Sioux Indian Tribes Adopt Wind Energy

Joanna Schroeder

Leaders from six Sioux Indian Tribes along with former U.S. President Bill Clinton have announced a new wind power initiative for South Dakota. The project is being assisted by Arent Fox a team including former Senator Byron Dorgan, co-chair of the Government Relations practice, and Communications, Technology & Mobile partner Jonathan E. Canis and associate G. David Carter. The project is supported by the Clinton Global Initiative.

Crow-Lake-Wind-Farm-S-Dakota“Having served as Chairman of the US Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, I understand the strong desire of the Indian Tribes to build ‘Indian owned’ wind power projects to create new jobs and affordable power for their Tribes,” said Senator Dorgan. “This project is a unique opportunity for the Sioux Tribes in South Dakota to chart their own destiny. They live on lands that are rich with wind resources and they can use those resources to build a large wind energy project that can both help the Tribes and produce clean, renewable power for our country for decades to come.”

Dorgan continued, “Together with my colleagues at Arent Fox, I have been honored to work with elected leaders of the Tribes to plan this project and I am especially proud of the recognition given it today by President Clinton and the Clinton Global Initiative.”

Through the project, the Tribes stand to infuse up to $3 billion directly into the South Dakota economy, an amount roughly equal to the impact of the entire manufacturing sector in South Dakota in a given year. The planned project could generate 1-2 gigawatts of power annually. Measured conservatively, that’s more than enough power to electrify the homes in Denver, Colorado for the next 20 years, the typical useful lifespan of the wind turbines.

The majority of the project’s funding will come through the sale of bonds by a Multi-Tribal Power Authority, which are expected to be made available to investors in about two years, following a critical planning and preparation stage. For this reason, the Tribes have partnered with the crowdfunding platform Rally.org to seek funding and raise general awareness for the project.

The Tribes participating in the project include Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, Oglala Sioux Tribe, Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate, and Yankton Sioux Tribe.

Alternative energy, Electricity, Energy, Wind

Atlanta Biodieseler Celebrates One Year

John Davis

CleanenergybiofuelsA Georgia-based biodiesel maker is celebrating its first year in business for its retail station. Atlanta’s Clean Energy Biofuels, which touts its biodiesel as the only in the country that is made using 100 percent solar power, threw a party for the one-year anniversary of the opening of their retail biodiesel station by hosting Atlanta Green Drinks, a monthly networking gathering for people interested in sustainability, green business, environmental and social causes, architecture and design, organics, renewable energy:

Over the past year we have had the pleasure of providing fuel to a wide range of drivers, from local residents to landscape companies to cross country travelers – Woody Harrelson and New Belgium Brewing Company’s Tour de Fat, just to name a few. Everyone who provides grease or purchases our fuel has been key to our success this year. By using the fuel from our retail station, you are helping prevent carbon dioxide from being emitted into the air, making a real difference in the environment.

Our biodiesel is the only biodiesel in the country produced using 100% solar energy. It is also completely locally sourced, meaning that every cent is pumped right back into the Georgia economy. Our biodiesel also meets the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) International Standard, which ensures quality and consistency that rivals conventional diesel.

The company also touts their turning of old grease into biodiesel as a way to lift a “burden on our landfills and sewers into the greenest transportation fuel available.”

Check out the pictures from the event on Clean Energy Biofuels’ Flickr page.

Biodiesel, Solar

SiNode Systems Wins 2013 Clean Energy Challenge

Joanna Schroeder

SiNode Systems has won the top prize in the 2013 U.S Department of Energy National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition. The company was also a finalist in Clean Energy Trust’s 2012 Clean Energy Challenge and earned a sport at the national competition after SiNode Systemswinning the 2013 Rice Business Plan Competition.

“SiNode’s game-changing battery technology will change the way we use cell phones, computers and even electric cars,” said Amy Francetic, CEO of Clean Energy Trust. “We are enormously gratified that we could help advance such a dynamic and creative company since its initial formation through the 2012 Challenge.”

SiNode, a cleantech startup from Northwestern University, is commercializing an anode for lithium-ion batteries that allows the battery to charge more quickly and hold a charge 10 times longer than current technology.  SiNode’s anode could greatly enhance battery life for electric vehicles and smartphones. The startup won first prize and more than $800,000 at the 2013 Rice Business Plan Competition.

“These wins validate the Midwest’s clean energy ecosystem and demonstrate its ability to launch viable businesses with homegrown technology from our world-class research institutions,” Francetic said. “We are thrilled to have a Clean Energy Trust company win the national title two years in a row.”

Clean Energy, Electric Vehicles

Hybrids, EVs Causing States to Ponder New Road Taxes

Joanna Schroeder

According to an article on Fox News, several states, with the latest being North Carolina, are looking at how to tax hybrid and electric vehicle (EV) owners. The states are trying to recoup road funding, earned via taxes at the pump.

