In a previous post, I told you how I felt that with all the holidays and the bowl game season how this was truly the most wonderful time of the year. Unfortunately, it leads into the most DREADED time of the year… tax time. The end of the year means that lots of folks will be getting their tax information …
Ethanol Report with RFA President
In this edition of the “Ethanol Report” podcast, Renewable Fuels Association president Bob Dinneen talks about President-elect Obama’s cabinet choices, input from the ethanol industry on “green jobs”, and why he believes the industry will meet future goals for cellulosic production under the Renewable Fuels Standard. You can listen to “The Ethanol Report” on-line here: [audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/rfa/ethanol-report-23.mp3] Or you can subscribe …
POET Pitches in to Help Santa
Leave it to the world’s largest ethanol producer to also be in contention for one of the largest hearts as well. Our friends at the Poet Biorefining plant in Glenville, Minnesota are playing Santa this week to 27 families in their local area who just need a little help this Christmas. This story from the Albert Lea (MN) Tribune explains …
Big Investment for Corn-Oil Biodiesel
GreenShift Corporation has announced it has received a $38 million investment to produce 20 million gallons per year of biodiesel from corn oil, squeezed from the corn used in ethanol plants. This release posted on MarketWatch.com says GreenShift use the money to build twelve corn oil extraction facilities and to expand the capacity of GreenShift’s NextDiesel biodiesel refinery in Adrian, …
Plant Shut Off Could Be Key to Cellulosic Ethanol
Keeping on a mechanism in plants that naturally shuts down cellulose production could play a key role in enhancing biomass production for plant-based biofuels. Purdue University researcher Nicholas Carpita says they have discovered that small-interfering RNAs (siRNAs) play a normal role in plant development by shutting off genes involved in primary cell wall growth in order to begin development of …
Green Jobs Fuel US Employment Future
Nothing like high fuels prices this past summer to really jumpstart the domestic job market in the U.S… at least in the alternative energy sector. This article from the Examiner.com offers a pretty interesting look at how biofuels, wind and solar are growing jobs in this country that seem to be safe from being outsourced somewhere overseas: Maritza Schäfer is …
Obama’s Ag and Interior Choices are Pro-Ethanol
According to media reports, President-elect Obama will announce former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack as his choice for secretary of agriculture at a press conference scheduled for Wednesday. Obama also plans to announce his nomination of Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar as interior secretary at the same news conference. Vilsack served two terms as governor of Iowa from from 1998 until 2006 …
Comments Sought on Ethanol Specific Corn
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is seeking comments on a petition to deregulate corn that has been genetically engineered to produce a microbial enzyme that facilitates ethanol production. USDA’s Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has regulated the corn, developed by Syngenta, since 2002. If approved, the petition would allow the corn, which goes by the name Event 3272, to …
Sweet New Crop for Ethanol
A Seattle-based biotechnology company is working on developing a crop that is somewhat of a cross between corn and sugar cane. According to a story in the Kansas City Star, Targeted Growth has been testing “sugarcorn” in test plots in Illinois and Indiana. Sugarcorn is a takeoff on a type of maize grown in the tropics, which grows traditional ears …
Biodiesel, Ethanol Part of Alberta RFS
Some of our friends north of the border seem to be taking a cue from us, as Alberta has enacted a renewable fuel standard of 5% ethanol and 2% biodiesel by 2010 as part of Premier Ed Stelmach’s Provincial Energy Strategy: This new standard of five-per-cent ethanol in gasoline and two-per-cent renewable content in diesel by 2010 will help Alberta …