Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack addressed the 2012 Advanced Biofuels Leadership Conference, presented by Biofuels Digest, Tuesday in Washington D.C. and announced an upcoming Advanced Biofuels Industry Roundtable to be held next month. Vilsack said the Roundtable will be a joint effort between USDA, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Navy and will be held on May 18 “as …
Farm Bill Energy Legislation Introduced
Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA), Kent Conrad (D-ND), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Al Franken (D-MN) introduced legislation this week that would reauthorize and fund the primary energy programs included in the current Farm Bill. The Rural Energy Investment Act would include a mandatory total of $1.275 billion over 5 years to strengthen the biobased markets program, fund the Biorefinery Assistance Program, …
Senate Rejects Obama Push to End Oil Subsidies
Despite a last minute plea by President Obama, the Senate today rejected a plan to end oil company subsidies. “Right now, the biggest oil companies are raking in record profits –- profits that go up every time folks pull up into a gas station,” said Obama in a Rose Garden speech this morning. “But on top of these record profits, …
GROWMARK Tracking Biofuels Legislative Issues
Legislative issues related to biofuels on both the Illinois state level and the national level are priorities for the GROWMARK agricultural cooperative system this year, according to government affairs director Chuck Spencer. On the state level, Spencer says Illinois will be looking at updating sales tax incentives this year with the pending introduction of 15% ethanol blends in the consumer …
Novozymes CEO Named BIO 2012 George Washington Carver Award Winner
The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) has named Novozymes President and CEO Steen Riisgaard as the recipient of its 2012 George Washington Carver Award for innovation in industrial biotechnology. A panel selected Riisgaard as this year’s winner “to recognize his significant contributions to the industrial biotechnology field.” Under Riisgaard’s leadership, Novozymes is creating tomorrow’s industrial biotechnology solutions and improving the use …
W. Scott Thurlow Joins CRFA
W. Scott Thurlow has joined the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association (CRFA) as the new president effective April 2, 2012. Thurlow, a lawyer, has past experience in government relations, legislation and regulation. Most recently, he was a Vice President with Temple Scott Associates where he provided strategic government relations advice to both corporations and nongovernmental organizations. Tim Haig, Chair of the CRFA Board …
Quick Brief Delves Into Bio-Industry Sustainability
How do we make the biofuels and bioproduct industry sustainable? This question is answered in the lastest “quick brief” published by Advanced Biofuels USA. According to the paper, the key is the development of low cost, decentralized biomass to biofuel production systems that can economically increase the travel distance of biomass. It is also important to make biomass available year …
Ethanol Supporters Flock to DC for Biofuels Fly-in
More than 60 grassroots members of the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) are on Capitol Hill this week for the “Biofuels Beltway March” annual fly-in. The ethanol advocates were greeted on Tuesday by U.S. Senators Ben Nelson (D-NE) and John Thune (R-SD) and they have nearly 200 meetings scheduled with Congressional representatives and staff over the course of two days …
Ethanol Advocates Unite for RFS
Eight ethanol-advocating organizations joined together to champion the success of the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) in a letter to Congressional leaders this week. The letter addressed to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Senator Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), House Speaker John Boehner(R-OH) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) highlighted “ethanol’s proven ability to lower gas prices and reduce …
Dates for 2012 Process Optimization Seminar Announced
It may seem like only yesterday the last Process Optimization Seminar took place but the next seminar is right around the corner. You do not want to miss out; every past seminar has been sold out well before the deadline. This year’s conference will be taking place on July 17-18, 2012 at the Hilton President Kansas City. The seminar is …