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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 17, 1990)
Correction: In Thursday’s Daily Nebraskan, Howard Houser's name was misspelled in a story about the Association of Students of the University of Nebraska. The Daily Nebraskan reorefs the error WEATHER Today, increasing cloudiness and breezy, chance of thundershbwers, high around 70 Tonight, considerable cloudiness, chance of thundershowers, low in the mid- to upper 50s. Tuesday, chance of thundershowers in the morn ing, high in the low to mid-70s. INDEX News Digest.2 Editorial.4 Sports..9 Arts & Entertainment.12 Classifieds.15 September 17, 1990____ ___University of Nebraska-Lincoln_ Vol. 90 No. 15 Development hurried Local company researches, produces alternative fuel By Stacey McKenzie Staff Reporter A local company’s research in alternative fuels could help national efforts to combat U.S. dependence on foreign oil. Lincoln-based American Eagle Fuels Inc. is the only manufacturing site for ethyl tertiary butyl ether, or ETBE, in the world. The fuel is made from grain-based ethanol and a petroleum refinery byproduct. It is better for the environment than ethanol or any other fuel, said Morton Stelling, president of the fuel company. Currently, ETBE is being produced in test quantities at a pilot plant in Eagle, Stelling said. The pilot plant produces 200 gallons of ETBE a day, he said, but will be dismantled and used for research once the ETBE commer cial production plant is built The new plant has been designed to operate at commercial levels producing 42,000 gallons of ETBE a day. The plant, which will be built in Nebraska, will cost an estimated $9 million and should be producing ETBE by the fall of 1991, Stelling said. “We arc going as fast as we can go,” Stelling said. The technology for the commer cial ETBE product was developed by William Scheller, a professor of chemical engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. ETBE’s promising future and the Mideast crisis have caused the hurry-up development, Stelling said. ETBE promises to be the best alternative fuel available and will be priced competitively with gasohot, he said. American Eagle Fuels Inc. will market ETBE once commercial production is under way. Major U.S. oil refineries and auto manufac turers, including General Motors, Chrysler and Ford, have purchased ETBE for fuel testing, Stelling said. ETBE also is advantageous to the refineries because it can be shipped through pipelines, unlike ethanol, he said. As production increases, “it will take many plants like this to meet the demand for ETBE,” Stelling said. The Nebraska Ethanol Authority and De velopment Board bought 49 percent of the fuel company and has provided $5 million in fi nancing for the new plant. The remaining funds still are being sought, he said. Todd Sneller, adviser to the Nebraska Etha nol Authority and Development Board, said Nebraska is not considered a large producer of alternative fuel, but it could be. “We need some incentive to encourage that development,” Sneller said. The rate of ethanol and ETBE progress depends on the extension of tax credits to producers, Sneller said. Gov. Kay Orr urged the use of grain-based ethanol-blended fuels in U.S. government vehicles at an alternative fuels conference last week. The government’s use of ethanol-blended fuels could reduce the use of petroleum by more than 1,400 barrels a day, which could keep $320 million a year in the United Stales, Orr said. Orr also urged the White House to extend tax credits on ethanol and ETBE. “Although there has been progress, more needs to be done,” she said. Sneller said incentives have been provided to virtually all energy forms in the past and are needed in the alternative fuel industry to en courage development. A bill to revise the Clean Air Act could affect the progress of alternative fuel industries depending on what is resolved between the House of Representative and the Senate, he said. The Clean Air Act’s oxygen requirement for gasoline is most easily met by ethanol, which reduces carbon dioxide emissions, Sneller said. If passed, the Senate’s version of the bill would encourage the use of alternative fuel, he said. Although the industry has expanded through direct mailing campaigns and producer credit incentives, the petroleum industry has ham pered the expansion with rumors, Sneller said. The petroleum industry has circulated the rumor that ethanol causes auto-mechanical problems, he said. But auto manufacturers allow the use of ethanol-blended fuels in their cars and, in a 1990 statement, said they encourage it, he said. Al Schaben/Daily NeOvaskan Powwow performer «, Tyrone Sheridan of Lincoln performs in the men’s traditional dance during the Native American celebration honoring university students in the Nebraska Union’s Centennial Room on Sunday. More coverage from the celebration will be featured in Thursday’s Diversions. Official says that students are not exempt from draft By Sara Bauder Schott Senior Reporter Students who think they would be exempt from a military draft are wrong, said a Ne braska Selective Service official. Roma Amundson, assistant state director of the selective service, said that when President Jimmy Carter reinstated registration for the draft in 1980, the Selective Service began examining its pro cedures to make them more equi table than they had been in the Vietnam War. Amundson said