With Wall Street still not recovered from the economic downturn and banks keeping a tight hold of the credit purses’ drawstrings, the next generation of biofuels producers could have a rough time getting going and staying going.
Recently, the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO)… a group that represents more than 1,200 biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centers and related organizations across the United States and more than 30 other nations… gave some of its ideas on how to loosen the credit crunch. BIO’s vice president of its Industrial and Environmental Section, Brent Erickson, said that will come through the federal government’s leadership to coordinate and fund biofuel-friendly programs and help the development of the new feedstocks, transportation and delivery of products, alternative fuel distribution networks and vehicles. Joining him in this call were several of the nation’s leading biofuels companies.
During a news conference, the companies, such as Verenium, Aurora Biofuels, Abengoa Bioenergy, and Gevo, Inc… just to name a few… gave an update on how they’re doing. There was some good news and some not-so-good news with the overall tone upbeat… although most of them agreed that the tough economic times will make it impossible for the cellulosic ethanol industry to meet the government’s goal of 100 million gallons next year. But after that, they remain optimistic. In addition, many on the conference call pointed out that with a finite amount of non-renewable petroleum out there, growing demand and a growing desire to eliminate the fuels that contribute to global warming, there’s really no other choice but to develop these clean, renewable energy sources.
It was a pretty interesting conversation, and you can either go to BIO’s Web site and look up the information so you can listen to the hour-plus of the conference call… OR you can listen to our own Domestic Fuel Cast (just about 7 1/2 minutes of your busy day) where we have condensed it down to its most important points here: [audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/domesticfuel/DFCast-4-22-09.mp3]
The choice is yours. Me… I’m a busy guy. I know which one I’d choose.