by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In Washington, the Senate Agriculture Committee has approved $800 million in mandatory biofuels-related funding for the proposed energy title in the upcoming Farm Bill.
…Yesterday, Senators Kent Conrad of North Dakota …

(U.S. Federal Register)  The United States Department of Navy (DoN) in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Aviation Administration (DOT FAA), …

(Biofuels Digest)  In Virginia, the NSF is calling for proposals for biological and chemical technologies, with a deadline of June 19, 2012.  The proposals must deal with the potential for commercialization of the innovation and how …

(U.S. Geological Survey)  USGS scientists have developed a new method for mapping grasslands that demonstrate high potential for growing biofuel crops with relatively little energy input and environmental impact.
The pioneering investigation used remote sensing data …

(Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center)  Students in Craig Kohn’s biotechnology classroom are on the hunt for biomass degraders. Scavenging for unique samples in piles of leaves or compost bins, they can use a simple filter …

(Biofuels Center of North Carolina)  The mission of the Biofuels Company Accelerator is to provide a place, intelligence, and connections to grow businesses, ideas, and relationships that contribute to the development of a biofuels industry …

(US Department of Agriculture)  Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the launch of a USDA energy website that will provide stakeholders fast and efficient access to USDA energy efficiency and renewable energy data. Today’s announcement builds …

by Emily Chad and Todd Taylor (Biomass Power and Thermal Magazine)  A veritable alphabet soup of government funding programs exist that can help you get your project off the ground. These programs include:
• USDA Biorefinery …

by Carol D. Leonnig and Joe Stephens (The WashingtonPost) The Obama administration has poured roughly $5 billion in taxpayer funds into the electric-car industry, offering incentives to manufacturers, their suppliers and even car buyers who might want …

by John Daly (OilPrice.com)  Biofuel sources currently under development include algae, jatropha and camelina. Of the three, camelina is increasingly emerging as the frontrunner in attracting initial investment worldwide, as global demand for aviation fuel …

by Bruce V. Bigelow (Xconomy)  …Jason Pyle:  …So soon, we will see the U.S. military as the leading customer for crude oil replacements. As pressure rises on the commercial airline industry (which uses most of …

(US Department of Agriculture)  The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Risk Management Agency (RMA) has announced a new pilot program of insurance for camelina beginning with the 2012 crop year. Camelina is an oilseed crop …

by Brent Erickson (Biofuels Digest/BIO)  Federal loan guarantees may be scuttled after the Solyndra affair – but should the baby really be thrown out with the bathwater?
…But the programs’ untimely end may coincide with the …

by Kris Bevill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  A recent USDA report echoes what ethanol producers have said for years: distillers grains are a valuable addition to the nation’s feed supply and can be used to reduce …

by Kris Bevill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  The USDA Economic Research Service has released a 24-page report offering an overview of renewable identification numbers (RINs) and outlining how the RIN market works in relation to the …

(National Science Foundation)  A sustainable world is one in which human needs are met equitably without harm to the environment, and without sacrificing the ability of future generations to meet their needs.  Growing evidence for …

by Erin Voegele (Biorefining Magazine)  The 2011 Southeast Biomass Conference & Tradeshow kicked off in Atlanta today. Nearly 325 professionals and 60 exhibitors are taking part in this year’s event, which has a strong regional …

(US Department of Energy)  Developer.nrel.gov empowers Web developers to use renewable energy data for Web and mobile applications
The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory is home to a cornucopia of data on renewable energy, …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …The fact that the US government doubled-down, by allegedly subordinating the loan to investments by a pair of hedge funds, during a Solyndra financial reorganization, is going to cost Energy Secretary …

(US Department of Energy)  The Biomass Program released the “Land-Use Change and Bioenergy” summary report. This publication describes the Biomass Program’s efforts to examine the intersection of land-use change and bioenergy production. It outlines legislation …

(US Department of Energy)  With support from the Biomass Program, as well as other DOE programs, including the Vehicle Technologies, Fuel Cell Technologies, and Geothermal Technologies programs, Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) has completed and released …

by Philip Brasher (Gannett/Des Moines Register)   Developers of biofuels already have been struggling to attract private investment. Now they’ll have even fewer financing options with the sunsetting of the loan guarantee program that financed …

by Steven Mufson and Carol D. Leonnig    (The Washington Post)  …The Obama administration’s vaunted initiative to catalyze the U.S. clean-energy industry — under attack for betting half a billion dollars on the solar-panel manufacturer Solyndra, which closed …

(Southeast Agriculture and Forestry Energy Resources Alliance)  As you know, Congress is in the midst of negotiations regarding FY2012 appropriations for the Farm Bill. Of particular interest to SAFER is the proposed cuts to the …

