level—we have certainly seen a commonality between those 

two States with leadership at the State government level for promotion of the programs. They both see themselves as States that 

have an opportunity with regional biomass availability and also the 

opportunity to lead in the field of Tennessee in particular. The Governor’s budget from Governor Bredesen has a significant commitment in both the establishment of the biofuels industry at the 

grassroots level through initiatives with farmers, through initiatives with the University of Tennessee to develop the actual dedicated energy feedstock and a commitment to manufacturing. 

So I think the overall vision of needing to address the issues in 

cellulosic ethanol across the value chain rather than just at specifically targeted initiatives is a wonderful space to be. When we look 

at that biomass map the places that can grow it reside Northeast, 

Southeast, through those biomass growing areas. And the vision of 

Tennessee particularly against that is a wonderful thing, and it has 

led to our great deal of interest. 

Mr.DAVIS. If you were a K-12 student looking to move forward 

in this industry, where would you be looking? Would you be looking 

with just a high school diploma? A community college? Would you 

be looking to university, on-the-job training? Where do you think 

the jobs in the future are going to be? 

Mr.SOUTH. I believe when we look at the jobs in the plant, those 

screens that you look at when you run a process plant, be it an ethanol plant, a cellulosic ethanol plant, a chemical plant, the challenge is not to look at the data and control the plant, because the 

plant is designed to control itself. It is to look at where the plant 

is going. It is not what is now. It is the interpretation of what will 

happen in the future. 

And those skills as we have alluded to before really come from 

that in-depth understanding of processes. It is not a K-12 level. It 

will happen at the community colleges, and certainly the leadership 

and the development of those cellulosic programs to take the next 

step between two substrates and new processes will definitely be 

developed out at a university level. 

Mr.DAVIS. Thank you. 

ChairmanBRALEY. Thank you. 

25

Member Davis mentioned something that is very important to 

my district, a company called John Deere. One of the things that 

you can find if you go to the Smithsonian Institute is the Waterloo 

Boy tractor, which was originally started by the Froelich Tractor 

Company, the first gasoline-powered tractor in the company in 

Froelich, Iowa, which is also in my district. Thank you very much 

for giving me that opening. 

There are four John Deere production facilities in my hometown 

of Waterloo, Iowa. They have a big industrial equipment manufacturing facility in Dubuque, Iowa, also in my district; and the world 

headquarters is in Moline right across from my district in Davenport, Iowa. 

Dr. Tiller, one of the things that you mentioned was the need for 

progressive research models to deal with the feedstock diversity 

that we see across the country; and what I would like you to do, 

if you wouldn’t mind, is elaborate a little bit on what you meant 

by that. 

I think one of the things we are looking for is education and 

training programs that are uniform in some applications but also 

are flexible enough to deal with the diversity of feedstock we are 

going to be seeing, especially in the emerging cellulosic industry 

and other bio-energy production facilities. 

Ms.TILLER. Sure. I think that we are going to see tremendous 

change over the next few years and what we envision today is not 

going to be anywhere close to what things will look like in 10 

years. I think they are continually evolving, and it is important 

that we recognize that. They are also very specific to those local resources. 

But one example that I think points out some of the challenges 

is the experience we have had over the last few years with some 

pilot production trials for switch grass as a dedicated energy crop. 

To begin with, the farmers who are planting it called their extension agents a few days after planting to ask exactly what they were 

looking for; and the response was, well, look for something in a 

row. 

The point is, we really know so little about a lot of these feedstocks right now. So we are starting from the ground level. We 

need—I think we start from the place where we are, which is using 

the existing equipment and infrastructure and knowledge base we 

have. But we have a long ways to go to optimize that and to refine 

those processes and the management and the harvesting, the 

transportation, storage, logistics, all the various aspects that go 

into turning something from a crop into a feedstock. We have a 

long ways to go to wind up with a very efficient system. 

And it is important, too, I think to note that, right now, the 

model for the cellulosic ethanol biorefineries, about half of their 

costs are tied up in getting the feedstock to the plant and ready 

to use. 