that now, if a draft were instituted, students would be able to posqx>ne military duty until they finished their current semester. If a student were a sen ior, he could finish his degree be fore he became eligible for the draft, she said. A student must be enrolled full time and be in good academic stand ing to be eligible for postpone ment, she said. ‘‘Under the old system, a stu dent could get exemption from military duty as long as he stayed in good academic standing,” Amundson said. ‘‘Now he can get postponement. The system is much fairer because eve. yone has the same chance of going/] See DRAFT on 8 Officials to retool franchise studies Program to recruit new students By David Dalton Staff Reporter Five years after being hailed as a program that would make Nebraska synonymous with franchise education, University of Nebraska-Lincoln officials arc attempt ing to retool the International Center for Franchise Studies. Interim Director Robin Anderson said the franchise program is “going to be aggressive in soliciting new people” after low participation in previous years. Lack of students interested in in ternships is the main reason the fran chising program has not met expecta tions, Anderson said. The program, under a division of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Busi ness Administration, provides intern ships, franchising clubs, speakers and a database on the franchising indus tiy. The franchise center is streamlin ing its activities by working closely with CBA’s Nebraska Center for Productivity and Entrepreneurship. “We think that anybody who’s going to study entrepreneurship needs to understand how franchises work,” Anderson said. He said the franchise center hopes that this cooperation will serve a broader group of students and that the number of internships will increase. In the past, internships only were offered during the summer, Anderson said. Now the center is establishing part-time internships during the school year to attract students. Graduate assistant Vance Mehrens said the best way to get new students into the program “is to start with a younger age. ’ ’ Anderson said the center has visited 65 Nebraska high schools to recruit students. Sang Lee, executive director of the Nebraska Center for Productivity and Entrepreneurship, which includes the Center for Franchise Studies, said that the program will be expanding its activities on the international level. Anderson said UNL next year will receive at least five students on ex change from Moscow University. There are other indications the changes are working, Anderson said. “The truth is, we’re stronger than we have been for some lime,” he said. A letter distributed to students in the College of Business Administra tion’s Special Topics 198 course this summer generated 25 applicants, a significant increase over past years, Anderson said. Mehrens said the college’s fran chising course has grown, with cur rent enrollment at 35 students. He had no figures for enrollment in past years. The struggle to increase the pro gram’s recognition was not antici pated. ' The center opened to national acclaim five years ago as the first of its kind. The director at that time, Robert Juslis, predicted that in four years, Nebraska would be synony mous with franchise education. According to Anderson, that never happened. “We have not accomplished the mission we set out to do,” he said. “Aspirations and realities are not always the same,” Lee said. “Just because Nebraska isn’t synonymous with franchise education, you can’t say we’ve failed.” If the center has fallen short of its goals, Lee said, lack of funding was partially to blame. Franchise education does not have the same base of financial support from businesses as fields such as biology do, he said. “Franchising is not an industry,” Lee said. “They (franchisers) don’t have the same type of commitment to education that industry does.” But the program’s problems aren’t limited to funding. In previous years, it has failed to attract the amount of student interest needed to be successful, Anderson said. Mehrens said the program suffered because students either were unaware of it or had misconceptions about its function. Most people, when they think of interning at Burger King, “just think they’re going to be flipping burgers all the time,” Mehrens said. Craig Cormack, whose business, Cormack Enterprises, Inc., owns the Burger King in the Nebraska Union, said that while interns with his com pany are acquainted with that side of the business, they are predominantly involved in learning to run a fran chise. * ‘Our goal is to expose them to all aspects of the franchise business,” he said. Cormack said he was satisfied with the work of UNL’s franchise pro gram, but noted the relatively small demand for internships. ‘‘I think that many of the franchise businesses have expected more than we have been able to provide,” Anderson said. Mehrens said that previously, af ter gelling businesses to provide in ternships, the center was unable to produce applicants for some posi tions. ‘‘Our philosophy now is to gel the students interested first and then go to the companies,” he said. “We still have support from fran chise owners,” Anderson said, citing Burger King, Valcom Computer Center, Merry Maids and Runza as companies interested in supplying internships. “They continue to want people to come out of the university with an understanding of franchis ing,” he said.