A new campaign funded by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has created controversy in the biofuels industry. The campaign was developed, according to a blog post by Nathanael Greene, “to sharpen the distinction between biofuels done right and biofuels done wrong.” The campaign cites that ethanol plants using coal power is “wrong” as well as biofuels that “pillage” natural resources are done “wrong”. How to do them right? Use crops like switchgrass that use less water and fertilizer.
Sean O’Hanlon, the executive director of the American Biofuels Council (ABC), responded to the campaign by noting that NRDC made an error in that they just made themselves feedstock specific.
However, in an article published by OPIS, Greene clarified the intention of the campaign. “Congress and the country are working now to create a clean energy future and grow green jobs. If biofuels are going to be part of that future, we need to get them right. All biofuels — first generation, advanced, cellulosic, algae, you name it — they all need to be done right and measured against strict performance standards.”
“Today, environmental groups are the ones who are dictating what fuels, methodology and technology the biofuels industry should be developing.” said O’Hanlon. “What the biofuels industry should have been doing from day one is producing its fuel using wind, solar, hydo-electric, and geothermal power.”
O’Hanlon concluded by saying, “In order to produce biofuels sustainably, there are additional issues we are going to face including water use. The industry needs to start preparing for this now.” There are many experts who would agree that water use is going to come under fire in the next few months. Let’s hope the industry gets out ahead of the issue and doesn’t face another crisis similar to food versus fuel.
I went back in time this week (if you can call five years ago back in time) and read 
has been writing and teaching in sustainability and energy for many years to agree or disagree with him, he is one to watch.
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A report by the American Lung Association says that the air in America is pretty bad. But local associations of that parent organization believe that biodiesel is key to cleaning it up.
“Give your support to any effort to advance technology that emit lower levels of pollution like biodiesel,” said [Professor of Environmental and Occupational Medicine at the Howard University College of Medicine and Vice Chairman-Elect of ALADC Dr. Bailus Walker, Jr.]. He also showed attendees the Journal of Inhalation and Toxicology published issue on biodiesel that resulted from a summit the ALADC and the American Lung Association of the Upper Midwest convened in 2006.
National Biodiesel Board member Ben Wootton of Keystone Biodiesel attended the ALADC news conference. The company will be supplying fuel for the District of Columbia, which is preparing to switch to a biodiesel blend. Wootton, an asthma sufferer, became interested in working in the biodiesel industry after learning about biodiesel’s air quality benefits.
Meeting the challenge of providing the world’s food, feed, fiber and, especially, fuel is what’s facing the American farmer today, and it’s part of a competition the Farm Foundation is sponsoring.
Transportation Studies
During a recent session of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce aviation forum, 
More than 30 organizations are requesting an extension of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) comment period for a petition that would increase the permitted amount of ethanol in gasoline from its current 10 percent level to 15 percent. The organizations signing on to the request range from livestock and meat associations to food processors, environmental groups and representatives of boats and small engine makers. 
“It’s a little known fact that we are growing five times as much corn as our grandfathers did in the 1930s on 20 percent less land,” says Mark Lambert, director of the