Big Oil and Biofuels: BP Pays $98.3 Million for Verenium’s Biofuels Branch
by Tiffany Hsu (Los Angeles Times) Big Oil: the patron saint of biofuels?
Petroleum companies — and their pocketbooks — have been working their way into the biofuels industry in recent years. Wisconsin-based Virent Energy Systems Inc. said in June that it got $46.4 million in its third round of funding from investors such as Shell. Virent, which can convert plant sugars into clean transportation fuel, also partnered with Shell on a demonstration plant in Madison that can produce up to 10,000 gallons each year. The oil firm now has a seat on Virent’s board.
And on Thursday, BP Biofuels North America, a unit of oil giant BP, said it is shelling out $98.3 million for Massachusetts-based Verenium Corp.’s biofuels business.
…“It should be pretty obvious that BP can’t afford to stay addicted to oil, but this small investment is not going to move them beyond petroleum,” said Jeremy Martin, a senior scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists. “BP should be building new facilities and making investments measured in billions.”
But others said BP’s move is anything but a publicity stunt.
“Biofuels is a real sector, and Verenium is a real company with real technology,” (Joel) Kurtzman (a senior fellow focusing on energy for the Milken Institute in Santa Monica) said. “The issue in the gulf shows that in the future, oil is going to be coming from more and more dangerous places, whether in the Middle East or under 30,000 feet of water and rock. This is a recognition that we’re going to have to look for our energy elsewhere.” READ MORE
Related posts:
- Imperial Acquires E-Biofuels for $19.15 Million in Stock, Debt
- Gold Star to Cultivate Five Million Acres of Land for Biofuels in Ghana
- Department of Energy to Invest Nearly $18 Million for Advanced Biofuels User Facility
- Inside DOE: A Look at How the $564 Million Integrated Bioenergy Grant Process Operated
- Exxon Bets $600 Million on Algae Biofuel Despite Doubters