Politicians are taking the stance that all drivers, no matter what they drive, are responsible for helping to maintain the roads they use as well as build new ones. Whereas hybrid and Nissan_LeafEV drivers along with other alternative fuel vehicles say this is the wrong approach to promoting U.S. energy independence with sustainable infrastructure funding.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), gas taxes comprise nearly 40 percent of all state highway revenues and more than 90 percent at the federal level. However, the Institute on Taxation on Economic Policy says revenues are not keeping up with rising construction costs, falling 41 percent in real value at the federal level since they were last increased 18 years ago. State are facing the same problems.

Some say the solution is to overhaul the gas tax system to miles traveled but this approach has not been well received.Read More

Alternative energy, Electric Vehicles

CRFA: Gov’t Inflating Renewable Diesel Numbers

John Davis

CRFA1The Canadian government says imports are flooding its renewable diesel mandate, but a group that works for renewable diesel and biodiesel says those numbers are being overblown in an attempt to hurt that mandate. This article in The Western Producer says the government believes the country’s renewable fuel content will consist of 90 percent imports, buoyed by imported soybean and canola biodiesel from the U.S. and hydrogenation-derived renewable diesel (HDRD) from overseas. But the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association says those numbers are a bogus attempt to water down and are intended to water down the two percent renewable diesel mandate:

“We’re seeing Canadian-based canola being shipped into the United States for upgrading and then sent back into Canada. They are describing that as an import,” said CRFA president Scott Thurlow.


Once Archer Daniels Midland’s Lloydminster canola biodiesel plant starts in September the flow of imported canola biodiesel from the U.S. will slow. 


The ADM plant will be capable of producing 265 million litres of the alternative fuel annually, bringing Canada’s total biodiesel capacity up to 450 million litres. 


The existing federal mandate requires about 600 million litres of renewable diesel per year.


The CRFA also questions the charge that HDRD is going to be such a large chunk of renewable diesel in the eastern part of the country. While the association acknowledges the high quality of the imported fuel, Thurlow makes the case that it will be not cost-effective to use that imported fuel.

“Its disadvantage is that it is ruinously expensive,” he said.


“More and more biodiesel is pushing the HDRD out of the marketplace and that’s being done almost entirely because of price.”


Biodiesel, Government, International

U.S. Firms Sign Climate Declaration

Joanna Schroeder

Twenty-two American investment firms with nearly $240 billion in assets under management have signed a Climate Declaration, calling on U.S policymakers to seize the American economic opportunity of addressing climate change. The move was timed with the start of the Global Investor Forum on Climate Change that took place this week in Hong Kong. The declaration asserts. “Tackling climate change is one of America’s greatest economic opportunities of the 21st century … There must be a coordinated effort to combat climate change—with America taking the lead here at home.”

Jack Ehnes, chief executive officer of CalSTRS, one of the organizations who signed the Climate Declaration said, “As the global economy moves toward a low-carbon future, governments that act aggressively to enact strong, long-term climate and energy policies will reap the biggest rewards. In order to tackle the global climate crisis, we must realize the strength of our combined efforts. That is why CalSTRS signed the Climate Declaration. U.S. policy leaders need to step up on this issue and embrace climate change policies as an economic opportunity.”

Investors have been an important force in supporting policy changes related to clean energy and efficiency. Last year, investors managing $800 billion in assets called on Congress to renew the Production Tax Credit for renewable energy, which was ultimately extended for another year. Investors have also been outspoken proponents of state Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPSs) that more than two-dozen states have enacted to boost sourcing of wind, solar and other renewable energy. RPSs have catalyzed billions of dollars of investment, thousands of new projects and hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs, including 30,000 new jobs in 2012 alone.

“Being smarter when it comes to climate change is the right thing to do for all of our families, and it also will translate into economic and investment opportunities,” said Oregon State Treasurer Ted Wheeler, who has previously called for better disclosure of climate-related opportunities and risks and who also signed the declaration. “I am proud to stand with Oregon’s largest employers and premier ski destinations to recognize that a cleaner future will also be a more profitable one.”

Read More

Alternative energy, Climate Change, Environment, Video

API Still After RFS

Joanna Schroeder

The American Petroleum Institute (API) is still after the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and E15, a blend of 15 percent ethanol, 85 percent gasoline by filing yet another waiver. Bob Dinneen, president and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) responded by Dont Mess with RFSsaying this is another example of oil companies unnecessarily scaring people and “it’s just flat out wrong.”

