GM-Holden will soon be offering its Commodore as E85 compatible in Australia. The group says that biofuels will become a leading alternative fuel for the company.
“We are committed to having locally built Holdens running E85 in the market by 2010,” said GM-Holden managing director, Mark Reuss. “Ethanol is a renewable fuel and the costs are relatively small to modify existing technologies to make it viable. It has great potential, particularly the ability to produce it from waste.”
The company is also in discussions with with biofuels company Coskata in the US to build the first local cellulosic ethanol plant in Australia.
“The key to success will be innovation and an eye for using less foreign oil by increasing efficiency or replacing it altogether with Australian energy alternatives,” Reuss added.
Rural America’s infrastructure challenges cut to the heart of the six challenges outlined during this morning’s session of the Farm Foundation’s Food and Agriculture Policy Summit being held in Washington, D.C. 
“The engineers will tell you [the pavements] look OK on the surface, but underneath it is starting to crumble.” Griffin says by the time the damage is clearly noticeable, it costs two to three times as opposed to normal maintenance and repair.
The world’s population will grow by 33 percent by the year 2040, but the amount of farmland to feed and fuel that growing demand won’t have to grow by that same one-third… that’s what attendees at the Farm Foundation’s Food and Agriculture Policy Summit in Washington, D.C. heard this morning.
“Agriculture’s role is not one of conflict between food or fuel. It is one that is quite compatible. Producing more food results in more fuel being produced as well.”
General Motors’ Rick Wagoner (left) made the trip in a black hybrid Chevrolet Malibu, accompanied by a flex fuel Buick Lucerne, which runs on fuel that is 85 percent ethanol, and the high mileage Chevy Cobalt XFE. “Part of this is being done to showcase fuel-efficient and environment-friendly vehicles,” said GM spokesman Tom Wilkinson.
Ford’s Chief Executive Alan Mulally (center) traveled to the nation’s capital in a Ford Escape hybrid, which also runs on up to 85 percent ethanol. No word in the news reports what Robert Nardelli, chairman and chief executive of Chrysler, was driving.
The National Biodiesel Board is taking exception with a report that seems to equate unsustainable practices to produce biodiesel in some parts of the world with what American biodiesel producers are doing
It was a pretty amazing event today at the Farm Foundation’s Food and Agriculture Policy Summit in Washington, D.C. today.
A big part of this historic, bipartisan conversation was the role of biodiesel and ethanol, as well as other sources of renewable fuels.
As expected, bankruptcy law and the ruling will allow VeraSun to reject any contracts that are economically disadvantageous to VeraSun, including corn growers’ contracts.
The Minnesota Department of Agriculture has extended its deadline to apply for grants to help the state’s biodiesel industry.
Moberly, Mo.-based Producers’ Choice Soy Energy LLC has received a $9.5 million construction loan from Advantage Capital Partners, a venture capital and small business finance firm. The loan was made possible through state and federal tax programs, including the Missouri New Markets Development program, that are designed to stimulate growth in underserved communities.