ethanol
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Wall Street and ethanol cause starvation, say scientists
Today's supervillains are soooo boring. If only they'd wear tights and touch entrapped damsels’ hair in a way that made us uncomfortable, we'd be up for patriotically pistol-whipping them, Captain America style. Instead we find out that Wall Street and ethanol -- a diffuse network of trading computers and a colorless inebriant, respectively -- are the reason billions are going hungry in the developing world. How are we supposed to launch a hideously expensive vendetta-war against that?
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Company makes fuel from wood using nothing but water
A company called Renmatix says it can make ethanol from wood and woody biomass using nothing but water. If they're right -- and they just cut the ribbon on an R&D facility in Pennsylvania in order to find out -- it could mean the unlocking of a vast reserve of biomass previously untouched by the cleantech industry.
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In battle between fuel and food, food is losing worse than ever
Despite the backlash against ethanol in the U.S. and biodiesel in the E.U., global production of biofuels was up 17 percent in 2010. That's 27.7 billion gallons of liquid fuel for the year. (For reference, the U.S. uses 137 billion gallons of gasoline per year, though that's not directly equivalent because biofuels include biodiesel, and ethanol contains slightly less energy than regular gasoline.)
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Panda poop could revolutionize biofuels
One down side of biofuels like ethanol is that they rely on easily processed crops that are also staple foods. The more farm space is given over to raising corn, soybeans, and sugar for fuels, the less is available for raising those crops to feed humans. Luckily, scientists have just discovered microbes that could help turn waste plant matter like corn stalks and wood chips into fuel. All they needed was a little bit of panda poo.
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Ethanol is now a matter of national security
Two steps forward, one step back: Congress cuts two ethanol subsidies worth billions, but the White House redirects $510 million to power the military's ships and aircraft with corn-sourced biofuels.
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Critical List: How to support Tim DeChristopher; white dudes think they're smarter than science
Want to support Tim DeChristopher? Go to Washington in August to protest the Keystone XL pipeline. "Consider this your call to action," said Peaceful Uprising, the group DeChristopher founded.
BREAKING: Conservative white dudes (aka the Jim Inhofe Fan Club) are most likely to think they're smarter than science, i.e. doubt the existence of climate change.
In California, though, everyone -- even conservatives -- supports cutting greenhouse-gas emissions. -
Critical List: $6 billion ethanol subsidy to end; Wyoming wolves screwed by Senate politics
The Senate is ending a $6 billion subsidy program for ethanol; anti-ethanol food and environmental groups say it's "not a perfect comprise" but that they're "encouraged" by the step.
Carbon captured from coal plants can feed biofuel-producing algae. Which is awesome because nobody else wants to eat it.
Put that tuna burger down! Overfishing could extinguish five out of eight tuna species. -
Critical List: Global warming — it's happening; Exxon funds climate deniers
In case you hadn’t heard … the world is warming up.
Exxon just can't quit climate deniers.
The Supreme Court thinks that the EPA must regulate carbon under the Clean Air Act; now it will decide if it can regulate wetlands on private property under the Clean Water Act. -
Why the Senate ethanol vote doesn't matter much
Even if the Senate's ethanol vote makes it through the White House, it won't stem the flow of corn from Midwest farms to distillers to gas tanks.