ChairmanBRALEY. Dr. South, one of the things I am very proud 

of is that I graduated from Iowa State University, the birthplace 

of the digital computer and also home as a graduate student to 

George Washington Carver. One of the things that George Washington Carver taught us was that there are endless opportunities 

to derive benefits from plants. And having grown up in a State 

26

where my parents both grew up on farms in Iowa during the Depression, my family has been farming and teaching in Iowa for over 

a hundred years, one of the things that is always a huge part of 

the agricultural experience was a very strong sense of stewardship. 

When I look at some of the research that is taking place around 

the country, including at Iowa State, and looking at a diverse variety of feedstocks even outside this country that could be used to try 

to reduce not just America’s dependence on petroleum-based fuels 

but the world’s dependence on petroleum based fuels, one of the 

things I am interested in is how do we take some of the education 

and experience in this bio-energy industry and transfer it across 

the world to developing countries who are under the oppressive 

hold of petroleum-based energy producers and are being kept back 

in their own economic development? I am interested if you have 

any thoughts on how we can move to that level as well. 

Mr.SOUTH. I think the key to moving to that level is the establishment of the industry. There is just so much latent demand. We 

have interest all over the world talking to us about how do we develop this industry in our country. And the challenges even in a developed country like the U.S., where there is a lot of incentive, a 

lot of market pull for this material, we need to put in place those 

things that will bootstrap the cellulosic ethanol industry and meet 

some of our own goals. Because the proof of concept of this industry 

will be when we have multiple biorefineries running 24/7 and producing cost-effective ethanol. 

When that happens, not understating the ease in which it can be 

done, but the pull that is coming from those countries that are 

talking is already there. The researchers, the investment, it is already waiting to happen. The biomass growth areas of the world 

through the equatorial regions are the areas that are ideally suited 

for biomass ethanol, and they are ideally suited to be cost-effective 

in doing so, and they have a real need. 

The issue is going to be again around the types of thing that 

Kelly was talking about. There is from one end to the other of this 

value chain a need to move it up a step, to take it to a commercial 

application; and it needs to be fostered in a way that we get 

through the transition period into that commercial application. 

ChairmanBRALEY. Thank you. 

Mr. Rastetter, one of the things that all of us in the Small Business Committee are very interested in is the impact on Main Street 

of the decisions that we make here in Congress. What I would like 

you to do, if you would be willing to, is share some of your observations about how ethanol producers in Iowa and around the country 

have had an impact on Main Street merchants, stores and the communities that you serve. 

Mr.RASTETTER. One of the interesting aspects of it is just all the 

facets that it impacts. 

To Congressman Davis’ earlier question about people teaming 

with FFA, the Renewable Fuels Association has started funding 

significant curriculum development with the FFA group to hit all 

the facets that you think about. If you think about the impact of 

biofuels, it impacts agronomy and stewardship of the soil and research having to do with the amount of stover that you can take 

off of eventually. So that we are prepared for cellulosic ethanol to 

27

biotech genetics on corn, to precision farming on GPS from John 

Deere, to local dealers from a transportation standpoint instead of 

a market where we ship corn overseas and a unit train creates a 

couple of jobs. We have hundreds of new jobs created in logistics 

and management of that, whether it be from actual truck driver to 

the education aspect. To communities like Fairbank, Iowa, where we spend $110 million in a community of 400 people, that on a per capita basis would 

be unheard of. That for the next generations to come that plant 

will be producing some form of energy. And it may not be exactly 

what we have today, but it will transverse and continue to develop, 

to education, to people having interest. 

The comments that—we have hired half a dozen engineers that 

range from working in Oman to South America, that have come 

back to Iowa that graduated from Iowa State, to farm kids who got 

jobs around the country. So from local businesses and all the infrastructure created in the turnover, to corn farmers who now have 

land values that have increased over 20 percent because they don’t 

need government subsidies to survive when they have a price that 

is reflective of the value. To now an infrastructure and investments 

that will continue to increase yields and the technology and starch 

levels of corn that will allow us to extract more ethanol from that 

corn, to livestock producers who are now doing research and substituting distillers grain for corn and soybean meal they previously 

have had. 

