POET has launched a new quarterly publication called “Vital.” Originally created to replace over 100 separate newsletters POET distributed every year, Vital is putting a face to the ethanol industry. Throughout 2008, Vital will base its editorial on four main themes: the future of ethanol, community profiles, industry information and environmental advancements. The first issue of Vital came out in …
Ethanol Standard Important for Second Generation Fuels
A Senate panel heard testimony Thursday that a reduction in the Renewable Fuel Standard would hinder progress toward next generation biofuels. Deputy Assistant Energy Secretary Steven Chalk told the Senate Environment and Public Works clean air subcommittee that keeping the current RFS policy in place is “critical to ensuring growth in all parts of the biofuels supply chain, from feedstocks, …
Where to Grow Alternative Energy
The world faces a daunting task in replacing what’s known as the “cubic mile of oil” consumed worldwide each year. But like any gargantuan task, it all starts with small steps. To help those small steps grow into sustainable replacements for our dependence on petroleum, this article from Forbes has some suggestions where the most fertile ground in the U.S. …
G8 Leaders Support Non-Edible Biofuels Development
G8 leaders meeting in Japan this week pledged to promote clean energy and carbon trading to curb greenhouse gas emissions and recognized the importance of sustainable biofuel production. The heads of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the U.K., and the U.S. said they will work to develop science-based benchmarks and indicators for biofuel production and use. The leaders also …
From Ethanol Plants to Potted Plants
A team of Agriculture Department researchers may have found a new use for a by-product of ethanol production – controlling weeds in potted plants. Rick Boydston and his team with USDA’s Agriculture Research Service recently completed a study on the use of dried distillers grains, or DDGS, as a weed deterrent in container-grown ornamentals. The study was published in the …
USDA Not Horning in on Livestock Feed
A federal ag department researcher says the U.S. Department of Agriculture is not trying to take the by-products of biofuels out of the livestock feed system… just trying to find more uses for what’s leftover after biodiesel and ethanol are produced. This story from redOrbit.com says Kurt Rosentrater wants to assure livestock producers that his studies on using dried distillers’ …
World Bank Report Not Secret, Not Anti-Biofuels
An article that ran in the British newspaper, the Guardian, claimed that the World Bank had kept secret a report that said biofuels were responsible for 75 percent of the rise in food prices. But now it turns out that the report was not secret and the number was not nearly that high. This story in the Wall Street Journal …