by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  was a cold Wednesday afternoon in January when the news came through that a consortium called the National Alliance for Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts had received a $44 million grant …

·  Fuels Focus Day! Take part in this series of workshops to enhance your knowledge about a particular area of defense that is receiving a lot of attention
·  Representation from all branches of the services …

by Naureen S. Malik  (Dow Jones Newswires)   Makers of cellulosic ethanol warn that ambitious U.S. government goals to significantly boost production of the technologically advanced fuel over the next 12 years won’t be met without …

by Clayton McMartin(Clean Fuels Clearinghouse) To say the RFS2 rule is complex would be a huge understatement. In reality this rule is much more complex than RFS1. Recognizing this, and the fact that thousands of companies …

(Advanced Biofuels USA)  Contemplating the continued inability of the US to meet the biofuels and advanced biofuels production and sales expectations codified in the Renewable Fuels Standard, the Advanced Biofuels USA board passed a resolution …

(Advanced Biofuels USA)  Since the provisions of the RFS were written into the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007 without a realistic funding provision, RFS and RFS2 are, as a practical matter, “Sense …

In response to a paper published by two Cornell University professors – a paper that is critical of the Environmental Protection Agency’s calculations that grain ethanol emits far fewer greenhouse gas emissions than conventional gasoline …

A recent EPA announcement that corn-based ethanol achieves a 21 percent greenhouse gas reduction compared to gasoline is based on false accounting assumptions and could actually lead to more fossil fuel consumption, according to Cornell …

(DTN Ethanol Center)  President Barack Obama will continue championing biofuels as a job creator, said Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack when he spoke to members of the Governors’ Biofuels Coalition on Monday. Vilsack is hopeful …

by Holly Jessen (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  The U.S. EPA has come up with a new system for renewable identification number (RINs) that should be easier to use as well as cut down on the possibility …

(CleanTechPRWire)  DMC Green, Inc., announced that the Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded DMC Green two separate grants to support their on-going green fuel infrastructure projects in California. The two grants will help fund E85 …

by Holly Jessen (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  …(S)aid Sarah Dunham of the EPA, the EPA received real data during the comment period that helped shape the rule, including indirect land use change (ILUC). “I can safely …

by Lisa Hare (Yankton Press & Dakotan)  The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) recent final ruling on the national Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) was met with mixed responses by farm state politicians and organizational leaders.
“This is …

(NASC Online)  General Motors Co. is asking for more U.S. ethanol stations to help fuel its growing fleet of hybrid vehicles, Reuters reports. The car maker is producing more vehicles able to run on ethanol-gasoline …

by Peter Sur (West Hawaii Today)  A new biodiesel plant that will produce 2.6 million gallons a year is planned for Keaau. …Now an undeveloped property, a little more than a year from now the …

by Suzanne Goldenberg  (The Guardian)   The brains trust of the Pentagon says it is just months away from producing a jet fuel from algae for the same cost as its fossil-fuel equivalent.
The claim, which comes …

(New York Times) letters to editor Re “Sensible Rules for Ethanol” (editorial, Feb. 11):     While American corn farmers are pleased the Environmental Protection Agency recognizes that corn ethanol offers significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions compared …

Jonathan Fahey (Forbes.com)  It is becoming ever more apparent that there is one big squishy variable in the calculations that determine whether biofuels help the planet or help destroy it. That variable is called the …

by Douglas Fischer (Scientific American)  The Obama administration last week gave the green light to corn ethanol as a low-carbon renewable fuel – in apparent contradiction to California’s declaration last summer that the biofuel’s carbon …

by Tom Humphrey (Knoxnews.com)   A federal judge has rejected a lawsuit by the American Petroleum Institute that sought to invalidate North Carolina’s “ethanol blending” statute, which is similar to a 2009 law passed by the …

by Dennis O’Brien (Agricultural Research Service)  U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists and their colleagues at the Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute announced that they have completed sequencing the genome of a kind …

by Henry A. Stephens (TCPalm.com)  …“Our project is a brand-new opportunity with new technology,” Tex Carter, vice president and chairman of INEOS New Planet BioEnergy LLC, said Thursday. “We’re turning garbage into ethanol.”
…The company has …

(OPIS)  The New York Times is praising U.S. EPA for including the international indirect land use change (ILUC) calculation in its lifecycle greenhouse gas reduction threshold as part of the finalized expanded renewable fuels standard …

by Charles Zusman (NJ.com)  Boating interests are on guard against a move by the ethanol industry to increase the ethanol content of gasoline from 10 percent to 15 percent, an action they fear might be …

By Erin Voegele (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  The expected EPA approval of E15 later this year will be only the beginning. In order to bring E15 to market, the ethanol industry needs to support petroleum marketers …

by Brian Baskin (SugarcaneBlog.com, Dow Jones)   U.S. ethanol producers are facing their toughest fight yet to keep long-standing trade protections intact. Producers of ethanol, which in the U.S. is usually distilled from corn and then …

