Industry Leadership Group
The National Biodiesel Board
has enjoyed great support
throughout its first 25 years
as it has worked to establish a
vital, new energy supply and
create an important market for farmers
and food producers.
“It’s a very proud history that the
National Biodiesel Board enjoys,” said
Donnell Rehagen, NBB’s chief executive
officer. “Twenty-five years ago, NBB
was founded on the principle of turning
excess soybean oil that was on the
market into fuel. It was extremely
visionary, and when I speak to groups of
farmers who have been around for many
of those years, I applaud them for their
patience. Through the early phases, they
certainly must have wondered whether
they should keep putting money into this,
not knowing if there would be a positive
outcome on the back end.”
There were many years of investment
in pure research and development,
when leaders like the Missouri Soybean
Association’s Kenlon Johannes were
promoting the biodiesel vision. “We
weren’t talking about tax credits, policy
or state mandates,” Rehagen said, “We
first had to figure out whether technically
you could transform soybean oil into fuel.
Once the determination was made you
could, that started Phase Two. How could
we commercialize the fuel? What did we
need to do with OEMs and equipment
manufacturers?
“There was a huge Phase Two of
industry development. Out of that
came some attention to policy and
regulatory initiatives and the creation
of a framework to support an emerging
industry in a challenging industry. The
liquid fuel sector is very different from
other energy sectors such as electricity,
which enjoys some certainty in regard to
cost. We don’t have that in liquid fuels.
What’s crude oil going to sell for six
weeks from now? Nobody even knows
what it’s going to sell for six days from
now. It’s a very uncertain space that our
biodiesel producers operate in.”
NBB’s task “is to knock down barriers
and to help provide certainty to our
membership,” he added. “The U.S. model
of business development and capitalism
is well documented to be successful, but
without certainty, it is really challenging
for businesses to make the right
decisions. Investment in downstream
blending and infrastructure becomes
highly questionable when the long-term
certainty of your industry is in question.”
NBB has gotten better at clearing the
obstacles, whether they are technical or
environmental. “We have become widely
known experts in environmental policy
for liquid fuels,” the CEO said. “We need
to be that knowledge base in order to
make arguments from a positive policy
standpoint and convince lawmakers that
biodiesel is good for the environment
and a sound investment of resources. I’m
really proud to be a part of an association
like this that is able to keep its eye on that
prize and put resources where they need
to be to knock down those barriers.”
The ongoing support of the soybean
checkoff has made NBB’s mission
attainable. “It has allowed us to punch
above our weight class,” Rehagen said. “It
lets us totally leverage our membership
dues so that nearly all of that goes
Strong support
helps NBB
open markets
12 Biodiesel Success Stories