E85 Hummer H2 Standard Option in October

Starting in October 2008, General Motors (GM) will begin making the model year 2009 Hummer H2 E85 compatible. The H2 will be the only model of its kind that has the standard engine as flexible fuel.

“A Hummer’s off-road capability and care for the environment are in no way mutually exclusive,” Hummer General Manager Martin Walsh said in a statement. “This is simply one more step in our effort to promote responsible adventure.”

“Using biofuels, specifically E85, is the most significant thing we can do in the near-term to offset rising future energy demands” says Beth Lowery, GM vice president of Environment, Energy and Safety Policy. ““We believe ethanol used as a fuel, not just as a gasoline additive, is the best near-term alternative to the surging global demand for oil because ethanol is renewable and it significantly reduces CO2 emissions compared to gasoline. Best of all, it is available today.”

GM plans on debuting the Hummer H3 as E85 compatible later in 2009. Nearly 3.5 out of the 7 million flexible fuel vehicles on American roads are manufactured by GM.

Car Makers, E85, Environment, Flex Fuel Vehicles, News

Oklahoma Going 100% Wind by 2013

John Davis

Oklahoma might be famously known for its “winds that come sweepin’ down the plains,” and one of the leading universities in the state is going to put that to work.

The Oklahoma City Oklahoman reports officials with the University of Oklahoma in Norman have inked a deal with Oklahoma Gas and Electric to buy nothing but wind power for the campus by the year 2013… a significant increase over the 10 percent wind power the school uses now:

[OU President David] Boren said the switch will cost about $60,000 in initial surcharges, but the university could end up breaking even or making a profit by selling carbon credits on the Chicago Climate Exchange and participating in investment funds with OG&E.

“It is our patriotic duty as Americans to help our country achieve energy independence,” Boren said at a news conference at OU. “We should become a national role model for the environment.”

Boren said OU would be the nation’s largest public college to convert to renewable energy.

The deal is dependent on a new wind farm going up near Woodward, OK and about 140 miles worth of transmission lines to carry the power to Oklahoma City… both of which still to be approved by the state’s Corporation Commission.

Wind

Wind and Biofuels Keep Iowa’s Economy Going

John Davis

While much of the nation’s economy is on shaky ground right now, places in the Midwest, such as Iowa, seem to be doing all right… thanks to wind energy and biofuels, such as biodiesel and ethanol.

This story from the Burlington (IA) Hawk Eye says Mike Tramontina, director of the Iowa Department of Economic Development, recently told a group in Fort Madison that the state is fortunate to be on the cutting edge of the alternative energy market:

While some industries such as housing and auto have taken nosedives, that has been offset by industries dealing with infrastructure, energy and bio-technology, he said.

Tramontina touted the Siemens windmill blade manufacturing plant in Fort Madison.

“If we could actually be lucky enough to keep our economy going and diversify moving into new industries like the new wind industry, into the new bio-fuels industry, into the new bio-economy and sciences industry … maybe we have a chance to absorb some of the workers we see coming out of some of the companies we are seeing out of housing, financial services automobiles and their supply chains,” he said.

Tramontina said the nation’s economy is shifting from an oil-based to a greener bio-based economy, that Iowa is primed to capitalize on.

Iowa now exports more ethanol than it uses, he added.

Tramontina admits that the high price of corn and soybeans has taken a bit of the wind out of the ethanol and biodiesel industries’ sails. But he expects they will come up with new innovations and increased efficiency to help keep them viable.

Biodiesel, Ethanol, News, Wind

Biodiesel Chief Blasts UN “Expert”

John Davis

While Joe Jobe can be quite the accommodating host when it comes to open houses at his new building, he shows no hospitality to those who try to smear the good name of biofuels, in particular, biodiesel.

This week, Belgian professor and so-called United Nations “expert” Olivier de Schutter tried to blame the rise in food prices on biofuels. But Jobe fought back with the best weapon available: the facts:

While the soaring price of oil is overwhelmingly recognized as the major factor driving food price increases, biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel have had a marginal effect on the increase in food prices in the U.S. – about four to five percent – according to the U.S. Department of Energy and the USDA.

Contrary to the assertions of those interested in limiting clean alternative fuels such as biodiesel, food prices would actually be higher without biodiesel. The U.S. biodiesel industry used only 12 percent of U.S. soybean production and four percent of global soybean production to produce fuel in 2007. Even then more than 80 percent of each soybean actually entered the market as protein for either human consumption or animal feed. We are proud of the promise that biodiesel holds for providing a sustainable and cleaner alternative to petroleum.

Jobe added that this is just the latest attempt to make biodiesel and ethanol into scapegoats by reciting nothing more than baseless attacks, including a discredited supplemental position paper erroneously reported as a World Bank “study.”

Biodiesel

Nickel Tour of Biodiesel Board’s Green Building

John Davis

Yesterday, I tried to bring you some of the sights and sounds of the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the National Biodiesel Board’s new, eco-friendly building in Jefferson City.

Today, I’ve got a few pictures from the inside and outside of the building I’d like to share.

Jenna Higgins Rose, the friendly communications director at NBB, gave me the “nickel tour” (although it didn’t cost a dime!) of their new digs. That’s Jenna on the right, showing me the new conference room with a state-of the art video conferencing system with the NBB’s office in Washington, DC (that’s a picture of the DC office on the screen). This is just one example of how the good folks at NBB are really practicing what they preach. Doing a conference over a video conference saves them not only thousands of dollars and many hours of travel time, but they greatly reduce their carbon footprint by not burning the fuel needed to fly to the various locations that this truly national organization covers.


