Profile of a Patriot

Each month, Senator Lugar profiles a student, professional, scholar, or member of the business community who has demonstrated leadership and initiative in taking concrete action to reduce America's dependence on foreign oil. In addition to the profile posted here, individuals will receive a certificate designating them Lugar Energy Patriots, and a letter of congratulations.

Charlie Smith
CEO, Countrymark

At first glance, Countrymark Co-op CEO Charlie Smith makes an unlikely biodiesel advocate. The successful businessman (and son of a lifelong oilman) began his career working on Alaska’s North Slope for the Atlantic Richfield Oil Company. Later, he led the mergers and acquisitions team for Muse Stancil & Company, a leading petroleum-industry consulting firm. But just as only Nixon could go to China, perhaps it took an oilman’s rigorous analytical skills and attention to economic principles to bring biodiesel to the mass market.

When Smith joined Countrymark in 2003, he brought with him the business acumen typical of the oil industry. “The fuel industry has exacting standards for gasoline and diesel,” said Jon Lantz, Countrymark’s Vice President of Marketing, “and the bio-fuels industry needed to develop those same standards in order to convince people to use the fuel.”

Charlie Smith has been an integral part of systematizing biofuel blending and distribution. One of his first actions as CEO of Countrymark was to open Indiana’s first metered biodiesel blending facility. The facility, located in Jolietville, Indiana, took the unique step of blending the biodiesel with conventional diesel right at the fuel pick-up terminal, an innovation Smith said will reduce transportation costs and bring the price of biodiesel down for buyers. Over the course of the next three years, Smith oversaw the construction of three additional blending facilities in Peru, Switz City, and Mt. Vernon, Indiana, though he’s quick to add that the projects were a team effort. In total, the new facilities allowed Countrymark Co-op to sell over 100 million gallons of biodiesel in 2005 alone.

Indiana Soybean Board Marketing Director Belinda Puetz also stressed that the precision Smith showed in bringing biodiesel to market was one of his defining characteristics. Before implementing the blending, Puetz said, “Smith and his team of Hoosier engineers and economists studied this fuel thoroughly,” to make sure it met their high standards for fuel. Their subsequent distribution investments dramatically changed Indiana’s renewable fuels industry. With those decisions, commented Puetz, “biodiesel became a real part of the Indiana energy marketplace.”

According to Smith, on-site blending provided two distinct advantages to consumers. First, it ensured some measure of quality control. Countrymark’s unique rack-injection blending technology guarantees that the correct proportion of biofuel is mixed into the diesel fuel. “Before we opened this facility, consumers had to depend on the fuel getting blended by sloshing around in delivery trucks,” said Smith. Sometimes the fuel blended evenly, and other times it was more concentrated in some parts of the storage tank than others. Second, the process increased efficiency, enabling delivery trucks to make one stop for both fuels. These advantages led farmers and other customers to trust the new fuel and thus expanded the market for biodiesel.

Yet despite his analytical nature, Smith’s argument for biodiesel use has a moral component as well. “We owe it to our kids,” said the CEO, “to use biodiesel to make a difference in their air quality.” Biodiesel is a safe, biodegradable fuel made from vegetable products such as soybean oil. It can be used in standard diesel engines with few or no modifications, or blended into petroleum diesel in proportions ranging from 2% to 20% biodiesel. The B20 blend reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 15% and reduces carbon monoxide and sulfur emissions by 12%. According to Smith, municipal and school district transitions to B20 fuel have been so successful in reducing emissions that elementary-age children have commented that school buses using the new fuel don’t have “bus fumes” and smell much better.

In addition, every gallon of biodiesel blended into petroleum diesel extends the supply of oil and reduces the total amount of oil America needs to import. When the fuel is blended into the diesel already used in farm equipment, soybean producers know they have a guaranteed market, which encourages them to invest in and produce the alternative fuel. In addition, blending extends the volume of conventional diesel and reduces America’s total oil consumption. Though Countrymark itself is unique among American refiners in deriving all of its oil from U.S. sources (primarily the Illinois Basin), any use of oil indirectly increases America’s dependence on oil autocracies by increasing the worldwide demand for petroleum from any source. Thus, every gallon of oil displaced through blending is another gallon the United States doesn’t have to import. Farmers, environmentalists, and energy security advocates alike can feel good about that.

Senator Lugar certainly feels good about it. That’s why he has named biodiesel champion and Countrymark leader Charlie Smith the October Lugar Energy Patriot.