Articles in Opinions
by GTM Research in partnership with Enterprise Florida, Inc. In recent years, the growth in the U.S. biofuels production and consumption has been driven largely by policy measures. Mandates are requiring increasing amounts of biofuels …
(ETA) The environmental impact of clearing forests to make way for biofuel crops is such that using fossil fuel in cars is better for the environment than biofuels made from crops such as palm oil.
Under …
E. Detlef Schulze and Inge Schulze(Science) letter to editor It is commonly held that planting forests helps to mitigate climate change, because forests sequester carbon dioxide into long-lived biomass and soils. However, our personal experience shows …
(European Bioethanol Fuel Association) “Meals per Gallons”, a publication against biofuels recently produced by ActionAid, is based largely on unfounded claims, disputed data and one-sided arguments says eBio, the European Bioehtanol Industry Association.
“In particular, the report …
(World Refining Association) We expect alternative fuels will have an important role to play as we look to diversify supply, improve energy security and reduce emissions. Looking at the alternative fuels produced today, biofuels account …
by Brendan Coffey (Cabot Wealth Advisory) Lately, we’re seeing increasing strength in the shares of ethanol-related companies. Commodity broker Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) has built up its position as an ethanol refiner, building its own …
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 Joshua Kagan (GreenTechMedia) …Although biodiesel has many positive attributes, it is not immune from the criticisms leveled at first-generation ethanol, specifically the “food vs. fuel” debate. Biodiesel production uses at least 10% of the …
by Oil Price (iStockAnalyst) …additives and substitutes such as biofuels will play an ever-increasing role by stretching beleaguered production quotas. As market forces and rising prices drive this technology to the forefront, one of the …
Palm oil from South-East Asia, sugarcane from Brazil and sweet sorghum in China are the most sustainable energy crops at present. Maize from the US and wheat in Europe have a much more negative environmental …
Our industry produced a record 10.6 billion gallons of ethanol in 2009. Efficiency enhancements and innovations in production combined with improved farming techniques allowed us to achieve this record with existing corn acreage and reduced …
(EurActiv.com) Industry is on track to ensure “carbon-neutral growth” in the aviation sector from 2020, but strengthened European Union support for research and development (R&D) is vital to help manufacturers deliver the green technologies required, …
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 …
by Gregor Heard (FarmOnline) THEY’RE back - after being flavour of the month in the middle years of the decade, renewable fuels were knocked out of the water over the past three years, and consigned …
(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 …
Garbrook introduced the 2010 Advanced Biofuels Resource (ABR), an upgraded version of its online knowledgebase that summarizes scientific, technical, commercial, environmental, and policy information on all generations of biofuels. The enhanced product features the US …
(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 James Kanter(New York Times)…In a memorandum, Jean-Luc Demarty, the top civil servant in the agriculture department at the European Commission, wrote to a colleague in December that “an unguided use of I.L.U.C. would kill …
by Joshua Kagan (GreenTechMedia) …If we consider that the oil majors are not in the oil business, but rather, the infrastructure business — and as long as they control the liquids that come out of …
by Sam Hopkins (Green Chip Stocks) …Cosan is entering into a joint venture with an oil giant that could be worth $12 billion, and its happy beginning to 2010 signals a renewal of interest in …
Editorial (The Washington Post) … Is there no alternative between simple do-nothingism and House complexity? In fact, there is. An alternative proposal increasingly capturing interest on Capitol Hill is the CLEAR Act, sponsored by Sens. …
by Josie Garthwaite (Earth2Tech) Amid the rubble of the first generation of biofuel projects focused on ethanol derived from corn, a new landscape of biofuel tech has taken shape. As Lux Research puts it in …
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 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 …
(edmunds.com) Oil refiners and truckers have sued California to overturn the state’s low-carbon fuel standard. The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, alleges that the LCFS violates the …
by Vivek Wadhwa (TechCrunch.com and The Washington Post) …China, in particular, is making massive investments and has a huge advantage from focused policy and large markets. Even though China is not likely to produce its …
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. …
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 …
by Katie Zenk (MNDaily.com) letter to the editor Over break, I had the chance to think about the recent Minnesota Daily editorial attacking corn ethanol. My hometown is Olivia, Minn., billed “The Corn Capital of …
by Neil Winton (Detroit News) It’s a bit like those old Looney Tunes cartoons, when the Road Runner races off a cliff and it takes a little while for gravity to establish its case for …
(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)). …
Following on the heels of the Forest Guild Membership and Policy Committee’s unanimous approval on November 10, 2009, the professional membership has voted overwhelmingly to approve the Forest Guild Biomass Policy Statement. This statement will …
…The “Canadian Blueprint” is a strategy that will enable us to take full advantage of all the opportunities biotechnology has to offer, provided all stakeholders do what is required of them.
This document is a call …
The Standing Committee of the Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats, acting under the terms of Article 14 of the Convention; Recalling that under Article 11, paragraph 2.b of the Convention, each Contracting …
The Algal Biomass Organization, challenged the conclusions of a published report in Environmental Science and Technology claiming that “conventional crops have lower environmental impacts than algae in energy use, greenhouse gas emissions and water.” The …
by Joanna Schroeder (domesticfuels.com) One of the biggest challenges for our country lies in the issue of how to create effective public policies that will grow the biofuels industry and reduce our dependence on foreign …
…It is one thing to sprinkle a modest number of electric-drive cars throughout a nation as large as the United States; it is quite another for even a seemingly small number of those cars to …
by Cindy Zimmerman (DomesticFuel.com) The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) has analyzed a new report out from the National Wildlife Federation on “Corn Ethanol and Wildlife” and found it lacking in accuracy. … The RFA analysis …
(National Wildlife Federation) A new report shows how government incentives for corn ethanol are driving farmers to shift land into corn production, resulting in significant decreases in grassland bird populations throughout the fragile Prairie Pothole …
by Don Hofstrand (Agricultural Marketing Resource Center) Crop residue, traditionally considered as “trash” or agricultural waste, is increasingly being viewed as a valuable resource. Corn stalks, corn cobs, wheat straw and other leftovers from grain …
Homegrown energy could reduce millions of pounds of nutrients from entering the Chesapeake Bay’s streams, creeks and rivers and create more than 18,000 jobs in the region, according to a new report released by the …
by John Vidal (The Guardian) One-quarter of all the maize and other grain crops grown in the US now ends up as biofuel in cars rather than being used to feed people, according to new …
by Ricardo Hausmann and Rodrigo Wagner (Harvard University Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs) A disproportionately large amount of the world’s agronomic potential for the production of bio-ethanol is concentrated in a subset of …
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 Carlos St. James (Argentine Renewable Energies Chamber) …Argentina, along with the rest of Latin America, is poised to begin capturing more and more of the growing pie that is global renewable energies investment.
…Clearly, the …
