JW is back from “spring fever” break and sent in this post from the future. Here’s a link to a real cool short film about the positive impact of alternative fuels. I found it from Joel Makower who worked on the project and works to promote green business. The goal was to take the doom out of global warming and …
Hate Message?
I had been meaning to do a post on this billboard, which I see every day crossing over the Missouri River bridge into Jefferson City, just because I thought it was great advertising. Now, the darn thing is causing controversy because it “implies hate and discrimination for no reason” according to the president of the St. Louis chapter for the …
The BOLD and the Biofuels
Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND) is pushing a BOLD new energy initiative – BOLD, as in Breaking Our Long-term Dependence. Sen. Conrad introduced the legislation just before the spring recess and he talked about the details during this morning’s Senate Agricutlure Committee hearing on the future of biofuels. The BOLD act calls for “extending biodiesel and ethanol tax credits through 2013. …
If Talk were Fuel…
It would be cheap in our nation’s capitol. I just spent the past two hours and 15 minutes listening to the Senate Agriculture Committee hearing on Biofuels. The first hour was taken up with comments from 13 of the senators in attendance – thanking everyone for holding the meeting, saying how much they looked forward to hearing testimony from the …
President Promotes Renewable Fuels
President Bush announced steps he is taking to address high gas prices during a speech today to the Renewable Fuels Association in Washington. Bush announced the government would “stop making purchases or deposits to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve” for the summer, that EPA would be allowed to waive local fuel requirements regarding the switch from MTBE to ethanol, and called …
Global Shift to Biofuels
The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, better known as FAO, is seeing a major international trend toward bioenergy. According to a news release from the FAO Rome newsroom, “The gradual move away from oil has begun. Over the next 15 to 20 years we may see biofuels providing a full 25 percent of the world’s energy needs,” …
Microsoft Money for Ethanol
Over one quarter of Pacific Ethanol is now owned by Microsoft mogul Bill Gates. According to Reuters, Gates acquired 5.25 million shares convertible preferred stock on April 13 for $16 per share. Pacific Ethanol is building an ethanol production facility in California and said in late March it hoped the deal with Cascade Investment, Gates’s investment vehicle, would close by …
Another New Plant For Nebraska
The Aurora Cooperative and Aventine Renewable Energy Holdings, Inc., plan to develop a new ethanol plant near Aurora, Neb, according to a press release. This 220 million gallon per year plant, with the first phase being 100 million, will be constructed on a 135-acre site adjacent to the property of the Nebraska Energy, LLC ethanol plant. “In addition to the …
Ethanol-to-Hydrogen Pathway Explored
The potential to develop the ethanol-to-hydrogen energy pathway is now being explored through the Upper Midwest Hydrogen Initiative, a public-private partnership run under the auspices of the Great Plains Institute in Minneapolis, according to an article on the Minnesota Corn Growers Association website. UMHI was formed to bring fuel cell technology into use in Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, the Dakotas and …
EPIC CityHome Sponsorship Podcast
The latest “Fill Up, Feel Good” podcast from the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council is about EPIC’s sponsorship of the CityHome™ Program (see previous post). The podcast features comments from both EPIC executive director Tom Slunecka and O2Diesel Corporation CEO Alan Rae about this program aimed at helping cities use an ethanol/diesel blend for municipal transportation. The “Fill up, Feel …