Armed with power points and statistics, officials with the U.S. Department of Agriculture held a press conference in Washington DC Monday to discuss the case for producing both food and fuel in the United States. “We think the time has come for USDA to join in the public conversation about the relationship between food prices and biofuels,” said Agriculture Secretary …
EPA Seeks Input on RFS Waiver Request
The Environmental Protection Agency is following through on Texas Governor Rick Perry’s request to reduce the volume of renewable fuel required to be used in motor vehicles and other engines. EPA is publishing a Federal Register notice opening a 30-day comment period on the request. The RFS mandate for 2008 is the equivalent of 9 billion gallons. The Energy Policy …
SunEthanol Awarded Third DOE Grant
The U.S. Department of Energy recently awarded SunEthanol a $100,000 research grant to help America develop clean transportation fuels from a variety of non-food feedstocks, including corn stover, bagasse, switchgrass, sorghum, softwoods like pine, and high lignin poplar. This is the third DOE grant that SunEthanol has been awarded in the past year. According to the company, this latest grant …
Farm Bill Promotes Cellulosic Ethanol
The Farm, Nutrition and Bioenergy Act of 2008 passed by Congress last week has some significant incentives to promote second generation ethanol. Among them are a cellulosic biofuels production tax credit for up to $1.01 per gallon; funding for loan guarantees to commercial scale bio-refineries for advanced biofuels; a program to encourage farmers to establish and grow biomass crops in …
House Committee Extends Biodiesel Incentive
The U.S. House Ways and Means Committee has approved the Energy and Tax Extenders Act of 2008, a measure that will extend the biodiesel tax incentive through the end of next year and provides a dollar-per-gallon incentive for all biodiesel regardless of feedstock. Passage in the committee gained the praise of the National Biodiesel Board: “I would like to thank …
Senators Pleased With Energy Title of Farm Bill
Two of the main architects of the new Farm Bill are more than thrilled with overwhelming passage of the legislation this week by both the House and Senate. “Senate passage of the farm bill conference report on a strong, bipartisan basis demonstrates support for core farm bill initiatives – conservation, energy, nutrition and rural development – while continuing and strengthening …
DOE: Wind Could Provide 20% of US Power
A new report from the U.S. Department of Energy says that America could get 20 percent of its power from wind energy in about the next 20 years. This agency press release says it will mean increasing the amount of wind power by nearly 20 times current production levels… a doable number according to the DOE: Entitled “20 Percent Wind …
Canada Ag Minister Defends Biodiesel, Ethanol
Canadian Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz is blasting those opposing a proposed mandate for biofuels in the country. This story from the Lloydminster (Alberta, Canada) Meridian Booster has more details: Ritz defended the plan in the House of Commons against criticism from the New Democratic Party, which once supported the use of biofuels but has switched its position. The bill would …
Steelman Calls Out Lawmakers for Biofuels Action
Missouri State Treasurer Sarah Steelman, who is also running for the Republican nomination in the state’s gubernatorial race, has labeled Missouri lawmakers “cowards” for changing a law that kept those same lawmakers and their family members from investing their own money in ethanol and biodiesel plants in the state. This AP story posted on the KY3 (Springfield, MO) web site …
Minnesota Adopts Biggest Biodiesel Standard
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty has signed into law a measure that will increase his state’s biodiesel mandate from 2 percent currently to a whopping 20 percent by 2015. As you might remember from my post last Friday (May 9th), the standard will be phased in over the next several years and will only be in effect when there’s adequate supplies …