(Sustainable Development Technology Canada)  If you have an innovative clean technology, we want to hear from you. That is the message Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) sent out today as it announced its 20th round …

by David Hughes (Post Carbon Institute)  This week the USGS released anew assessment of gas resources in the Marcellus Shale, Appalachian Basin. The report is a reasonable effort by the USGS to sort out some …

(CNN Money)  Among the many incentives pushing the military to use less oil, reducing the number of casualties it takes to protect vulnerable fuel convoys is one of the most important.
1 in 8 soldiers killed …

(Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)  The ailing United States’ economy would receive a much needed boost with the commercial development of a domestic source of transportation fuel – especially if that fuel were to be clean, …

by Tiffany Stecker (ClimateWire/Scientific American)  A study looks into giving farmers permission to harvest cellulosic feedstocks on land set aside for wetlands and wildlife conservation
Growing cellulosic feedstocks on federally subsidized conservation land could balance the biofuels emissions …

(EurObserv’ER) …The EurObserv’ER Barometer regularly publishes indicators reflecting the current dynamics in renewable energies (solar, wind, hydropower, geothermal and biomass, biogas, biofuels) worldwide and within the European Union. In ‘The State of Renewable Energies in Europe’ two additional technologies have …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  As the Defense Department looks at its options to directly jump-start drop-in biofuels production at scale, we look at the Defense Production Act – the rationale, the process, the funding, …

by Yuliya Chernova   (Wall Street Journal)  The Department of Defense, an emerging market force in biofuels, is working on a new program to finance non-petroleum fuel production, in collaboration with the departments of energy and …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In Washington, President Obama launched the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership – ho-hum, you say, and I think I hear you yawning.
…“Invent here, make elsewhere” is a failed industrial policy, according to …

(US Department of Energy)  The U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Biomass Program will be conducting detailed biennial peer review meetings of its activities throughout the first half …

(US Department of Agriculture)  Projects Further Obama Administration’s Effort to Produce Clean Home-Grown Energy, Create Sustainable Rural Jobs
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced today the establishment of four additional Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) project areas …

(US House of Representatives Appropriations Committee) The House Appropriations Committee today (May 23, 2011) released the subcommittee draft of the fiscal year 2012 Agriculture Appropriations bill, which will be marked up in the Agriculture Subcommittee …

by Jim Lane and Ben Lazarus (Biofuels Digest)  …To be an ideal location for bioenergy projects, a site must have an advantaged combination of feedstock, infrastructure for production and distribution. Access to local markets is …

by Jonathan Silver (US Department of Energy)  …One of the three types of loans or loan guarantees offered by our office – Section 1705 loan guarantees from the Recovery Act – will expire by statute …

Projects will help develop sustainable, renewable biofuels in the U.S.
As part of the Obama Administration’s comprehensive plan to address rising gas prices, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced …

by Mark Rosenzweig  (Sustainable Planet) …However, moving promising biofuels technology from the lab to demonstration scale often poses a significant financial as well as technical hurdle.
Now, though, developers can take advantage of an expanded government …

(Renewable Fuel Association)  The American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE), Growth Energy, the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA), and the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) today praised the legislation offered by a bipartisan group of senators, led …

by Ben Geman (The Hill/E2Wire)  Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) is planning a committee vote before Memorial Day on legislation that would create a federal “Clean Energy Deployment Administration” to …

(US Department of Education)  The U.S. Department of Education announced today the creation of the Green Ribbon Schools program to recognize schools that are creating healthy and sustainable learning environments and teaching environmental literacy. The …

(U.S. Department of Agriculture)  Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced research grants awarded to spur production of bioenergy and biobased products that will lead to the development of sustainable regional systems and help create jobs. …

(Western Farm Press)  A coalition of 34 U.S. governors from Washington to New York to Texas have called on U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to alter the way his department reports the use of corn …

by Gene L. Dodaro (Comptroller General of the United States/US Government Accountability Office)  …Domestic ethanol production: Congress supported domestic ethanol production through a $5.4 billion tax credit program in 2010 and through a renewable fuel standard that applies …

by Patrick Canning (US Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service)  A new ERS food dollar series measures annual expenditures on domestically produced food by individuals living in the United States and provides a detailed answer …

by Kris Bevill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  The U.S. DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has launched a new interactive website meant to integrate a wide variety of data and resources related to bioenergy in an attempt …

by Tom Vilsack (USDA)  At President Obama’s direction, the U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA) is working hard to unleash the power of America’s innovators and entrepreneurs to build a green energy economy.   By producing renewable energy – …

by Jonathan Silver (DOE/Biofuels Digest)  …After a year of unprecedented growth, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office (LPO) has emerged as one of the largest and most productive project finance organizations in the …