energy.agwired.com

Back in June, Canadian biotechnology company Iogen was waiting on loan guarantees from the U.S. Department of Energy to build a $500 million cellulosic ethanol plant in Idaho.

The company is still waiting, according to a report from McLatchey Newspapers.

According to the article, the loan guarentee is being held up because the U.S. Department of Energy office in charge of the process has only one employee and there’s no money to hire more staff to deal with the more than 100 applications that have been submitted so far.

Congress authorized the Department of Energy to back loans for new energy technologies “a year and a half ago,” said Jeff Passmore, Iogen’s executive vice president, “and we still don’t have a loan guarantee initiative up and running. That’s disappointing.”

The company has everything in place to break ground in Shelley, about 10 miles from Idaho Falls, including equity from such investors as Shell Oil. But it can’t close on an approximately $200 million loan without a government-backed loan guarantee.

Democratic presidential candidate Tom Vilsack, former governor of Iowa, unveiled his plan for energy security during a speech in San Francisco Tuesday.

According to an Associated Press report, Vilsack set out a seven-part plan for achieving his goal to “dramatically reduce energy imports and dramatically reduce carbon emissions.” That plan would include a reduction in greenhouse gases produced by the United States by 2050, principally through a mandatory “cap and trade” program among businesses and other institutions.

Vilsack would also require a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by automobiles, more cellulosic ethanol research, and strive to make the nation’s whole transportation system “virtually petroleum-free.”