The $1-a-gallon tax credit that biodiesel now enjoys… but is set to expire at the end of this year… could have new life if a new piece of legislation makes it through Congress this year. According to the Northwest Arkansas News, Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) has introduced legislation that will promote several renewable energy options, including the biodiesel credit: Lincoln …
House Bill Seeks to Improve Renewable Fuels Standard
The House Agriculture Committee last week introduced a bill to change provisions in the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) that are “limiting the potential for clean, homegrown renewable biofuels to meet our nation’s energy needs.” The Renewable Fuel Standard Improvement Act (H.R. 2409) was introduced by House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (D-MN) and Ranking Member Frank Lucas (R-OK) along with …
Fourth Florida Farm to Fuel
Plans for the fourth Florida Farm to Fuel® Summit are progressing well and organizers expect the event on July 29-31 to be bigger and better than ever. This year’s summit will once again include leaders from the agricultural, government, academic, technology, and financial communities who will share their progress in reaching the commercial production of biofuels and renewable energy in …
Biodiesel Starts Shipping Out of Port of Milwaukee
Back in January, I told you about how a New York-based renewable energy company had announced plans to move biodiesel and ethanol out of the Port of Milwaukee. Now, this story from Milwaukee’s BizTimes.com says Innovation Fuels has started selling biodiesel to folks from around the world out of the port on Lake Michigan: The company’s 312,000-barrel (45,000 metric tons) …
Tax Credit Loss Idles Conoco/Tyson Biodiesel Plant
A joint venture by ConocoPhillips and Tyson that would have the fuel giant turning the meat giant’s animal fat waste into biodiesel has folded because of the halving of a key federal tax credit. This story from CNNMoney.com says the Borger, Texas refinery was idled last fall during changing economic conditions and government policies: A spokesman for Tyson Foods Inc. …
REG Consolidates Midwest Biodiesel Plants
Iowa-based Renewable Energy Group Inc. has signed a deal with three Midwest biodiesel plants to consolidate under the REG name. Biodiesel Magazine reports that Western Iowa Energy with a 30 MGY refinery in Wall Lake, Iowa; Central Iowa Energy’s 30 MGY Newton, Iowa facility; and the Danville, Illinois Blackhawk Biofuels, LLC, a 45 MGY facility in Danville, Ill., are part …
More MN State Vehicles Fueled With Ethanol
Minnesota state fleet vehicles are using more E85 than ever, according to a new quarterly report from the Minnesota SmartFleet Committee, a group tasked with helping to reduce the state’s use of petroleum fuels in favor of cleaner-burning fuels such as E85 and biodiesel. In the first quarter of 2009, more than 12 percent of the total fuel used by …
Encore Energy Buying Up More Biofuels Plants
Earlier this year, I told you how Encore Energy was targeting troubled biodiesel plants… ones producing below their capacity… for acquisition (see my post from March 16, 2009). This company press release says that Encore is now making that happen in five biofuels facilities with its new business development partner, Hardin Fuels: Four production facilities are located in Mississippi with …
Bacon Fat Biodiesel Station Opens in WI
A green fuel that also gives you the intoxicating aroma of bacon as you drive? It’s as if half of Homer Simpson’s brain had been implanted into Al Gore! A small, startup company in Manitowoc, Wisconsin has opened its first biodiesel station with the feedstock being the pork fat left over from making pre-cooked bacon. This story from the Manitowoc …
Soybean Growers Fight Back on EPA Rules
As I posted before, the debate over the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed rules for the expanded Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS-2) continues to rankle the folks who grow the biggest feedstock for biodiesel: soybeans. The crux of the problem is that the under the new rules, biodiesel made from soybeans has been deemed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by only 22 …