Hello from the Advanced Biofuels Leadership Conference, just a few miles south of the Nation’s capital at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center! A lot has been going on already this morning, but before it all got started, I caught up with Jim Lane, the editor for Biofuels Digest, who is putting on this event.

He told me that today will feature the signing of the “Farm to Fly” agreement between Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood … an agreement that will extend helping develop viable renewable fuels for the aviation industry.

In addition, there are obviously lots of stakeholders from the biofuels industry, including ethanol and biodiesel makers, as well as the big oil companies which have to blend the green fuel into their non-renewable products and the folks from the finance industry who put the money into so many of these ventures. Jim said it’s important to get a diverse group of interests such as these together in one forum to talk about the way forward.

“You don’t have to reach out too hard [to get them together], because they all want to know each other and network like crazy,” he said. He added that policy, finance, production, research … they all come together in this forum.

If you’re not already here, you should try to make it down to the Advanced Biofuels Leadership Conference, going on today, tomorrow and Wednesday (April 15-17). Hope to see you around!

Listen to my interview with Jim here: Jim Lane, Biofuels Digest

We’ll have more later!