It is really hard to describe in detail out the facets of it, but within that there are literally hundreds of jobs created. When you think 

about a plant our size that eats 39 million bushels of corn and 

sends a third of that back to livestock feed, ships the rest to add 

to fuel and the ensuing benefit to the economy that happens. 

ChairmanBRALEY. The States of Iowa and Ohio are sometimes 

confused by people on the east coast and the west coast. But the 

State of Ohio has a great combination of rural parts of the State, 

great educational institutions, and a great manufacturing history. 

So I am very pleased to yield to the ranking member of the full 

Committee, Steve Chabot, and would ask him to share his comments or questions with our panel at that time. 

Mr.CHABOT. I thank the chairman for yielding. 

I would just note that clearly the best part of Ohio is around the 

southern part of Cincinnati, which happens to be my district. But 

I do appreciate the substance of this hearing, and we have been 

ably represented by the gentleman from Tennessee, Mr. Davis. 

I don’t have any specific questions, but I would just comment 

that this is an area that I think is critical to the future of our country and our reliance upon energy and how important it is. This 

whole area that you all have been discussing today is of the utmost 

importance, so I want to thank you for holding the hearing. 

With that, I yield back the balance of my time. 

ChairmanBRALEY. Thank you very much. 

Mr. Caupert, one of the follow-up questions I had for you, as you 

look for people coming into your program right now, can you give 

us a little more detailed sense of where those people come from, the 

types of backgrounds they bring, and what varying levels of training they need once they show up at Edwardsville? 

28

Mr.CAUPERT. Great question, Chairman Braley; and we thank 

you for it. 

As I mentioned before, the folks who are working in this industry 

they literally change from the GEDs to the Ph.D.s; and that is 

what we see come in our doors. 

One of the programs that we are most proud of is a program that 

we launched through a wired grant in January of this year in 

which displaced workers, a group of people that we have not even 

touched on today, but displaced industrial tradespeople from the 

automotive industry in Michigan and other places around the country are traveling to our facility so they have something that they 

can put on their resume to relocate them, if you will, and find a 

good-paying, quality job. 

We range from that to people from Dartmouth and MIT. The 

folks from Mascoma have visited our facility. Really, the sky is the 

limit in the types of people that come to our program. 

One of the things I would encourage everybody to do in free time 

is to read the exit interview of one of our recent interns that I included in my written testimony. Billy Whitlock came out of Michigan State university as a young chemical engineer who was full of 

theory but had no applied experience whatsoever. I remember 

Billy’s first day because his first day coincided with my first day. 

And he looked at me and he said, John, so that is what a pneumatic pump is. And I think that tells the story pretty comprehensive about our program. 

ChairmanBRALEY. Dr. Keir, one of the things that we know 

about educational institutions as a whole is they are constantly attempting to try to identify emerging needs for education and training; and meeting the demands of a highly skilled workforce will be 

an issue that is an ongoing concern in the renewable fuels industry 

and renewable energy industry. As you look at the role of community colleges in that mix, how do you foresee future trends impacting the type of flexibility you need to provide in the curriculum 

that you are offering? 

Ms.KEIR. That is also a really good question. 

One of the things that I wanted to talk a little bit about is the 

need for faculty development and the development of ever-changing 

curriculum that is being offered to middle school, community college, and 4-year university faculty. The program that we have, the 

A tech program, we partner with MIT and Iowa State and several 

other research industries; and what our job is to take the new scientific knowledge or the new engineering knowledge that is pretty 

much un-understandable to most people—I needed a lot of tutoring 

just to do this—and transform it into curriculum that then is available throughout the Nation to community college faculty, to community colleges and to K-12. So some sort of funding and system 

so that you can continually quickly refresh your curriculum is absolutely essential. 

I think the point I was trying to make earlier, too, is that everybody finds this very exciting; and so every community college in 

Iowa has stepped forward. So we have programs sprouting up everywhere. So there is a lot of duplication and not enough collaborative, systematic sharing of curriculum and faculty development. 

29

ChairmanBRALEY. Thank you for your participation today. It was 

good to have you here. 

