Last year was a big year for growth in the American wind energy field, as the U.S. added more than 8,300 megawatts of capacity in 2008… a record year!
This article in the Des Moines (IA) Register says officials with the industry, along with a governor from a state that is really making headways in wind energy, were on Capitol Hill to warn Congress that the current proposed legislation doesn’t support the same continued growth:
A bill approved by a House committee last month and another under consideration in the Senate would require utilities to get a certain percentage of their power from renewable sources starting in 2012, but the targets are well below what the wind power industry wanted.
The Senate version would start at 3 percent in 2012 while the House bill would begin at 6 percent, and both could be lowered through energy efficiency measures.
Iowa Gov. Chet Culver joined industry representatives Thursday in meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to urge them to enact higher mandates. “The number does matter,” Culver said later.
To maintain the level of construction in the wind power industry last year – about 8,500 megawatts – the mandate would have to start at 10 percent in 2012, according to the American Wind Energy Association.
House and Senate leaders agree they would like to see the higher mandate but don’t think that 10 percent level would make it through Congress. Lawmakers from southern states that don’t have as much wind potential are seen as the biggest roadblocks.
Catching a cab at Phoenix’s Sky Harbor International Airport could soon be a greener proposition.
Biodiesel is still having a tough go of it… just like many other businesses in today’s economy. The latest victim of the economic downturn is Sanimax Energy, which has had to temporarily close its DeForest, Wisconsin plant… the first biodiesel plant to open in the Badger State two years ago.
The chair of the U.S. Senate’s Ag Committee says the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed Indirect Land Use Rule, which would make biodiesel ineligible for mandates and federal subsidies, is not good science… and he believes there are enough votes in Congress to keep it from going into effect.
Harkin has been joined in his criticism of the EPA by fellow Iowan Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who went to the floor of the Senate earlier this week to blast the EPA assumptions:
Biodiesel and ethanol have borne the brunt of criticism in the food versus fuel debate… being blamed, unfairly as it turns out, for the spike in food prices last year. The issue was one that came up at the recent World Ag Forum in St. Louis (see our coverage of the event over at our sister Web site, 
In this edition of the Domestic Fuel Cast, we listen in on some of the conversation that included American Farm Bureau President Bob Stallman; Henk Joos, the Plant Science and Agronomy director for British-based biofuels maker D1 Oils; former Secretary of Agriculture for India Radha Singh; Lee Broughton with car rental company Enterprise; Bill Horan, an Iowa corn and soybean farmer and a member of 25x’25 (an initiative to get the US to produce 25 percent of its fuel from renewable sources by the year 2025); and professor Nuhu Hatibu, CEO of Kilimo Trust, East Africa.
The first Minnesota E85 Promotion of the season will be next Friday, June 12th in Alexandria. The alternative fuel facility will sell E85 for 85 cents off per gallon from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.
The Pipeline Travel Plaza is located at Highway 27 W & Cty Rd 45 (3181 Evergreen Ln) in Alexandria, Minnesota. “If you or someone you know drives an FFV, stop by for a great price on E85,” said Marzak. 
A people’s choice award was also given to the entry that received the highest number of total votes through the duration of the contest. The photo submission, “University of Wisconsin-Platteville,” won this award and the photographer received a Passport hard drive.
A dozen cars have just finished a West Coast road trip that saw the caravan of hydrogen-powered vehicles make the nine-day, 28-stop trip from Southern California to Vancouver in Canada.
grew by a whopping 78 percent last year… following a trend discovered in an American Wind Energy Association study that showed there was about 17.3 megawatts of new small wind capacity installed in the U.S. and about 38.7 MW installed worldwide in 2008:
In a move that could set the company up to deliver biodiesel to all of New England, New Jersey-based biodiesel maker Innovation Fuels will open operations at a Connecticut terminal this month.