by Paul Argryropoulos (EPA Office of Transportation and Air Quality)  This presentation given at the Cellulosic Biofuels Summit November 2009,  provides the EPA OTAQ perspective on issues pertinent to discussions related to the Renewable Fuel Standard and its …

… Unfortunately, many of the federal government’s existing policies exempt algae from receiving benefits similar to those enjoyed by other biofuels. Such oversight can be easily remedied if the government takes the following actions:
1. Financial …

by Mark Riedy, et al (Mintz Levin)  This presentation focuses on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Stimulus Act) with emphasis on “green” energy elements.  It dealves into US Department of Energy loan guarantee programs and tax …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)   In Washington, the Health Care Bill passed the US House of Representatives and included – as part of a 42-page “manager’s amendment”, a provision striking a biofuel tax credit used …

Congressman Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) issued the following statement on the Second Generation Biofuel Producer Tax Credit Act of 2009.  Congressman Van Hollen introduced the legislation yesterday to improve and enhance the existing cellulosic biofuel …

by Christine Costello, et al.  (Environmental Science and Technology)  
Many studies have compared corn-based ethanol to cellulosic ethanol on a per unit basis and have generally concluded that cellulosic ethanol will result in fewer environmental consequences, including …

(Or, Why We Need More Public Education on Advanced Biofuels)
by Scott Bittle & Jean Johnson (PublicAgenda.org and REnewableEnergyWorld)   …  Right now, too many Americans are heading into this fight unarmed. Four in 10 Americans can’t name …

Tim Holden (D-PA) chair of the Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit, Energy, and Research, held hearings concentrating on the future of next generation biofuels.  
Dallas Tonsager, Under Secretary for Rural Development in the U.S. Department of Agriculture …

Prepared Floor Statement of Senator Chuck Grassley:    Biofuels and the Environmental Protection Agency     Thursday, October 29, 2009
…  The first issue I’m speaking about relates to the EPA’s proposal to penalize biofuels for greenhouse gas emissions …

by Juliet Eliperin (Washington Post)  More than a decade ago in the northeast corner of Bolivia, a group of polluters and environmentalists joined forces in the first large-scale experiment to curb climate change with a …

A study published in Science magazine promotes a policy which would penalize American biofuels industries in US legislation and regulation and in international global climate change agreements.  Advanced Biofuels USA would like to point out …

by Juliet Eilperin (Washington Post)  The world’s policymakers and scientists have made a critical error in how they count biofuels’ contribution to human-generated greenhouse-gas emissions, according to a paper published Thursday in the journal Science.   …

Tom Buis (Growth Energy)  “Ethanol is part of the natural carbon cycle. It has taken the lifetime of our planet to produce the oil that is in the ground. Biofuels come from the top of …

(Renewable Fuels Association) Biofuels produced from biomass feedstocks (i.e. plant matter) are, by definition, carbon neutral because carbon dioxide tailpipe emissions from the combustion of biofuels are readily absorbed by growing plants. As such, the tailpipe …

(Nitrogen News)…  “The error is serious, but we can fix it,” said lead author Tim Searchinger, a research scholar at Princeton University and a fellow with the German Marshall Fund of the U.S. “The solution …

by Keith Johnson (Wall Street Journal) The law of unintended consequences strikes yet again.  Global plans to tackle climate change, from the Kyoto Protocol to the recently-passed Waxman-Markey bill, have a fatal flaw: They essentially encourage …

by Marshall Wise, et al. (Science Magazine)  Limiting atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations to low levels requires strategies to manage anthropogenic carbon emissions from terrestrial systems as well as fossil fuel and industrial sources. We …

by Kris Bevill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)   The U.S. EPA said 86 U.S. ethanol production facilities will qualify as “major” sources of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and be required to obtain Title V permits if the agency’s …

by Jessica Leber  (New York Times Climatewire)  The emerging cellulosic biofuel industry, stung by frozen credit markets, ineffective federal loan programs and lagging federal policies, will fall far short of mandated production volumes over the …

The German Marshall Fund on September 25, 2009, sponsored a debate at the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on biofuels and indirect land use change.  The debaters were Tim Searchinger, transatlantic fellow at …

Regarding international indirect land use change analysis:  A recent report on biofuels from the General Accounting Office, a nonpartisan, watchdog arm of Congress, confirms what level heads have been advocating for more than a year: …

Manning Feraci, Vice President of Federal Affairs for the National Biodiesel Board (NBB), testified before the U.S. House Committee on Small Business regarding the pressing need to extend and reform the biodiesel tax incentive. The …

Letter from EPA Administrator, Lisa Jackson to Senator Tom Harkin, former chairman of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee (below).  Upon receiving these assurances, Senator Harkin and co-sponsors withdrew an amendment to the EPA’s …

