Message from Ed Fallon

By Ed Fallon

Dear Friends,

This week, I rode with David Osterberg on the Green Bike Tour. David is a former state representative and one of the key architects of the 1987 Groundwater Protection Act and the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture. He continues to do great work for progressive reform as the director of the Iowa Policy Project.

Though the mainstream media doesn’t commit a lot of ink or air time to the Green Bike Tour, this annual grassroots event is a great way to spread the word about biking, energy conservation and local ownership of Iowa’s energy systems. For more information, check out http://www.greenbike.org.

Often, it seems that all conversations about renewable fuels in Iowa begin and end with ethanol. Yesterday, the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association released a report claiming that the sale of E85 jumped 255% in just one year, and that 570,961 gallons of E85 were sold in Iowa in the second quarter of 2006 alone.  That’s great news in terms of weaning America of its oil dependency.  But if ethanol production is the main focus of our energy policy, and if corn is the primary provider of the raw product needed to make ethanol, we’re going to have to commit a whole lot of Iowa farmland to corn production to keep pace with feed, fuel and fiber demands.  Potentially, that means less crop land for soybeans, organic production, and habitat programs such as the Conservation Reserve Program. (Of course, it also adds a new argument to the arsenal of reasons why urban sprawl is a bad idea, since sprawl eats up about 30,000 acres of farmland each year, much of it some of Iowa’s highest quality crop ground.)

Another study related to ethanol was released this week by ISU researchers David Swenson and Liesl Eathington.  The study found that a locally owned ethanol plant will create nearly twice as many jobs as one owned by outside investors.  “Higher levels of local ownership yield higher job impacts for rural areas,” writes Swenson.  This study is particularly timely in light of the proposal this week by venture capitalist John Pappajohn, who hopes to raise close to one billion dollars from Wall Street investors to buy out ten locally owned ethanol plants in Iowa and neighboring states. The complete study can be found at http://www.valuechains.org/bewg/Documents/eth_full0706.pdf. 

While ethanol continues to present both great opportunity and great challenges, other options are generating unbridled enthusiasm.  One example of leadership is being presented by Denise O’Brien, candidate for Secretary of Ag.  Her campaign squad is driving a bus fueled entirely by biodiesel made on their family farm near Atlantic from used restaurant oil.  The cost?  A whopping 80 cents per gallon! 

What do you think?  What do you know?  The renewable fuels debate is hot and only going to get hotter.  There is such great potential, and yet such great risk if we take a wrong turn.  Share your thoughts with me and with your local, state and national elected officials.  Take the time to be as informed as possible.  Write a letter-to-the-editor of your local paper when something catches your attention.  Democracy and our future depend on all of us getting involved.  Thanks!

Ed

Upcoming events where I’ll speak or perform music:

Friday, September 29
Homecoming Weekend events in Corning
Playing Accordion for the Breakfast at Legion Hall
Corner of Main and 8th St, Corning
9 am
Contact Jill at (641)322-3416
 
Playing piano at the Historic Opera House
Corning
11 am
Contact Matt at (641)322-4195
 
Touring historic Murphy Building
Corner of Short and 2nd
Red Oak
3 pm
Contact Jackie at (712)623-9281
 
Fundraiser/Meet the candidate for Sally Vitamvas
500 E Broadway
Council Bluffs
6:30 pm
Contact Sally at (712)525-9137
 
Tuesday, October 3
Maria Mulduar to perform for Dave Loebsack fundraiser
Morning Star Theater
51 ½ S. Court Street, Fairfield
8:00 p.m.
Tickets $35 in advance, $50 at door
Contact Jewell at (641) 472-4287
 
Thursday, October 5
Fundraiser for Mike Mauro, candidate for Secretary of State
St. Anthony’s Parish Hall
15 Indianola Avenue, Des Moines
5:30 p.m.
$20 suggested donation
 
Friday, October 6
Door-knocking with Mark Nolte, candidate for Iowa House
Washington, Iowa
2:00 – 5:00 p.m.
To help, contact Mark at mark.nolte@nolteforiowa.com 

Ed to perform accordion during the Fairfield Art Walk
Le Petit Paris restaurant
Just off the NW corner of the town square, Fairfield
7:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Contact Marie-Helene at (641) 470-1624
 