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This is a shot of their lobby… a very welcoming place, especially on grand opening day, as they laid out a fine array of muffins, cookies and other bakery delights to greet the many guests who took part in their open house.Read More

Biodiesel

Energy Crop Trials

Cindy Zimmerman

Energy crop company Ceres will begin test trials of improved switchgrass cultivars and high-biomass sorghum hybrids at the site of Range Fuels‘ commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant, now under construction in Georgia.

CeresAccording to a news release, while wood residues will be the primary feedstock for the biorefinery, Range Fuels is also interested in better understanding the economic, environmental and logistical attributes of non-food, low-carbon grass species in the production of cellulosic biofuels.

Range Fuels“The goal is to determine the best crop management, storage and handling practices for Georgia, and just as important, the performance of herbaceous biomass in Range Fuels’ conversion process,” said Anna Rath, Ceres vice president of commercial development. She noted that grass species, including both annuals and perennials, can provide a flexible and reliable supply of raw materials for fuel and power. “This is an important step in demonstrating that energy crops can be successfully and sustainably grown in the area surrounding the Range Fuels Soperton Plant site,” she said.

Ceres recently announced that it will commercialize its first seed varieties under the trade name Blade Energy Crops. Rath said that the company will begin booking seed orders this fall for the 2009 growing season.

Cellulosic, Ethanol

Everglades May Get Ethanol Plant

Cindy Zimmerman

Governor CristFlorida Governor Charlie Crist says an ethanol plant may be built on land that the state is buying from U.S. Sugar to use for Everglades restoration.

According to an interview with the St. Petersburg Times, reported on TampaBay.com, the governor said he’s concerned about U.S. Sugar’s 1,800 employees, so using some of its property for ethanol production is one of the things he’d like to see.

Although Crist did not endorse a project by a specific company, an ethanol manufacturer backed by General Motors already has spent several months negotiating with U.S. Sugar to build a plant next door to the company’s Clewiston mill.

Negotiations with the ethanol company, Coskata, have been on hold while talks about the state buyout proceed, said Robert Coker of U.S. Sugar, “but depending on what happens in the next month or so, we’ll probably be sitting back down with them.”

Ethanol, News

Obama Tells Farmers He Supports Ethanol

Cindy Zimmerman

Ethanol was a major topic of discussion for members of the National Farmers Union meeting this week in Washington DC.

NFUDemocratic presidential candidate Barack Obama spoke to the NFU members by phone and pledged his support for new investments in renewable fuels and other policies that would benefit rural America. Obama also reiterated his support of the Renewable Fuels Standard. “I am strongly committed to advancing biofuels as a key component of reducing our dependence on foreign oil,” he told the NFU members.

“America’s farmers are ready, willing and able to play a vital role in reducing our dependence on foreign oil. With the right policies in place we can continue to feed the world while fueling the future,” NFU President Tom Buis said.

The NFU members also visited the U.S. Department of Agriculture to meet with Deputy Secretary Chuck Conner and other USDA officials. Conner told them that “the corn-to-ethanol equation has to continue to be a key part” of the nation’s energy plans and he will continue to defend it.

Ethanol, Farming, News, politics

Alternatives Could Create More Jobs Than Petroleum

John Davis

A report issued by the the Sierra Club, United Steelworkers, the Blue Green Alliance, Natural Resources Defense Council and Audubon New York says that investment in the biodiesel and ethanol industries, wind energy, and solar power could produce four times the number of jobs as compared to investing that same amount in the petroleum oil sector.

And this article from the New York Times says the number of those jobs being good-paying… at least $16 an hour… could be triple what the petroleum industry offers:

Such jobs are based on the proposed investment of $100 billion over two years, through a cap-and-trade program like those sponsored last year in Congress that would “drive private investments into clean energy and raise public revenue through carbon permit auctions.” And spending $26 billion on retrofitting, for example, could save $5 billion in energy costs a year, for a net savings after five years or so, according to the report.

Robert Pollin, the lead author and a co-director of the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, said many elements of the recommended plan were already in place, in some form.

“There are incentives for retrofits, tax and production credits for wind, solar and geothermal energy, and loan guarantees. I’m talking about ramping up dramatically the scale of these things. Why not do it now, because we know we have to do it sooner or later, and it’s also the most efficient single job program we could come up with.”

The article goes on to point out how one New York firm has hired 15 people who used to be homeless or incarcerated to haul waste restaurant grease to a facility to turn it into biodiesel… renewing energy and people’s lives.

Biodiesel, Ethanol, Solar, Wind

Biodiesel Plant Opens in the Heart of Oil Country

John Davis

At a point where much of the nation’s petroleum oil flows in and out of port, a biodiesel plant is making its stand to knock off the non-renewable energy source as the fuel of choice for a nation looking to wean itself from petroleum oil dependence.

The Houston Chronicle reports that Iowa-based Renewable Energy Group, one of the biggest biodiesel producers in the country, has opened a 35-million-gallon-a-year biodiesel plant right on the Houston Ship Channel:

The Seabrook plant, known as REG Houston, is the ninth biodiesel production site owned or managed by Renewable Energy Group. Added up, the company either produces or markets more than 300 million gallons of biodiesel per year, about half of U.S. production…

Renewable Energy Group executives in Houston Wednesday for the local plant opening said if the industry is going to keep growing it must convince customers that it is no longer an upstart business. It also must make the case more forcefully that biodiesel can play a role in reducing U.S. petroleum consumption, cleaning the air and providing “green collar” jobs.

“We really believe that biodiesel and ethanol and wind and solar are going to change the way we look at the energy complex in the U.S.,” said Jeffrey Stroburg, chairman and CEO of Renewable Energy Group.

The article points out that the new national biodiesel mandate that requires 500 million gallons of the green fuel be used in 2009, growing to one billion gallons in 2012, has helped the biodiesel industry go from a small industry to a major player in America’s energy future.

Biodiesel