Both the California-based New Fuels Alliance and the LA Times have taken fuel refiner Tesoro to task for suing the state over a regulation that would boost ethanol consumption in the state by 2010.
The company, which operates refineries in Los Angeles and the city of Martinez, says “the new fuel specifications could conflict with the state’s push to cut greenhouse gas emissions and could have ramifications for the environment and U.S. food prices.”
The New Fuels Alliance, a group that includes the California Renewable Fuels Partnership, released a statement calling the suit “a blatant attempt by Tesoro to try to use the regulatory and legal process to gain competitive advantage in the market place. Other oil companies are moving toward increased ethanol use to extend gasoline supply, lower cost, and even increase profits. Tesoro didn’t see this market shift coming and is now trying to gum up the works based on a feigned and disingenuous concern about climate change and food prices.”
The Alliance is calling on the California Air Resource Board to request immediate dismissal of the case.
The LA Times blog GreenSpace points out that the “text of the lawsuit, filed in Sacramento Superior Court, says precious little about Tesoro’s worries over food supply and prices. Rather, the company’s core complaints are that California Air Resources Board’s new rule: takes effect too quickly, forces companies to pay for emissions offsets if they don’t meet the 2010 deadline, and requires expensive refinery modifications that might not be compatible with California’s still-evolving Low Carbon Fuel Standard.”
Reporter Elizabeth Douglass concludes, “The problem for Tesoro and other refiners is that the whole move to biofuels is eating away demand for its products. That might have something to do with the company’s sudden concern about ethanol’s impact on the environment and the nation’s food supply.”
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“Biobutanol and cellulosic ethanol have the ability to transform the biofuels industry,” Vice President & General Manager John Ranieri told an investor conference last week. “Our flexible business models allow us to penetrate different geographies with the ability to convert various feedstocks to meet the significant global demand for biofuels.”
Department of Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer and Department of Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman are planning to release the National Biofuels Action Plan tomorrow in Washington DC.
In just about a week and a half, government officials, bioenergy experts and leaders in the private industry will gather in St. Louis, Mo., for the third in a series of conferences sponsored by the Farm Foundation addressing the issues facing rural areas as they move to a bioeconomy.
“The purpose of the conference is to provide an unbiased presentation of issues that are going to affect us in agriculture and otherwise as we transition to a bioeconomy.”
The land around Lake Okeechobee has long been one of the largest sugarcane producing regions in the nation. One company now wants to use a tract of land along the lake to produce sweet sorghum for ethanol.
Company CEO Aaron Pepper says they currently has sweet sorghum field trials underway in various types of soils in the counties surrounding Lake Okeechobee. He is shown here inspecting some of those trials. The company is negotiating with area farmers about planting sweet sorghum, which is similar to the sugarcane familiar in the area and grows up to 15 feet tall, but can yield two harvests per year and so could be planted on sugarcane acreage when it is fallow.
Ethanol plants are cool in a lot of ways. They’re producing a domestic fuel solution to our energy problems and that lessens our dependency on foreign oil for example.
“This report proves that being green is not optional, it is necessary for a healthy and robust economy,” said U.S. Conference of Mayors President Miami Mayor Manny Diaz. “Creating green jobs is an investment we must continue to make.”
Investors have stepped in to give troubled Imperium Renewables, which operates a 100-million gallon biodiesel refinery in the Seattle area, a boost to repay some of its debts.
The U.S. House of Representatives has reversed direction from just a week ago and approved 263-171 the Senate’s version of the $700 billion bill to fix the nation’s financial crisis.