Archive for June, 2008

Today in Biofuels Opinion: “To obtain a waiver…any petitioner must show that there is severe harm to its or to the U.S. economy”

Governor Rick Perry of Texas: “While I have no doubt this mandate was a well-intentioned effort to move our country toward energy independence, it is doing more harm than good and must be modified before our livestock industry suffers permanent damage,” Perry said. “Granting this waiver will provide much needed relief to families, while enabling [...]

California unveils low-carbon plan: more hybrids, hydrogen cars, high-speed rail; more solar, wind, and cap-and-trade

The California Air Resources Board outlined its plan to reduce emissions by 10 percent. The plan aims to reduce pollutants 10 percent by 2020, from current levels, and is an outcome of 2006 low carbon  legislation promoted by Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger. The policy initiatives include a cap-and-trade emissions cap, a switch to 33 percent renewable [...]

Oxfam releases report: “biofuel policies are deepening poverty and accelerating climate change”

Oxfam released a report titled “Another Inconvenient Truth: How biofuel policies are deepening poverty and accelerating climate change,” saying the biofuels policies in rich nations have pushed more than 30 million people globally into poverty. The report projects that the EI 10 percent biofuel target could increase carbon emissions “70-fold by 2020,” according to a [...]

Brazil’s Petrobras to debut its biofuel production subsidiary: cellulosic ethanol, synthetic diesel among products; Japan eyed as export market

In Brazil, Petrobras will debut its biofuel production subsidiary today in Curitiba, and will outline its plans to produce synthetic biofuels and cellulosic ethanol in addition to sugarcane ethanol. Petrobras will have its first pilot plants in operation by 2010, although the company is expected to commence exporting ethanol to Japan starting this year with [...]

Biofuels Digest Index gains 0.54 percent to 92.37 as ethanol, agribusiness stocks stabilize

The Biofuels Digest Index™ (BDI), a basket of public biofuels stocks, rose 0.54 percent  to close at 92.37 as ethanol and agribusiness stocks stabilized.  For the day, The Andersons (ANDE) gained 0.27 percent to close at $33.18, while VeraSun Energy rose 3.27 percent to $4.11.  Among small caps, Xethanol (XNL) fell 12.30 percent to close [...]

Conservationists protest Kenya’s 20,000 hectare sugarcane ethanol plan; 350 species said to be at risk

In Kenya, a plan to grow sugarcane for ethanol on 20,000 hectares in the Tana River Delta has prompted protests from conservation groups. The Mumias Sugar Company plans to establish a plantation, 34 MW power plant and an ethanol mill 80 miles north of Mombasa, and conservation groups said that up to 350 species of [...]

Arizona’s Sun Tran to acquire 119 B100 biodiesel buses over five years

In Arizona, Sun Tran announced a plan to acquire 119 B100 biodiesel buses over the next five years. The Arizona transit company currently runs 56 percent of its fleet on biodiesel and the remainder on compressed natural gas.
Biodiesel conversions and mandates background

Ukrop’s Super Markets, construction company Danchanko and Con Edison announced conversions to biodiesel. Ukrop’s [...]

VeraSun Energy halts opening of third ethanol plant this month

In North Dakota, VeraSun Energy delayed a 110 Mgy corn ethanol plant in Hankinson, citing “current volatility in the market” as a reason for halting work on the plant, which was scheduled for opening next month.   “Ethanol is currently being sold at a deep discount to unleaded gasoline, which has caused us to delay the [...]

Japan to test rice ethanol production using idle lands unsuitable for other food crops

In Japan, a change in Japanese diets has created an overstock of rice, and rice ethanol project has been proposed to use land idled by oversupply. Japanese price supports have prevented its rice from finding an export market although they have preserved the traditional small-farm cultivation of rice. Researchers at the University of Tokyo say [...]

BioFuel Energy adds 230 Mgy capacity with two new corn ethanol plants in Minnesota, Nebraska

In Colorado, BioFuel Energy commenced corn ethanol production at Wood River, Nebraska, and Fairmont, Minnesota, with a combined capacity of 230 Mgy and 720,000 tons of distillers grains.
The openings are the first since a corn crisis erupted in the US after heavy rains and floods rocked the Midwest.
Corn crisis background
Heartland Ethanol announced that the company [...]