The rationale of indirect land use remains in the hot seat and the biofuels industry continues to stand its ground. Today, Robert Zubrin, author of Energy Victory and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies had an article published in Roll Call, a publication targeted at Washington, DC politicians. “The Irrationality of Indirect Analysis,” lays out why taking into consideration the indirect effects of biofuels production is a mistake.
Many in the biofuels industry remember when indirect land use took the country by storm: February 2008. This is when Tim Searchinger published his report claiming that while corn-ethanol may decrease carbon dioxide emissions, the process to create the ethanol may indirectly increase carbon emissions through expanded agriculture development particularly in third world countries.
Zubrin writes, “A more cogent critique, in my view, would be a moral one, as the Searchinger argument, now apparently embraced by the EPA, presupposes that it is or should be a proper goal of American policy to restrict the economic growth of underdeveloped nations.”
The article continues to highlight how creating biofuels policies using scientifically unsound research would ultimately affect policies in all areas including health care and technological advances. He concludes, “Clearly such an absurd theory cannot be accepted as a basis for policy.”
You can read the entire article here. In addition, Zubrin will be giving a special presentation during the 25th Fuel Ethanol Workshop in Denver, Colo. on June 16, 2009 beginning at 11:30 AM.
The ethanol industry is looking forward to a 
Two venture capitol companies have invested in an Israeli company with technology for converting cellulosic materials into fermentable sugars.
IDEA stands for “Immobilized Digestive Enzyme Assay” which Dr. Brad Lawrence with Novus says helps measure the digestibility of lysine and other amino acids in dried distillers grains (DDGS), the livestock feed by-product of ethanol production. “Distillers is one of the few ingredients that we have that does come from multiple manufacturing facilities with different methods that could impact amino acid digestibility,” said Dr. Lawrence. “We run this laboratory procedure that looks at all the digestibility of all the amino acids which gives us a tool to compare the economic value of distillers from different sources.”
A new ethanol plant in Merrill, Iowa celebrated its grand opening last week.
The 
Electronic trading hours for CBOT grains, oilseeds and ethanol contracts will be expanded in the morning by one hour and fifteen minutes, until 7:15 a.m., starting July 1.
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.
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.