Today in Biofuels Opinion: “I asked if they know a single soul in the renewable energy industry who’s supporting Sen. John McCain”

From Xconomy.com: “Barack Obama probably doesn’t have to worry much about the cleantech vote. A handful of renewable energy entrepreneurs couldn’t say enough good things about the Democratic presidential candidate in a press conference this morning at the Propel Biofuels station in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood. The cleantechies gave me a series of blank stares when I asked if they know a single soul in the renewable energy industry who’s supporting Sen. John McCain, the Republican candidate. “I’m an independent, I’ve voted for Republicans and Democrats in the past,” said Michael Weaver, CEO of Redmond, WA-based Bionavitas, a developer of algae-based biofuels. “I think the key issue this election is energy security, both in terms of the economy and the military. The strongest candidate is clearly Senator Obama.”

From the American Coalition for Ethanol: “Ethanol critics have been relentless in pressing their argument that America must choose between making food or fuel from corn. It’s a false choice. We can — and must — do both. Indeed, the toxic debate has obscured an important fact: America’s corn harvest is growing at a prodigious rate, even though total planted acres of corn are not. Last week, the chairman of Dupont’s Pioneer Hi-Bred subsidiary projected a 40 percent rise in corn and soybean yields in ten years, with corn reaching an average U.S. yield of 225 bushels per acre by 2018. Biofuels Digest calculates that America’s ethanol producers would thus be able to make 15 billion gallons of fuel — the target for so-called “conventional” biofuels under the Renewable Fuel Standard — with 18.7 billion bushels of corn still remaining for the food and livestock markets, a substantial increase from 10.9 billion bushels in 2007.”

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