(Central Valley Business Times)  The mass production of biofuels could be a major step toward eliminating dependence on fossil fuels, but a number of factors have stood in the way, including the argument against using …

by C. Boyden Gray (Washington Times)  Little noticed outside a small policy community, an issue has quietly arisen in recent years that, while seemingly technical, has the potential to derail the nation’s attempts to address …

by Michael Gonzalez (Post-Tribune)  More of Gary’s men and women in blue could be driving green by spring.
The Board of Works on Wednesday voted to advertise for vendors to provide up to 120 “flex fuel” …

by Paul Bollinger (The DOD Energy Blog)  It appears that the Obama Administration is close to formally announcing a nominee for the Department of Defense (DOD) Director of Operational Energy Plans and Programs. The Director …

Rentech, Inc.  and ClearFuels Technology Inc., jointly announced that their project to construct a biomass gasifier at Rentech’s Energy Technology Center (”RETC”) in Denver has been awarded a conditional $22.6 million grant from the U.S. …

by Catherine Saillant (Los Angeles Times)   Members of the Southern California Assn. of Governments reject $11 million in federal stimulus money to set up 55 stations throughout the Southland. They say ethanol causes environmental problems.  …

(Earth Times)  UK-based Carbon Credited Farming congratulated NASA on the successful launch of the Endeavour Space Shuttle today. It blasted off from Kennedy Space Center taking with it new scientific experiments, including a study of …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In Washington, the Biotechnology Industry Organization followed up on a shift in US biofuels policy with a call for four new steps it said would increase the pace of biofuels …

Jim Lane and Will Thurmond (Biofuels Digest)  In Texas, Biofuels Digest columnist Will Thurmond, covering the National Biodiesel Conference, reports that “EPA’s half-baked, not ready for prime time beta version of RFS2 report to NBB …

President Obama announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a proposed rule for the new Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) that intends to spur the expansion of dedicated non-food crops for renewable energy and …

by Heather Zichal (White House Blog)  … The President’s Biofuels Interagency Working Group released its first report – Growing America’s Fuel, which lays out a strategy to advance the development and commercialization of a sustainable …

(Biofuels Digest)  Roundup of reaction to the new Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS2) and related announcements.  Included are: Nathanael Greene, NRDC’s director of renewable energy policy; Bob Dineen, CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association; Joe Jobe, …

(Biofuels Digest) A letter to Energy Secretary Chu from 11 cellulosic ethanol CEOs and directors: “The Department is obligated by statute to determine that LGP-funded projects offer a “reasonable prospect of repayment” (EPAct Section 1702(d)(1)). …

Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin C. Peterson (MN) issued the following statement on Renewable Fuel Standard regulations announced by the Obama Administration today.
“Typical of most decisions made in Washington, there is some good and some bad …

President Barack Obama announced a series of steps his Administration is taking as part of its comprehensive strategy to enhance American energy independence while building a foundation for a new clean energy economy, and its …

by Robert Kozak (Advanced Biofuels USA)  The QDR (Quadrennial Defense Review), which sets the Department of Defense’s priorities for the next four years, came out February 1, 2010.  The QDR, because it is much more …

by Robert Kozak (Advanced Biofuels USA)  The FY 2011 US Budget request is so long, cumbersome and detailed, that we’ve read it and pulled out some salient points related to biofuels so you don’t have …

by Dan Miller (The Patriot-News)    The state will provide $3 million toward an $11 million upgrade of the Keystone BioFuels bio-refinery production plant in Hampden Township (Pennsylvania).
The Alternative Energy Investment Fund will provide a $1 …

(CBC News, AP)  A $10.5-million-US research project aimed at mapping the DNA sequence of sunflowers could one day yield a towering new variety for both food and fuel.  
Researchers envision crossbreeding a standard sunflower with the …

by Joanne Ivancic (Advanced Biofuels USA)  Conspicuous by their absence from the Washington Auto Show was the US Department of Energy (except for a brief press conference by Energy Secretary Chu at noon on Thursday) …

(January 21, 2010) …It is imperative that government provide R&D funding, especially at the front end when private investments would not recoup the full value of the shared social good or when a new technology …

by Will Thurmond (Biofuels Digest)  As industry and governments enter a new decade and contemplate the outcome of the December, 2009 Copenhagen treaty, the ‘big picture’ on biofuels continues to get lost in the rhetoric …

by Phillip Ewing (Navy Times)  … Navy scientists will be able to use the Department of Agriculture’s knowledge of corn, algae and other biofuels to help develop the alternatives the fleet needs if it is …

(US Department of Energy)Secretary Steven Chu also announced the selection of eight infrastructure projects to receive up to $1.6 million to support expanded fueling infrastructure for ethanol blends. 
The projects will expand ethanol blends infrastructure at existing …