Category: Thought Leadership

California’s Legislature Drops Petroleum Reduction to Pass SB 350; Approves Escalating State Procurement of Very Low Carbon Fuels; and Leaves Nearly $1B of Cap and Trade Revenue on the Table

September 21, 2015 | Jim Lane

By Graham Noyes, executive director, Low Carbon Fuels Coalition Special to The Digest The first year of California’s legislative session ended dramatically with a mix of successes and setbacks for the low carbon fuel industry. California leads the nation on policies to combat climate change resulting in dramatic proposals like Governor Jerry Brown’s and Senate President […]

Does EPA’s Left Hand Know What Its Right Hand Is Doing on Octane and CO2?

September 7, 2015 | Jim Lane

By Brent Erickson, Executive Vice President, BIO The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has begun to examine boosting gasoline octane ratings to achieve greater greenhouse gas emission control standards for passenger vehicles after 2025. Higher octane ratings would enable increased fuel efficiency in cars that have high-compression engines, giving American drivers better performance at the lowest […]

Scorching Summer Drives California Innovation and Biofuels

August 31, 2015 | Jim Lane

By Graham Noyes, Low Carbon Fuels Coalition Special to The Digest In contrast to DC’s swamp-like conditions, California’s capitol is known for its dry triple digit heat. This August, politicians and citizens alike are breathing Central Valley air scorched by dry heat and periodically thickened by wildfire smoke. The four year drought has deprived both […]

Do Liberals Hate Biofuels?

August 27, 2015 | Jim Lane

By Douglas L. Faulkner, “The Cleantech Conservative”, special to The Digest Most liberals don’t hate biofuels. But most don’t love them either, mainly because of their underlying environmental concerns about first-generation biofuels, corn starch ethanol and soy biodiesel. The left’s deep ambivalence toward biofuels is thus a mirror image of conservative views, amplifying that political […]

Reading the Green Like a Pro—Heavy Duty Truck GHG Phase 2 Mandates Can Help You Ace It!

August 26, 2015 | Jim Lane

By Fran Flynn, special to The Digest On the putting green, the golfer who putts last has the advantage of watching his predecessor ‘show him the line. There is valuable information to be gleaned if his attention is focused on the details. For example, he can determine many uncontrollable factors such as speed, slope, and […]

Cracking The Code to Biofuels Investments

August 23, 2015 | Jim Lane

By Doug Williams, special to The Digest The mid 2000’s saw a tremendous surge in interest in biofuels technologies. I got caught up in it myself. I’ve worked with biofuels and bio-based chemicals technology start-ups for the last decade. It’s certainly been worthwhile. The industry has since suffered its first dot-com bubble-like crash. It’s perhaps […]

Financing the Olympics & the $100 Billion Gen 2 Biofuels Rollout

August 16, 2015 | Jim Lane

By Sam Nejame & James Evangelow, Special to The Digest Two weeks ago the International Olympic Committee pulled Boston’s bid to host the 2024 Olympics. If you lived here, you couldn’t avoid the controversy over how much it might cost and the nagging questions about how the gargantuan facilities would be used afterward. The lost […]

“The Time Is Ripe” for a renewable chemical production tax credit

July 26, 2015 | Jim Lane

By Corinne Young, Chief Advocate and Michele Jalbert, Chief Operating Officer of the Renewable Chemicals and Advanced Materials Alliance (re:chem) Special to The Digest While naysayers contend changing the US tax code is implausible, we at the Renewable Chemical and Advanced Materials Alliance (re:chem), see possibility – in fact, necessity – to ensure US global […]

Breaking through the non-cooperative game

July 8, 2015 | Jim Lane

Can Cooperation Survive Within a Non-cooperative Economic System? by Bill Brandon, special to The Digest I say yes it can, but we should not assume it is only a voluntary cooperation. Forty-five years ago we made a major transition in our fuel composition. Under the Clean Air Act and the clean fuel program, we stopped […]

Top 10 Lessons Learned commercializing advanced biotechnologies, Pt 3

July 7, 2015 | Jim Lane

By Mark Warner, P.E, Founder, Warner Advisors Special to The Digest In part one of the three-part series of Top Ten Lessons Learned, we reviewed process development topics. In part two, we reviewed process design and deployment topics. In this final segment, we will explore financing, start-up and operations. PART 3 – FINANCING, STARTUP AND OPERATIONS Financing – […]

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