One of the things that I am interested in, Mr. Litterer, is the impact on profitability and opportunities for success for farmers that 

the renewable fuels bio-energy industry is providing. One of the 

things we know is that there is a significant amount risk that 

farmers are exposed to every year: price dynamics, unpredictable 

weather and many, many other variables. Can you talk to us a little bit about how renewable energy production has become a form 

of risk management for farmers by allowing them to diversify their 

investment? 

Mr.LITTERER. Thank you, Chairman. Yes, good question. 

As you are well aware, a lot of our members are also investors 

in ethanol plants. So they have taken a piece of ownership, if you 

will, into an alternative way to market their corn. So, for them, it 

has become a win-win deal. They can either sell into the marketplace or get a return through their investment in the ethanol 

plants. So that has been a very important aspect. 

But, more importantly, I think going forward it has basically 

driven the demand for corn and not just corn, all commodities. It 

has helped raise the price level of all commodities not just in the 

United States but worldwide. This is a beneficial thing worldwide 

for farmers. We don’t operate in a vacuum in the United States in 

producing corn. There are other areas in the world that are doing 

corn production, too: Argentina, Eastern Europe, South Africa. 

And then that is going to create demand for the wheat, the other 

feed grain, to feed the livestock industry. So it is a complex question. But what has happened is good for farmers around the world. 

I think, as Mr. Rastetter alluded to early, we don’t have to rely 

on a government subsidy because of low corn prices. This is creating a unique opportunity in our business. Again, just the price 

of the commodity itself but also the investment possibilities and opportunities that we, as farmers, are operating in this growing industry. 

ChairmanBRALEY. Well, this has been a fascinating hearing for 

me personally. One of the reasons that I am so excited about the 

subject of the hearing is that it combines three of my passions: education, agriculture and energy. 

What I would like to do is get each of the panelists, starting with 

Dr. South, 1 minute to just wrap up and tell us what message you 

would like us to take away from this hearing as it relates to your 

individual testimony, what you would like to see us be doing in 

Congress in this area. But just give you an opportunity to close 

with some closing remarks. 

Mr.SOUTH. Thank you. 

Firstly, thanks for the opportunity to speak today. It is an important topic to us, obviously. 

I think the requirements for education across the board in this 

sector are huge. To be the industry we aspire to be in terms of this 

impact on U.S. energy supply, if we just take the percentages and 

multiply across against what the R&D that goes into the petroleum 

industry is versus what it would be against what is our nascent 

cellulosic industry and project those down into the requirements we 

are going to have across our postsecondary school education, I 

30

think we have major challenges ahead of us. The great thing is 

there is a lot of focus coming in now, and we applaud the leadership that is being shown by the Committee in doing so. 

From our perspective, the most important thing we are going to 

do to hone the requirements for this education is get on the ground 

as quickly as possible and get the operational experience that can 

really drive out operational excellence in manufacturing and bringing new technologies through to market. 

So, from that perspective, the right things are being done. We 

need to make sure that we can actually establish the industries 

and meet some of the very, very aggressive goals that the U.S. 

Congress is setting for us. 

Ms.TILLER. Thank you. 

I think that as we look toward the future and the bright opportunities that a cellulosic-based ethanol and biofuels bio-energy bring 

in addition to the existing renewable energy sector that we have, 

it is important to recognize that there are really two stages; and 

I certainly applaud you for looking ahead to that second stage 

where this industry is well developed and well on its way to achieving those goals. But there is a precursor to that, and I think the 

land-grant universities in particular have a real role to play in the 

research and development and deployment of those technologies 

that are required in order to achieve that future vision. 

I think also it is very important to remember as we move forward that this is likely to develop as a very region-specific approach, and we need to be sure that we are evaluating those region-specific advantages and moving forward in region-appropriate 

ways. 

Ms.KEIR. I would reiterate the need to be very systematic about 

this, to find a way to share the knowledge and not end up with a 

lot of duplicative training programs in community colleges and K12 that haven’t been informed by the science, finding ways, as in 

the New Era bill, to have some champions and organized structure 

and then to have a structure for training at all of the levels that 

is very quickly infused with the new knowledge that is going to 

come up. 

