Solena Fuels has received multiple letters of intent from members of Air Transport Association of America, Inc. (ATA) to supply biojet fuel made from biomass produced in Northern California. The biojet fuel will be produced at Solena’s “GreenSky California” biomass-to-liquids biorefinery in Santa Clara County and utilize post-recycled urban and agricultural wastes to produce nearly 16 million gallons each year …
US Ag Secretary to Defend Biofuels at G20 Meeting
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says he intends to defend biofuels at the G-20 Summit of Agricultural Ministers in Paris this week, stressing their importance to the economy and the environment. “America is working on developing new feedstocks that don’t pit food versus fuel but that create new rural economic opportunities and allow us to continue to expand on our efforts …
Millons Spent on Lobbying for VEETC Reform
Last week was a crazy week in DC as several amendments to alter or kill the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit (VEETC) were voted on by the Senate. While the first vote was in favor of ethanol (it defeated the Coburn amendment), the industry took a hit when Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-CA) bill was passed, essentially killing VEETC and the …
Book Review – Life Without Oil
Woe is a country who can’t break its dependence on foreign oil. But how do you make such a bold move when our entire society is built upon its wares? And even more so, how do you break the chains when there are no other alternatives? This are some of the topics discussed in this week’s book, “Life Without Oil: …
Blaming Biofuels for Higher Food Prices One-Sided
In an effort to curb global rising food prices and food insecurity concerns, members of G20 nations will be meeting in Paris this week. A major focal point of discussion is set to be biofuels and earlier this month a report from Oxfam concluded that biofuels were part of the reason food prices are rising. The ethanol industry deems this …
Green Jet Fuel Powers Transatlantic Biofuel Flight
Over the weekend, a transatlantic flight, flying with biofuels, landed at the Paris-Le Bourget Airport. The plane was fueled with Honeywell’s Green Jet Fuel. The Honeywell-operated Gulfstream G450, powered by a Rolls-Royce engine, is the first flight from North America to Europe using the 50/50 biofuel blend derived from camelina grown and harvested by Sustainable Oils. The flight departed at …
New Energy & Commodities Investment Team Formed
Cary Street Partners has formed a new Energy & Commodities Investment banking team focused on energy and its related sectors including traditional and alternative energy as well as agriculture services. Joining the new group is Craig Shealy who was formerly the founder of Osage Bio Energy, currently up for sale. Shealy will serve as managing director and group head. “We …
Modular Ethanol Production System Wins FiRe Award
The Future in Review (FiRe) technology conference was held last week and during the event, 11 companies were honored for their “world-changing” technologies. Scientists from around the world submitted more than 1,000 technologies for review and one of the winners was waste-to-energy company Easy Energy Systems (EES). The company’s technology is the Modular Ethanol Production System (MEPS) that turns any …
Friends of the Earth Launches ‘No Sense’ Campaign
Our ethanol FOE, Friends of the Earth, is back in action with a new TV campaign, “No Sense,” designed to encourage policymakers in DC to dump ethanol subsidies. The campaign was launched just in time for the first Republican presidential debate set to take place in New Hampshire next Monday at St. Anselm College. The campaign is a joint effort …
Biofuels Benchmarking Annual Report Released
Christianson & Associates, a CPA and consulting firm for the ethanol, biodiesel and renewable energy industry, today released its 2nd Annual Biofuels Benchmarking Report. The report found several key findings: profitably increased for the industry on average 8 cents; equity to asset ratio increased more than 10 percent; and working capital improvements enabled plants to decrease long-term debt by an …