Next generation ethanol company Coskata on Wednesday announced an agreement with ICM Inc. to design and construct a commercial ethanol plant using Coskata’s biological fermentation technology. Last month, the young company made a splash at the North American international Auto Show in Detroit where a strategic partnership with General Motors was announced. Bill Roe, president and CEO of Coskata said, …
Food Versus Fuel Session at Biodiesel Conference
One of the most popular sessions at this week’s National Biodiesel Conference in Orlando was “What’s the Rule on Food Vs. Fuel?” which featured a panel of experts including Chris Schroeder with Centrec Consulting, Jim Duffield with USDA and John Urbanchuk of LECG, LLC. All speakers made the point that biofuels may be getting the blame for higher prices, but …
RFA to Testify on Energy Act
The president of the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) will present testimony Thursday to the Senate Energy and Natural Resource Committee at a hearing on the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. Dinneen’s intends to tell the committee that the American ethanol industry stands ready to do its part to make the law successful. Putting the importance of developing a …
NASA-Funded Research to Study Biofuels Crops Impact
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is funding a $738,000 three-year study by South Dakota State University looking at possible environmental changes that could accompany a shift toward new biofuel crops such as perennial grasses. The three-year study will focus on land use in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, western Minnesota and northern Iowa. “If you look at one …
Iowans Choose Ethanol
According to the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association (IRFA), Iowans chose E10 nearly 74 percent of the time in 2007. This is up from 69 percent in 2006 and just below the all-time record of 75 percent set in 2005. “Iowa’s ethanol sales were strong in 2007 as E10 was often 10 to 13 cents per gallon cheaper than gasoline without …
Beetle-Killed Trees Could Make Ethanol
Bark beetles are busy little buggers in the Rocky Mountain region these days, killing off swaths of trees thanks to a couple of warmer winters that have kept them more active than normal. Officials are looking at ways to utilize the dead timber to avoid fueling forest fires in the region and one idea is to use it to make …
No Budget Change in Ethanol Tariff
Reports of the demise of the ethanol tariff in the new White House budget were apparently greatly exaggerated. Despite hints from Energy Secretary Sam Bodman last week that changes might be made to the expiring U.S. ethanol import tariff in its new 2009 government budget that was sent to Congress on Monday, no such changes were included. Reuters reports that …
First E85 Station Opens in Phoenix
Western States Petroleum, Arizona’s leader in biodiesel delivery, has become the first Phoenix retailer to offer E85 ethanol, according to a release from the Pima Association of Governments (PAG). The news comes just in time for the Super Bowl, which means all those flex-fuel vehicles arriving in the state have a place to fuel with E85. “It’s a win win …
White House Budget May Change Ethanol Tariff
Indications are that the Bush administration will make changes to the ethanol tariff in its budget to Congress scheduled to be released Monday. Earlier this week, Energy Secretary Sam Bodman hinted that the White House’s 2009 budget may propose scaling back or eliminating the 54-cent-a-gallon import tariff. In a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Bodman said, “I would …
Ethanol is Big Bucks for Tax Coffers
Ethanol poured more than $2.2 billion in revenues into local, state, and federal tax coffers in 2006… and is expected to go over $3 billion this year. In this press release from the Nebraska Ethanol Board, The Economic Impacts of Ethanol Production produced by the group Ethanol Across America purports that ethanol plants are also producing hundreds of million of …