And I also want to agree that, while the community colleges, particularly because of their location and their workforce development 

emphasis, are really a good place to center the leadership or the 

forward momentum of this, none of this will happen without partnerships with the research universities and the land-grant universities because that is where the new knowledge is going to come 

and continually infuse. And none of is going to happen without a 

partnership with the K-12 sector. That is where we will motivate 

young people to prepare and be interested in these careers when 

they have so many other choices now in the United States. 

Mr.RASTETTER. From a public policy standpoint, the government 

has asked private industry and agriculture to develop the biofuels 

industry. We have responded with that. The industry has invested 

literally billions of dollars to support that commitment. And as we 

look to touch the broad sectors of agriculture all over the country 

as it moves into cellulosic ethanol, biomass, energy savings, agronomic work, education and curriculum, and the ability to have a 

fluid program that is free of government bureaucracy when commuVerDate 0ct 09 2002 09:13 Dec 20, 2007 Jkt 033615 PO 00000 Frm 00034 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 G:\CLERK SB\HEARINGS\TRANSCRIPTS\36106.TXT LEANN
31

nity colleges need to have flexibility as those curriculums change 

and as land-grant universities and research universities need to 

downstream that technology improvements and information is 

going to be critical. 

So the machine is working. The train is leaving the track and is 

clearly responding to the national call, and if you can overlay that 

with education benefits you are going to see long-term generational 

benefit to the country and energy independence. 

Mr.LITTERER. Just to reiterate a couple of points already made. 

I think this whole energy bio-energy field is going to be an evolution. In other words, we are not here today and that is the way 

it is going to be down the road. It is going to evolve. Part of that 

is going to be cellulosics building on even with corn. Corn can contribute significantly with the cellulosic portion and the fiber and 

the kernel and some of the corn stocks and cob so forth. 

So I think the educational part of this is going to be an evolution 

in all these things that are going to change because we are going 

to an evolving industry. 

Secondly, and it wasn’t mentioned today because we are focusing 

on energy, but biorenewables. I was at a grand opening of a plant 

in Loudon, Tennessee, and that plant is producing high-fructose 

corn syrup, ethanol, and it is producing polymers. Polymers, those 

are starch based from corn there. But they are also going to have 

great potential in the future, too; and it is something that our educational institutions are going to have to pay attention to. 

Mr.CAUPERT. Mr. Chairman, there are four things. 

Number one, there is no shortage of people that are available to 

work in this industry. The shortage is of qualified people. 

Number two, training clearly needs to go beyond textbook learning, need to be applied learning. 

Three, I completely agree with Dr. Keir that there certainly 

needs to be more collaboration and a systematic approach to the 

education and training that takes place. 

And, finally, the biofuels industry does not know State borders. 

Therefore, the education and training that takes place needs to be 

national in focus irregardless of ZIP Code. 

ChairmanBRALEY. Thank you. 

Member Chabot, do you have any final remarks that you would 

like to share with the Committee? 

Mr.CHABOT. No, just, once again, I thank the panel. I will review 

the testimony they have given today, and I thank you for holding 

the hearing. 

ChairmanBRALEY. The final comment I would like to share with 

everyone here is one of hope. When I go home to Waterloo, Iowa, 

on the weekends I look right across the street and I see the house 

that Jessica Lange lived in when she came to film the movie 

′′Country′′, which was an attempt to capture the despair of the 

farm crisis of the 1980s. And as I drive around the countryside in 

my district and I see the Hawkeye renewables ethanol plant in 

Fairbank and I see new energy and focus throughout my district, 

throughout my State, and as someone who grew up in a small town 

of 1,500, working on farms and in grain elevators, it is very, very 

exciting seeing people taking control of their destiny. 

32

We in Congress need to help them by helping provide the next 

generation of education, training and experience to make sure that 

we can be moving in a new energy focus and that we can transfer 

what we learn throughout the world to reduce our dependence on 

petroleum-based fuels. 

So I thank all of our witnesses for coming; and, before we adjourn, I ask unanimous consent that members have 5 days to submit statements and supporting materials for the record. 

Without objection, so ordered. 

The meeting is now adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 11:45 a.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]

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71


36106.039
72


36106.040
73


36106.041
74


36106.042
75


36106.043
76


36106.044
77


36106.045
78


36106.046
79


36106.047
80

Æ


36106.048