The man expected to replace British Prime Minister Tony Blair has called for more tax incentives for the production of biodiesel. According to this story on the Scotsman.com, to make his point, Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown made a recent trip on Europe’s first biodiesel-powered train with Sir Richard Branson, the chairman of Virgin:
The pair travelled on a diesel Virgin Voyager from London to Chester which has been adapted to run on 20 per cent biodiesel for a six-month trial.
Mr Brown, the Chancellor and prime minister-in-waiting, cut biodiesel tax from 54.68p to 7.69p a litre (or about $1 a quart!) for the experiment. He said if it was successful, other train operators would hopefully follow suit, and he would “look at what could be done in the future” over tax rates.
Although the trial fuel produces the same carbon dioxide from trains as diesel, its emissions are 14 per cent less because it is made from plants which absorb the gas.
It’s an interesting experiment, but I did notice one comment on the post that seemed pretty skeptical that the average driver would see such a dramatic, nearly $4-a-gallon tax break.
Innovator of clean energy technology, Clean Diesel has inked another deal to share its patents with another company to make the technology more widely available.
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The U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Energy have jointly selected 11 biobased fuels research projects to receive $8.3 million in funding grants.
Biodiesel giant Imperium Renewable and algae-to-oil producer Solazyme, Inc. have reached a deal that will have Solazyme producing oil from microbes it developed and providing the oil to Imperium to make into biodiesel.
Harrison Dillon, Solazyme’s Chief Executive Officer commented: “Imperium has publicly expressed interest in the opportunity for algal derived biodiesel for some time and we are pleased to work with them to make this a reality. This agreement not only demonstrates Imperium’s vision to seek out new and innovative sources of biodiesel feedstock but it also provides validation of demand for alternative sources of biodiesel feedstock as well as for our technology. Imperium’s talented team and excellent technology made them an obvious choice to work with.”
Several American journalists are touring Europe, courtesy of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, a program that promotes cooperation between the United States and Europe on domestic and international trade policies. 
From 
After seeing the bioethanol plant, Gleason took note of its smaller size compared to its American counterparts, “The plant produced about 35 million liters (10 million gallons) of fuel-grade ethanol. (In the U.S.), A 10-million gallon ethanol plant could not maintain any efficiency, but they also don’t have the input.” He added how surprised he was how efficient that small of operation could be.
Republican presidential contender Sen. John McCain of Arizona seems to be changing his views on ethanol.