Saturday, October 7
Breakfast fundraiser for Deb Williamson and Becky Schmitz
Morning Star Theatre, Fairfield
10:30 a.m. – 12:00 noon
Contact Deb at (641) 919-1224

Decatur County Democrats Fall Event
Oak Seminary School
26980 Hwy J66, Leon
6:30 – 9:00 p.m.
Contact Kay at (641) 442-2701

American Family Voices

By Michael Lux, President, American Family Voices

Dear Friends,

I wanted to write to you, our allies in the progressive blogosphere, to introduce my organization, American Family Voices, to those of you who don’t know us, and tell you about some of our current projects.   AFV was founded in 2000 to help fill the strategic gap created by too many single issue groups that don’t have the flexibility to move quickly to take on key issues and innovative projects as opportunities arise. 

●  We took on the arsenic in the water issue early in Bush’s term, helped blow the issue up into a media firestorm, and forced Bush to back down;

●  We organized a war room on Enron and the corporate responsibility issue, and helped force Bush to sign the Sarbanes/Oxley bill, which is the only major piece of progressive economic legislation signed while Bush has been President;

●  We were the first group after 9-11 to have the guts to run an ad directly attacking Bush, in June of 2002, and helped drive his approval rating down 15 points in little more than a month;

● We were the first group to run an ad against Halliburton’s insider contracts in Iraq, helping to make it a major issue in the 2004 campaign.  

In the 2006 cycle, we have done voter contact and guerilla media projects in over 70 different congressional districts, and our original research produced negative media stories on DeLay, Blunt, Boehner, House Ethics Committee Chairman Hastings, and House Appropriations Chairman Lewis, as well as Ney and Cunningham. 

Besides all these activities, we also do everything we can do help promote and build the progressive media echo chamber.  We played a role in the early discussions of getting Air America going, helped John Podesta launch the Center for American Progress, and helped the Ed Schultz radio show go national.  We’ve been involved in some of the first and most successful political internet videos, including the Will Farrell video that ACT did in 2004. 

We’ve also helped to promote books and movies that advance the progressive cause, and wanted to tell you about 3 new projects we are currently working on that we hope you will take a look at and promote as well if you are interested. 

●          Last Thursday, American Family Voices launched a new campaign called “Who’s Making A Killing?” in coordination with the release of Robert Greenwald’s new film Iraq for Sale.  The film, our campaign, and the many other groups and individuals who have been involved with this issue, delve into the government contracts in Iraq, exposing the hidden truth of rampant profiteering in Iraq through the personal stories of soldiers, whistleblowers, survivors, and families of loved ones lost due to corporate greed.  While the film won’t be released until the beginning of October, we are very excited by the impact it can have.  We encourage you to visit our website, www.americanfamilyvoices.org, to learn more about our “Who’s Making a Killing?” campaign, and for more information on the film. 

●          A new documentary called Al Franken: God Spoke is a window into Al Franken’s experience as a political comedian, activist and observer over the last two years.  The movie will be available later this year, and we will be in touch with you again to let you know how to purchase your own copy.  American Family Voices has been working with Franken on his movie premieres in New York and DC, hosting the receptions following the film screenings with proceeds, benefiting AFV’s work.  The New York event was last Wednesday evening, and was a great success. 

●          Sidney Blumenthal, a former journalist and senior advisor in the Clinton White House has recently released a new book called How Bush Rules: Chronicles of a Radical Regime.   Blumenthal is a regular columnist for the Guardian in London and for Salon.com, and his latest book is a collection of his weekly columns over the last three years.  His latest book details the destruction of our system of checks and balances by the radical Bush administration and their political allies in Congress, and the effects of leaving power in Washington, DC unchecked and unaccountable.  You can buy Blumenthal’s new book through our new store at www.americanfamilyvoices.org/products.

Please take a moment to visit our website to get more info on these and other efforts from American Family Voices.  I always welcome your thoughts and ideas on our work, so please feel free to contact me. 

Best,

Michael Lux

President, American Family Voices

  ISU STUDY DETERMINES REGIONAL ECONOMIC VALUES OF ETHANOL PRODUCTION IN IOWA

By Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, ISU

NOTE:  The report featured below offers research on the true economic value of ethanol plants in terms of jobs. The work was funded by the BioEconomy Working Group of the Value Chain Partnerships project that is coordinated by the Leopold Center. This release is from ISU News Services.

