The biofuels industry is making a come-back with several successful IPOs (initial public offering) over the past few months. Today, KiOR announced its initial public offering of 10,000,000 shares of Class A common stock at $15 per share. The company raised nearly $138 million of proceeds from the IPO which occurred on June 24. Other successful IPO’s include the much-awaited …
Millons Spent on Lobbying for VEETC Reform
Last week was a crazy week in DC as several amendments to alter or kill the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit (VEETC) were voted on by the Senate. While the first vote was in favor of ethanol (it defeated the Coburn amendment), the industry took a hit when Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-CA) bill was passed, essentially killing VEETC and the …
Canada Fears Rising Gas Prices
I just returned from Toronto, Canada after attending the 2011 BIO World Congress (great stuff and check back as I post a series of audio interviews from the conference) and the country is feeling the impacts of rising gas prices. Consumers in Central Canada have seen gas prices rise nearly 30 cents almost overnight despite the drop in oil prices …
Oil Prices Drop, Gas Prices Rise
It’s Friday and that means its time to fill the gas tank. Just in time for weekend fun, it always seems like gas prices go up. Here in California, prices are hovering near the $4.40 per gallon mark. But this week, oil prices dropped 15 percent from a two-year high of $114.83 on Monday and today prices closed at $97.18. …
Time to End Oil Subsidies and Taxes?
As gas prices go “up, up and away” once again oil companies are on the hot seat as they announced massive profits. And while the renewable energy industry continues to be attacked for its subsidies and incentives, no one mentions the billions of dollars of subsidies the oil companies receive each year and have been for over a hundred years. …
Nestle Chairman – Biofuels Are Immoral
The Chairman of Nestle, who just so happens to sit on the board of ExxonMobil, Peter Brabeck-Latmathe, lambasted global leaders for their support of “immoral” biofuel policies that are starving millions around the world earlier this week. In particular, he attacked the Obama administration for promoting corn-based ethanol and reserved no kind words for U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack who …
CARB Tackling Crude Oil’s Carbon Intensity in LCFS
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is getting ready to move forward with determining the carbon intensity of crude oil. On February 17, they are holding a Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) Crude Oil Screening Workgroup Meeting. For those following the LCFS debate, you’ll note that still under fire is CARB’s final ruling on the carbon intensity levels given for …
Unconventional Reality of Press & Public Opinion
They say that imitation is the highest form of flattery and if this is true, than the biofuels industry should be flattered that their communication messages have been hijacked: biofuels are good for the country, good for our economy and good for the environment. But the industry having its messages hijacked by others – natural gas, coal, the petroleum industry, …
Why Reducing Middle Eastern Oil is Good US Foreign Policy
The renewable fuels industry is taking the opportunity to let the country know the value of domestically produced fuels. Last week, oil prices spiked to $100 per barrel amid fears that there may be oil flow disruptions due to political unrest in Egypt and surrounding regions. There is now speculation that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak could relinquish power over the …
An In-depth Look At Waste’s Role in Energy
A few months ago, I did a review of the book, The Story of Stuff. While the book was good, I was alarmed at the author Annie Leonard’s, unflattering views of waste-to-energy. For decades, municipal waste companies have been burning their trash. Known as incineration, Leonard says that this causes a multitude of problems, the first being burning pollutes and …