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, …
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’ …
PA Trying to Keep Up in Biodiesel Incentives, Mandates
Pennsylvania lawmakers have passed a bill that would significantly increase that state’s incentive to biodiesel makers and another that would mandate that every gallon of diesel be blended with biodiesel. This story in the York (PA) Daily Record says the bill from Sen. Robert Tomlinson (R-Bucks) would up the incentive to 75 cents for each gallon and is expected to …
USDA Report Good News for Ethanol
The USDA Planted Acreage report out Monday was good news, although it does not yet reflect the damage from Midwest flooding. Corn planted area is reported to be 1.31 million acres more than was estimated in the March intentions report at 87.3 million acres, down just 7 percent from last year. That is the second highest since 1946, behind last …
Louisiana Law Promotes Non-Corn Ethanol
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal this week signed into law the Advanced Biofuel Industry Development Initiative, the most comprehensive and far-reaching state legislation in the nation enacted to develop a statewide advanced biofuel industry. Louisiana is the first state to enact alternative transportation fuel legislation that includes a variable blending pump pilot program and a hydrous ethanol pilot program. The legislation …
Rural Development Policy
The opening speaker for day two of Farm Foundation’s Transition To A Bio Economy conference is our USDA Under Secretary for Rural Development, Thomas Dorr. He talked about rural policy and we visited for a while before the session got started. He says that rural policy is more important and timely a topic now than it has ever been, especially …
Rural Development Helping Rural Communities
We had USDA Rural Development represented here at the Transition To A Bio Economy conference by Tony Crooks. He works with their rural business cooperatives program and has done a lot of work with communities in the area of ethanol and biodiesel. The challenge he says we have today in rural communities is the large capital outlay to get a …
Grassley Promises Push for Biodiesel Tax Incentive
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) renewed his commitment to Congress renewing the biodiesel tax incentive… while he took a shot at the Grocery Manufacturers Association for what he says is a smear campaign by the group against biofuels. Grassley’s comments come on the heels of Tuesday’s vote, when the U.S. Senate came up just eight votes short of cloture to end …
Transitioning To A Bio Economy
Next week I’ll be attending Farm Foundation’s program titled, “Transition to a Bio Economy: Risk, Infrastructure and Industry Evolution.” They’ve been advertising here on Domestic Fuel and if you haven’t made your reservation then there is certainly still time. You may not be familiar with Farm Foundation or this series of programs they’ve been hosting on the subject of a …