AMES, Iowa -- Iowa is the national center of an ethanol plant construction boom. There are 27 plants currently processing corn, mostly for ethanol, and as many more either under construction, planned or proposed.

But what does a new ethanol plant really mean to a local economy? With no local ownership, the plant would either create directly or otherwise stimulate a total of 133 jobs in the regional economy -- with 29 more jobs being created for every 25-percent increase in local ownership of those plants -- according to a new study by two economists from Iowa State University.

"What that means is that we have local ownership receiving dividends and they're turning around and spending some portions of those dividends back in the local economy. They're buying consumer goods, and also doing some business spending," said David Swenson, an associate scientist and lecturer in economics and community and regional planning at Iowa State and lead author of the study. "What I always tell my classes is that any dollar that leaves our community has a hard time coming back, but a dollar that stays in our community has a multiplier effect."

Swenson joined with Liesl Eathington, assistant scientist and staff researcher in economics, in authoring a research paper titled "Determining the Regional Economic Values of Ethanol Production in Iowa Considering Different Levels of Local Investment." Jill Euken, an industrial specialist in bio-based products from ISU Extension/Center for Industrial Research and Service, assisted in information gathering. ISU Extension Professor of Economics Robert Jolly also shared his existing research on ethanol plant costs and returns for this study. The research was funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation through the Bioeconomy Working Group at Iowa State University -- a project overseen by ISU's Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture.

The researchers created a modeling system that considered the job growth potential to a rural area of Iowa for an ethanol plant producing 50 million gallons per year, given different levels of local ownership or investment. To build the model, they acquired, developed and processed information on the production characteristics of modern ethanol plants. The 2002 U.S. Census of Manufacturing ethyl-alcohol sector allowed them to understand some of the basic characteristics of production -- including jobs, payroll, and benefits. They also used data compiled in the National Income Product Accounts maintained by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

"These data are not easy to come by, and this analysis relied heavily on research and outreach originating from both the University of Minnesota and at Iowa State University to determine the production characteristics of modern ethanol plants," wrote the researchers.

Once the data was obtained and modified, a simulation modeling system was developed to test the consequences of different ownership configurations. All of the modeling was conducted simulating new plants in a study region consisting of three major corn-producing Iowa counties that currently do not have ethanol plants.

"The baseline amount assumes that there is no local ownership -- that the plant is totally externally owned," said Swenson. "We then allocated the returns to investors back into the county to mathematically model how the county's economy would react to an increase in that kind of income. In particular, we were interested in the boost in jobs that would accrue."

"These values vary depending on the area of the state that we are studying and the extent to which a local economy is developed," he said. "After developing the model, we applied it to four actual ethanol plants currently in operation in Iowa."

Four Iowa plants were studied to demonstrate the region-wide economic impact of these plants, given their actual local ownership amount. The researchers determined the local ownership by using zip codes and share amounts of investors within the primary corn market area that was benefited by the plant. One was completely externally owned, with the local ownership of the other three was 27 percent, 63 percent, and 73 percent. They arrived at the following conclusions:
For the firm that had 27 percent local ownership, the local ownership dimension accounted for 47 more jobs.
For the firm at 63 percent, the local ownership dimension added 80 more jobs.
For the firm at 73 percent, the local ownership dimension added 53 more jobs.

"While these values vary by level of local ownership and the overall characteristics of the local economy in which the individual plant resides, higher levels of local ownership yield higher job impacts for rural areas -- so long as returns to investors are robust and competitive with other investment alternatives," said Swenson.

"It is important to remember, however, that the econometrics in these modeling exercises work in reverse," he said. "Losses in plants that are locally owned resulting in sharply reduced or no payments to investors will be felt as job losses in regional economies, and those losses will be numerically greater in areas with higher local ownership."

 
The paper is available online at http://www.valuechains.org/bewg/Documents/eth_full0706.pdf . A summary of the study is also available at http://www.valuechains.org/bewg/Documents/eth_sum0706.pdf .

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Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture
Iowa State University/209 Curtiss Hall
Ames, IA 50011-1050
(515) 294-3711; FAX: (515) 294-9696