An ethanol industry group says the loan guarantee program at the U.S. Department of Energy needs to function more efficiently and effectively to make capitol available to advance next generation biofuels like cellulosic ethanol.
The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) is asking US Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Steven Chu to make needed changes in the loan guarantee program for biorefineries.
“A fundamental flaw of the loan guarantee program is that DOE is weighing the applications of emerging technology projects such as cellulosic ethanol using the same criteria as mature technology projects, and against more mature technologies, such as wind and solar, that have been commercialized in other countries. The challenges facing next generation advanced biofuels are simply much different than those of the renewable power sector,” wrote RFA President and CEO Bob Dinneen, who says DOE “must recognize the unique challenges of emerging biofuel technologies and establish criteria appropriate to them.”
RFA is asking DOE to take four specific actions:
1. Eliminate the requirement that applicants have year-long off-take agreements in place.
2. Recognize that applicants, by definition, may not have commercial scale financial data and to consider applications that “employ new or significantly improved technologies compared to commercial technologies in service in the U.S.” as outlined in the law.
3. Review applications that have been declined to determine what fixes can be made to correct perceived deficiencies.
4. Replace the $2 billion borrowed for the “Cash for Clunkers” program at the first opportunity.
We’ve certainly heard a lot about switchgrass as a biomass option for the production of ethanol. How many of you have seen it growing?
Switchgrass is native to the United States everywhere east of the Rockies. Ceres, has been working on varieties that will yield better in different growing environments though. Cory says that they don’t expect it to displace corn in Iowa but in the southeast with the difficulties in cotton and tobacco it becomes a viable alternative on open acres. He provides some estimates of what the crop can mean financially as the market for a fuel crop like switchgrass develops.
“We’re excited about this initiative because it’s a win for consumers, farmers, retailers and ethanol producers,” said Gov. John Hoeven, during a Friday news conference announcing the state Department of Commerce Biofuels Blender Pump incentive program.
Dallas-based Evolution Fuels, Inc. has announced a plan to put the biodiesel it produces in five of its own truck stops.
A school bus in Michigan has just hit 300,000 miles, and the bulk of those miles have come while running on biodiesel.
Coming to Omaha, Nebraska on November 10-12, the Operators’ School is designed to educate ethanol producers on the ins and outs of alcohol production, the latest troubleshooting techniques and technology used in the industry. The three day conference will be held at Scott Conference Center at 6450 Pine Street. 
According to the 
The second award included the Clean Fuels Foundation and the 
President Clinton was the keynote speaker during the closing session at the 
What do salt and oil have in common? In its time, the world was overdependent on the strategic commodity (oil today and salt more than 100 years ago). Our country (nor the world) is “salt dependent” but the world is oil dependent, but not in the way that most people define oil dependence. “That is what energy independence means: that it no longer matters who holds the reserves, that oil becomes much less relevant to global affairs, that it becomes just another commodity,” writes Gal Luft and Anne Korin, in “Turning Oil Into Salt Energy Independence Through Fuel Choice.”
Representatives from the