The Environmental Protection Agency has issued a final ruling that assures facilities producing ethanol for human consumption, industrial use or fuel are treated equally under Clean Air Act permitting requirements. According to EPA officials, this final rule establishes the same emissions thresholds for new facilities that produce ethanol using a feedstock such as corn or sugar beets regardless of the …
Indiana Johanns Adventures
Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns spent Wednesday in the state of Indiana talking about domestic fuel. First, the secretary joined Governor Mitch Daniels to break ground for BioTown, USA’s Phase II technology suite. BioTown is the country’s first effort toward creating communities where all energy needs are met through biorenewable resources. At that event, Johanns also announced the availability of $176.5 …
Bush Talks Energy in Missouri
President Bush talked about his energy initiatives, domestic fuel and alternative fuel vehicles during a visit to a Ford Motor assembly plant in Kansas City, Missouri on Tuesday. “The reason I’ve come is I want to highlight an important initiative for the country, and that is to promote technologies so we are less reliant upon foreign sources of oil. And …
UN Panel Recommends Increased Biofuels Use
The United Nations Foundation has released a report outlining a “roadmap for reducing risks from climate change.” Among the report’s recommendations are “mproving efficiency in the transportation sector through measures such as vehicle efficiency standards, fuel taxes, and registration fees/rebates that favor purchase of efficient and alternative fuel vehicles” and “expanding the use of biofuels through energy portfolio standards and …
Broin Receives Energy Department Grant
The U.S. Department of Energy has announced the awarding of grants to fund six cellulosic ethanol projects nationwide. Among them is Broin Companies’ $200 million expansion of a conventional corn dry mill facility in Emmetsburg, Iowa into a bio-refinery that will include production of cellulosic ethanol from corn cobs, according to a Broin release. Energy Secretary Samual Bodman made the …
Bush Charged Up Over Alternative Automobiles
A day after getting a close-up look at a 100 percent ethanol-powered IndyCar, President Bush checked out the battery-powered options on the White House South Lawn, calling on Congress to fully fund his budget request for alternative sources of energy. “It’s going to require collaboration between the public sector and the private sector. It’s going to require making sure our …
Company Announces “100% Green” Biofuels Technology
Arizona-based Diversified Energy, has announced a “breakthrough biofuels technology” that they say “offers a “100% green” biofuel product containing no fossil fuel components.” According to a company release, the patent-pending process, termed Centia™, “provides several key advantages when compared with other biofuel processes like biodiesel, ethanol and others.” Centia™, a name derived from Crudus Potentia (meaning “green power” in Latin), …
Natural Gas Solution
A California-based company will begin providing natural gas created from animal waste to the state’s largest electricity provider by this summer. BioEnergy Solutions, a Central Valley waste-to-energy company, announced an agreement with Pacific Gas & Electric Company to deliver renewable electricity to customers in central and northern California. BioEnergy Solutions is expected to break ground on the project in the …
President’s Radio Address Focuses on Energy
In his weekly radio address to the nation Saturday, President Bush expressed optimism that energy policy is one area where both Republicans and Democrats can work together and make some progress. “Republicans and Democrats both recognize these problems. We agree on the solution: We need to diversify our energy supply and make America less dependent on foreign oil,” said the …
BP Funds Energy Biosciences Institute
BP has chosen the University of California Berkeley, the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to join in a $500 million research program that will explore how bioscience can be used to increase energy production and reduce the impact of energy consumption on the environment. According to a news release, the Energy Biosciences Institute will perform …