“The Renewable Fuel Standard has created jobs, helped the economy and saved consumers money at the pump. It’s ironic that the industry that brought us MTBE, benzene, tar sands, fracking chemicals, Deepwater Horizon, Exxon Valdez, and other environmental disasters is suddenly concerned about ‘consumer safety’.

Dinneen continued by asking the question, “How many times is API going to trot out the same tired study? They have pointed to their self-sponsored NERA study over and over again. But as we have noted in the past, that study ignores the flexibility of the RFS to make it easier for refiners to meet their RFS obligation. API is simply misleading people in suggesting the RFS will increase gasoline costs. The opposite is true. Ethanol is less expensive than gasoline today. It lowers prices at the pump. That’s the fact.”

“API is being irresponsible in suggesting ethanol harms vehicles. API points to the Coordinating Research Council (CRC) study on E15 that has been widely criticized by the Department of Energy and many others. Ten percent ethanol is safe and approved for all vehicles on the road today. E15 is safe for all vehicles for which EPA has approved its use, 2001 and newer,” added Dinneen.

Click here to see a review of the facts.

E15, Ethanol, RFA, RFS

Ethanol Veterans Honored During FEW

Joanna Schroeder

few13-schwartzkopf and hicksTwo 30-year ethanol veterans were honored during the Fuel Ethanol Workshop in St. Louis, Missouri this week. Kevin Hicks, research leader for the Sustainable Biofuels and Coproducts Research Unit of the USDA’s Eastern Regional Research Center, received the Award of Excellence. And long-time friend of DomesticFuel, ethanol dragster, and true ethanol champion Dan Schwartzkopf with ICM, was presented with the High Octane Award.

Listen to Kevin Hicks’ remarks here: Award of Excellence

Listen to Dan Schwartzkopf’s remarks here: High Octane Award

Visit the 2013 FEW Photo Album.

Audio, Ethanol, FEW

Study: Alt Fuels Developing Faster Than Expected

Joanna Schroeder

According to a new study commissioned by a coalition of investors, utilities and makers of alternative fuels, the alternative fuels market has developed faster than anticipated. Electric vehicle sales are beating early projections, the surge in natural gas supply is helping decrease the carbon intensity in trucking, and consumption of biodiesel and renewable diesel supplies are growing rapidly, according to the report. The coalition includes CalETC, Ceres, E2, the California Natural Gas Vehicle Coalition, the National Biodiesel Board, and the Advanced Biofuels Association.

Screen Shot 2013-06-17 at 9.43.40 AM“The Low Carbon Fuel Standard is exceeding our expectations and driving us towards a clean fuels future,” said Eileen Tutt, executive director of the California Electric Transportation Coalition (CalETC). “The standard is doing exactly what it was designed to do – open the way for new fuels and technologies to compete fairly in the marketplace.”

The report analyzes recent developments in the transportation sector and presents three scenarios that ratchet down the carbon intensity of transportation fuels 10 percent, to meet the goal of California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard by 2020. All three projections point to an increasingly diverse fuel supply, with more innovation leading to more renewable fuels and advanced vehicles.

Emerging as the report’s biggest surprise is the promise of substitutes for diesel, including biodiesel, renewable diesel, and natural gas – all of which can be produced from waste materials, including animal fats, corn oil, and the gas that would otherwise escape from landfills. The report stated, “2013 promises to be a banner year for biodiesel consumption in California.”

The report also highlights the benefits in terms of greenhouse gas reductions from two additional low-carbon fuel strategies: the addition of off-road electrification (such as electric locomotives and battery-powered forklifts), and improvements to California’s fuel-recovery and extraction processes (using solar energy in crude oil extraction or installing carbon capture and storage technologies at oil and gas wells).

advanced biofuels, Alternative energy, Electric Vehicles, Research

Report Shows Biodiesel, Natural Gas Promise

John Davis

CalETCBiodiesel and its close cousin, renewable diesel, along with natural gas show the most promise in the alternative fuels arena… that’s according to a report from the California Electric Transportation Coalition (CalETC). The report says the alternative fuels sector in California has developed faster than expected, and recent developments indicate the state’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) and its goal to decrease fuels’ carbon footprint by 10 percent by 2020 is helping drive that.

Emerging as the report’s biggest surprise was the promise of fuels that substitute for diesel, including biodiesel, renewable diesel, and natural gas. These fuels, which can all be used in trucks, are produced from waste materials, including animal fats, corn oil, and the gas that would otherwise escape from landfills. California drivers are rapidly increasing their consumption of biodiesel, up from the range of 20-­‐25 million gallons in 2010. In fact, “2013 promises to be a banner year for biodiesel consumption in California,” the report declared.

The group points out that biodiesel and renewable diesel don’t require any modifications to engines or infrastructure, and natural gas supplies and vehicles able to burn it are increasing.

You can read the full report here.

Biodiesel, Natural Gas