Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Richard Lugar (R-IN) have introduced legislation aimed at helping to efficiently bring ethanol to communities across America by giving pipeline owners the same tax benefits they receive for moving petroleum products. The tax code currently states that Publicly Traded Partnerships are supposed to earn 90-percent of income from the exploration, transportation, storage or marketing of …
Federal Grant Helps Buy Cincy’s Biodiesel Buses
Cincinnati has received a federal grant to help the city’s mass transit system buy some biodiesel buses. This story from the Business Courier of Cincinnati quotes Ohio U.S. Sen. George Voinovich in announcing a $776,000 Clean Fuels Grant from the Federal Transit Administration through the U.S. Department of Transportation to the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority (SORTA): Funds provided by …
Beef Tallow to Fuel Nebraska Biodiesel Plant
A beef producer that cranks out 22 million pounds of tallow a week will be turning that waste into another alternative to non-renewable petroleum. This story from the Sioux City (IA) Journal says Beef Products, Inc., better known as BPI, the world’s largest producer of lean boneless beef, has partnered with Natural Innovative Renewable Energy to build a 60-million-gallon-a-year biodiesel …
EPAC Holds Board and Membership Meeting
Ethanol Producers and Consumers (EPAC) kicked off their 18th Annual EPAC Conference on July 20 with their Board and Membership Meeting. The event is taking place at the Hilton Garden Inn in Kalispell, Montana and the theme of this year’s conference is “Ethanol: Fuel AND Food”. “This conference will help to counter the negative news items we hear today regarding …
Australia Race Cars to Run on Ethanol
Race cars in the Land Down Under will be running on 85 percent ethanol next year. Australian media sources report that V8 Supercars chairman Tony Cochrane announced on Sunday that all cars in the main V8 series and the Fujitsu Development Series will run on E85 made from sugar cane for at least five years starting in 2009. “We want …
Team Ethanol Partners With Drivers Edge
Team Ethanol has teamed up with Driver’s Edge, a nonprofit organization that travels the country teaching teens defensive driving techniques for free. Driver’s Edge was prominently displayed on the No. 17 Team Ethanol car, driven by 2008 Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year and 2008 Watkins Glen winner Ryan Hunter-Reay, during Sunday’s IndyCar® Series Honda Indy 200 in Mid-Ohio. Team …
Who is OPEC Kidding?
Ethanol makers all over the world are asking the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), “Who do you think you’re kidding?” In a full page ad in the Financial Times, the biofuel industries of Brazil, Canada, Europe and the United States are challenging the oil cartel’s “outrageous, misleading, and unsubstantiated claims about the role of ethanol in world oil markets.” …
Dakota Wind Gathering Public Investment
Dakota Wind Energy has announced South Dakota’s first intrastate public offering, where shares in the community-based wind project are offered to residents of that state. This press release says Dakota Wind Energy wants to develop more than 750 megawatts of community-owned wind farms throughout South Dakota: “We want landowners participating in Dakota Wind Energy to have the opportunity to own …
Good News for Ethanol in OECD Report
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report on biofuels policies out this week claims that that biofuel production “has a limited impact on reducing greenhouse gases and improving energy security, and has a significant impact on world crop prices.” However, an analysis of the findings indicates the opposite. According to a review of the report by the Renewable …
Dow Catalyst Could Be Key to Cellulosic Ethanol
Dow Chemical Company will work with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to develop and evaluate a process to convert biomass to ethanol and other chemical building blocks. The partnership will evaluate a mixed alcohol catalyst from Dow that could hold potential for making cellulosic ethanol more commercially viable. “NREL is interested in reducing the cost of biofuels in support of …