biofuels

Biofuels reps ask EPA to exclude greenhouse gas emissions considerations from rulemaking

The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to release new rules soon regarding the Renewable Fuel Standard established last year under the Energy Independence and Security Act. The legislation required the EPA take into account the life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions from the production of various biofuels, including indirect emissions from things like land use changes. On […]

Ethanol industry craters; investors take a bath; world probably fails to learn lesson

VeraSun, one of nation’s largest ethanol producers, mulls bankruptcy. Ethanex Energy files. Alternative Energy Sources shuts down. E3 Biofuels files. A trend? Seems so: It was an American dream that has failed to become a reality. For much of the last decade, enthusiasts from President George W. Bush down have touted corn-based ethanol as something […]

Big Ethanol descends on Africa for land, water, and sympathetic governments

A few weeks ago I was in Mozambique for a conference that brought together NGOs, small-scale farmers, agricultural associations, and local media to discuss the impact of biofuel production in southern Africa. While the United States and other Western countries mandate ethanol quotas to supposedly reduce their consumption of fossil fuels, many farmers in Africa […]

Democrat gets black mark from environmental lobby for backing of corn-based ethanol

This Guardian story was written by reporter Ed Pilkington. Grist is a member of the Guardian’s Environment Network. —– BROWNSVILLE, Neb. — Barack Obama has enjoyed near-universal backing from American environmentalists, with the Sierra Club, the country’s largest grass-roots environmental group, and Friends of the Earth both endorsing the Democratic nominee for president. But there […]

If you lead a candidate to books, can you make him read?

Kurt Schrader, an Oregon state senator, veterinarian, Willamette Valley farmer, and Democratic candidate for Congress is now considered the favorite to win Oregon’s 5th District — the only competitive district in Oregon for either party. If he wins as predicted, he will beat a self-funded multimillionaire Republican who lost the same race in 2006 — […]

Khosla’s letter to Science backfires

Vinod Khosla has a letter in the Oct. 17 issue of Science ($ub. req’d) critiquing the Searchinger et al study: “U.S. croplands for biofuels increases greenhouse gases through emissions from land-use change.” Question: Why would the editors at Science publish a letter from someone who is not a biologist or a peer of the researchers […]

AP: cellulosic ‘not even close’ to being ready to satisfy government mandates

For a while, I’ve been wishing I had time to write a feature on cellulosic ethanol, the allegedly "green" biofuel that’s been "five years away" from commercial viability for about, oh, two decades.  Government mandates — backed by a plethora of tax breaks, grants, and other goodies — require production of 16 billions of the […]

EDF’s and MIT’s magical thinking on carbon caps and oil

Last week I critiqued EDF’s pointless video/graphics competition (see here). The contest is pointless because a carbon cap can’t cure our oil addiction. Indeed, under any plausible cap, U.S. oil consumption rises. Gernot Wagner, an economist at Environmental Defense Fund, responded with a post here: “‘Bizarre’? No. Tough? Yes: Joseph Romm’s critique of EDF’s contest […]

With little oversight, BP, Chevron, ADM, and Cargill cook up next-gen biofuels

Synthetic biologists, a brave new breed of science entrepreneurs who engineer life-forms from scratch, are holding their largest-ever global gathering in Hong Kong this week, known as “Synthetic Biology 4.0.” Although most people have never heard of synthetic biology, it’s moving full speed ahead fueled by giant agribusiness, energy and chemical corporations with little debate […]