Representative Brian Bilbray (R-CA) and a bipartisan group of representatives introduced HR 3460, an amendment to the Clean Air Act to include algae as an eligible feedstock in the Renewable Fuel Standard (as amended by …

by Anne C. Mulkern  (New York Times/Greenwire) … It is a big bet with high stakes. Venture capitalists, including Bill Gates’ financing arm, infused Sapphire Energy with a combined $100 million. Exxon Mobil Corp. this summer …

(25 x ’25)  As Congress continues its debate on comprehensive climate legislation, any measure adopted must adequately recognize and incentivize the extensive benefits biomass and the production of biofuels can provide to address global climate …

(Trade Only Today) Legislation designed to protect boaters and manufacturers from the problems associated with mid-level ethanol blends in gasoline was introduced Monday in the U.S. Senate.   The Mid-Level Ethanol Blends Act of 2009, S. …

… We believe scientific data aren’t available on a global basis to be able to accurately determine the extent to which biofuel production causes land use changes in remote locations or the greenhouse gas emissions …

… The New Fuels Alliance submitted a letter co-signed by 20 leading advanced biofuel companies to Senators Boxer (D-CA) and Kerry (D-MA) asking for balanced carbon accounting in any upcoming climate legislation.   The letter comes …

 The 25x’25 Carbon Work Group (CWG) has been engaged for more than a year in a process of identifying key policy options for delivering climate change solutions from the land and allowing the agricultural and …

By Todd Neeley (The Progressive Farmer) Cattleman Bill Couser hit on the crux of the matter when it comes to the future of advanced biofuels like cellulosic ethanol, during a U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee field …

by Nicholas Zeman  (Biodiesel Magazine)  The National Biodiesel Board said last week that the Biodiesel Tax Incentive Reform and Extension Act, a piece of legislation introduced to the U.S. Senate last week by Sens. Charles …

From the report: … Objective independent studies now emerging on the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 suggest that the costs to the agriculture and forestry sectors from its cap and trade provisions …

(Reuters)    Makers of biofuels and plastics and chemicals made from crops want U.S. senators to change the climate bill to give them free pollution permits that would be needed to emit greenhouse gases under the …

by Cath Everett (BusinessGreen.com)  Corn ethanol industry accuses EPA of influencing independent panel to boost support for controversial biofuel carbon life cycle regulations.  An independent peer review of proposed US biofuel regulations has only served …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In Washington, the Center for Public Integrity released a report on lobbying over the impending Climate Bill, and reported that 13 bioenergy companies plus several trade groups registered to lobby …

In a letter to the US Environmental Protection Agency Administrator, the Renewable Fuels Association explains that stakeholders are unable to replicate or verify the analysis used by EPA in its international indirect land use change model.
The best …

(25 x 25 REsource)  Some stakeholders engaged in the climate change policy debate are expressing concern that carbon cap-and-trade legislation may lead to extensive tree planting and result in the conversion of valuable cropland to …

“For Cap-and-Trade to truly reduce CO2 emissions, many promising lab-scale technologies will have to be prototyped, tested, and commercialized quickly,” says Bob Kozak, President of Atlantic Biomass Conversions. “With the current wording, the proposed Cap-and-Trade …

by Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM)  (Politico)  …(W)e envisioned a biofuels industry that would move beyond corn ethanol. Scientists, the environmental community and some cutting-edge entrepreneurs were confident that biofuels could come from a wide array …

by Senator John Thune (R-SD)  (Politico)   As Congress, the administration and the private sector look for ways to reduce our consumption of imported oil, we should not overlook the most readily available domestic alternative to …

by Dr. James Hansen (HuffingtonPost)   … For all its “green” aura, Waxman-Markey locks in fossil fuel business-as-usual and garlands it with a Ponzi-like “cap-and-trade” scheme. Here are a few of the bill’s egregious flaws:

It guts …

by Allison Winter  (New York Times, ClimateWire)   … Chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and other members of his panel say they want to ensure any effort at wide-ranging climate legislation in the Senate will include all of …

by  Nathanial Gronewold (Climatewire)       Having helped companies explore the labyrinth of greenhouse gas regulation in Europe, the Big Four auditing and accounting firms are now moving quickly to build climate and carbon shops in the United States. …

Woody biomass from forest management is a renewable, low-carbon feedstock that can substitute for fossil fuels in the production of energy and other products — a potentially important tool in the national strategy to reduce …

In response to the climate change bill passed by the House on June 26, Senators Orin Hatch (R-Utah),  John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), David Vitter (R- La.), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Bob Bennett (R-Utah), Mike Enzi …

by Gal Luft  (EnerPub)  …  The bill’s renewable electricity mandate, which requires utilities to get 20 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020, would discourage the use of coal and natural gas, but …

By a margin of 219 to 212, the American clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 passed the US House of Representatives on Friday evening, June 26.  The next stop is the US Senate where, because it is …

 House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin C. Peterson issued the following statement on an agreement with House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman on the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009.

“We have reached …

Efforts continue to amend federal policy and widen the availability of renewable biomass resources that would be available from agriculture and forestry to meet the nation’s renewable energy goals. A number of advocacy groups and …