Pioneer Hi-Bred, a subsidiary of DuPont, is teaming up with the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC) in an effort to educate consumers on the benefits of ethanol-enriched fuel. The effort includes funding for ethanol promotion and education programs.
According to Pioneer officials, the investment from Pioneer includes a sponsorship of Team Ethanol in the IndyCar® Series for the 2007 season.
“Ethanol is a factor in the effort to reduce our nation’s reliance on petroleum,” says Dean Oestreich, Pioneer president and DuPont vice president and general manager. “EPIC has already helped to significantly raise awareness about the benefits of biofuels, and we are proud to be joining forces with them to continue their efforts to promote ethanol.
“EPIC’s efforts, combined with our commitment to develop traits and technologies that help increase harvestable yield and ethanol production per acre, are helping create a promising future for biofuels,” says Oestreich.
A New Zealand technology company has secured $3.5 million in private venture capital to develop ethanol from carbon monoxide. 
International investment and advisory firm 
In January 2006, Babcock & Brown Environmental Investments completed the acquisition of Diversified Energy Company, whose primary asset is a 25 mgpy facility in Morris, Minnesota. Babcock & Brown also has two plants under construction: a 100 mgpy facility in Hennepin, Illinois and a 50 mgpy facility in Necedah, Wisconsin.
If the Iowa Utilities Board approves it, an expansion by a major wind energy producer in Iowa will nearly double that state’s wind power generation capacity. 
MidAmerican currently runs 323 wind turbines at three sites in northwest, north central and west central Iowa, generating 459.5 MW of electricity. That’s enough power for about 144,000 homes. 
New Mexico is the latest state to adopt a biodiesel standard as Governor Bill Richardson signed into law a measure that requires all diesel sold in the state to have at least a five percent blend by 2012. State vehicles would have to use 5% biodiesel by 2010. 
Among the states where lawmakers have taken up similar standards is Missouri. The state Senate approved a bill that would require all diesel fuel sold at retail in the state to be a biodiesel blend.
“Every city bears responsibility for taking local action to address our global climate crisis, and vehicle emissions are a major source of greenhouse gases,” said Mayor Newsom. “When it comes to the use of alternative fuels, renewable energy sources and greening our city fleet, San Francisco is demonstrating leadership and commitment on every front.” 
“The city of San Francisco departments have announced various strategies using biodiesel to reduce air pollution and greenhouse gases, and to use local resources to produce biofuels,” said Randall von Wedel, a biochemist representing the National Biodiesel Board (NBB) in state regulatory affairs, based in the San Francisco area. “We are grateful to Mayor Newsom for his initiative,” said von Wedel, “and we hope that San Francisco will serve as a model for other large cities on how to make a difference in reducing air pollution, greenhouse gases and dependence on petroleum fuel.”
The vice chairman of General Motors says converting automobiles to ethanol is “entirely realistic.”
Scientists have used an SDSC supercomputer to help improve cellulose conversion to ethanol. 
Top international experts meeting in Rome last week agreed that bioenergy could be a positive force for rural development 
The latest update from explorer/environmentalist Will Steger comes from Earth Day (this past Sunday) on Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic. As you might remember from our previous posts, Steger is leading a team of three other explorers and educators and four native Inuits on a four-month-long, dog-sled expedition across the island.
“This is basically Ground Zero for global warming. It’s being played out to a large degree in the sea ice. As the ocean warms from the carbon dioxide blanket effect heating the globe, heat goes into the ocean. Because of this, we’re getting later freeze-ups.”