Category: Thought Leadership

The Big Beautiful Bill: Biofuels Win Big as Clean Energy Fractures

The Big Beautiful Bill: Biofuels Win Big as Clean Energy Fractures

July 1, 2025 |

Senate passage sets the stage for House vote, reshaping renewable incentives along partisan and regional lines In Washington DC, the US Senate’s hard-fought budget bill delivered an emphatic victory this week for America’s biofuels industry—while exposing a growing fault line in U.S. clean energy policy. On Tuesday morning, after more than 24 hours of amendments, […]

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Watch out for that Tree! The journey to a cleaner economy through the Jungle of Hype and Stealth

Watch out for that Tree! The journey to a cleaner economy through the Jungle of Hype and Stealth

June 30, 2025 |

George, George, George of the Jungle, Strong as he can be. (Yell) Watch out for that tree! (“Oooh!”) Lately, it feels like we—investors, journalists, grantmakers, the yearning public, idealists, politicos—are all a little like George of the Jungle. We mean well. We want to rescue the world from climate disaster, energy insecurity and collapse.  But […]

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High Noon at the Strait of Hormuz, Part 2: Biofuels, the swing producer, the market stabilizer

High Noon at the Strait of Hormuz, Part 2: Biofuels, the swing producer, the market stabilizer

June 24, 2025 |

This is Part 2 of our two-part series — part one is here. The Strait Is Still Open. But the Signal Is Clear. The Strait of Hormuz remains navigable—for now. But the headlines are unmistakable: armed exchanges between Israel and Iran, U.S. warnings of retaliation, and a cease-fire that could dissolve overnight. This time, oil […]

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High Noon for energy supply at the Strait of Hormuz

High Noon for energy supply at the Strait of Hormuz

June 23, 2025 |

This is Part 1 of our two-part series, Part 2 is here. It’s High Noon at the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s parliament has voted to close it, and while the final decision now rests with its national security council, the message is already echoing through global oil markets. One-fifth of the world’s oil moves through […]

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The Bedford Falls Test: BDO Zones and the path to Rural Development

The Bedford Falls Test: BDO Zones and the path to Rural Development

June 19, 2025 |

I’ve seen Main Streets where the hardware store is closed and now there’s a payday lender, where the once-bustling main intersection is home to perhaps a Wal-Mart, maybe a Dollar Store, maybe just boarded up buildings, the bank’s gone, the gas station’s battered, the feed store’s probably in the next county. You’d think that was […]

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Heard on the Floor at FEW

Heard on the Floor at FEW

June 12, 2025 |

What goes on at ethanol’s dazzling annual get-together? Behind the pomp and away from the klaxons and kleig lights, there’s serious thought leadership underway, and the Digest’s intrepid Jim Kendrick was on the scene in Omaha this week at the Fuel Ethanol Workshops. He filed this report on the major stories not otherwise covered in […]

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USA BioEnergy, Forest Persistence and the Bon Wier Bet

USA BioEnergy, Forest Persistence and the Bon Wier Bet

June 10, 2025 |

We are reporting this week in the Digest that USA BioEnergy has signed a letter of intent with Louisiana-Pacific for a long-term supply agreement for sustainably sourced wood fiber to support operations at USAB’s planned Texas Renewable Fuels biorefinery in Bon Wier, Texas. Once finalized, the agreement would provide for up to 2.2 million tons […]

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The Swinging Compass: Why Energy Policies Fail, and How to Make Them Persist

The Swinging Compass: Why Energy Policies Fail, and How to Make Them Persist

June 5, 2025 |

“A compass, I learned when I was surveying,.. it’ll point you true north from where you’re standing, but it’s got no advice about the swamps, deserts and chasms that you’ll encounter along the way. If in pursuit of your destination, you plunge ahead heedless of obstacles, and achieve nothing more than to sink in a […]

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Timber Towns and Forest Futures: In the Piney Woods, SunGas finds the key in green methanol

Timber Towns and Forest Futures: In the Piney Woods, SunGas finds the key in green methanol

May 30, 2025 |

Back before there was an advanced bioeconomy, or even a United States, there was the Big Piney Woods and six flags have flown over it. Through it ran a path cut not by men, but by bison.  From the southern plains to the banks of the Red River, the buffalo moved with the seasons—seeking salt, […]

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Sequestering & Monetizing Carbon Dioxide: Critical To The Economic Health Of Chemical And Energy Projects, And The Well Being Of Our Planet

Sequestering & Monetizing Carbon Dioxide: Critical To The Economic Health Of Chemical And Energy Projects, And The Well Being Of Our Planet

May 29, 2025 |

By Sam A. Rushing, President, Advanced Cryogenics, Ltd. Special to The Digest With respect to all options being essential, we can start with sequestering CO2 via the best farming methods, and enhancing closed greenhouse operations with CO2 to put photosynthesis in overdrive. With respect to carbon management for farmers, climate smart practices do enhance CO2 […]

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