Category: Thought Leadership

Timely Implementation of Farm Bill Programs Is Vital for the Advanced Biofuels and Renewable Chemicals Industry

March 8, 2015 | Jim Lane

By Brent Erickson, Executive Vice President, Industrial and Environmental, Biotechnology Industry Organization Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack recently announced funding for the Biomass Research and Development Initiative (BRDI) as well as published the final rule for the Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP). BIO and the industrial biotech sector worked hard to ensure that these and other […]

Thought Leadership: What cellulosic can learn from solar and other clean-tech industries?

March 1, 2015 | Jim Lane

Thought Leadership: The Digest speaks with Sebastian Soederberg, Novozymes’ VP for Biomass Conversion on the cellulosic ethanol industry. Sebastian, you are fond of saying that the cellulosic ethanol production is a technology that is evolving beyond market hype to commercialization. Why? If you look at charts of installed capacity since the 1990s for a variety of clean-tech […]

Why Tim Searchinger Is Dead Wrong About Biofuels and Land Use

February 18, 2015 | Jim Lane

By Brent Erickson, executive vice-president, the Biotechnology Industry Organization; head, Industrial & Environmental Section The World Resources Institute (WRI) recently issued a new working paper, authored by Tim Searchinger and Ralph Heimlich, resurrecting a previously discredited attack on the carbon neutrality of biomass feedstocks. Ironically the working paper makes plain the fallacies behind this attack […]

Thought Leadership: The Digest speaks with Sebastian Soederberg, Novozymes’ VP for Biomass Conversion

February 3, 2015 | Jim Lane

Tell us about your role at Novozymes. I’m responsible for Novozymes’ biomass activities on the commercial side; I’ve been doing this for close to three years. My background is as an economist and investment banker. Novozymes began its efforts in this area in 2001 with more than 100 scientists and a lot of public affairs […]

Congress Should Not Fix What Isn’t Broken

December 8, 2014 | Jim Lane

By Brent Erickson, Executive VP, BIO; Head, Industrial & Environmental Section The underlying legal constructs of the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) remain in working order, despite the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) failure to issue a final 2014 rule and its other regulatory missteps. Over the past five years, the program spurred billions of dollars of […]

The 2014 RFS Rule Left Out in the Cold

November 23, 2014 | Jim Lane

By Brent Erickson, Executive VP, BIO; Head, Industrial & Environmental Section EPA’s November surprise is as big a shock to the system as this year’s early arrival of cold weather. The decision not to finalize a 2014 rule for the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) merely compounds the damage done to the advanced biofuel industry by […]

Obama: (Un)intentionally Reengineering the RFS for Big Oil?

October 28, 2014 | Jim Lane

By Brooke Coleman, Executive Director, Advanced Ethanol Council As the renewable fuels industry awaits U.S. EPA’s final decision on the 2014 Renewable Volume Obligation (RVO), it is extraordinary to think that President Obama still appears committed to adopting a methodological change to the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) pioneered by the biofuel industry’s most ardent foes. […]

Life in the Slow Lane: Conversion Technologies at a Standstill in California

August 28, 2014 | Jim Lane

By Jim Stewart, Chairman, BioEnergy Producers Association The momentum leading to the introduction of new technologies for alternative energy production has become increasingly evident during 2014. The year has brought a steady stream of announcements from the industry regarding equity infusions, strategic alliances and commercial demonstration projects. However, as far as the use of conversion […]

White Lists: A Proactive Approach to Risk Reduction for the Bioenergy Industry

August 25, 2014 | Jim Lane

By Dr. Doria Gordon, The Nature Conservancy Cultivation of bioenergy crops is predicted to increase to between 27 and 120 million acres by 2022 in order to meet the renewable energy needs of the U.S. and the Environmental Protection Agency’s Renewable Fuel Standard. These crops may be used for production of ethanol, biodiesel or heat through […]

In Defense of the Bio-Skeptic

August 24, 2014 | Jim Lane

By Todd Taylor, partner, Fredrikson & Byron Skeptic: from the Greek “skeptikos” meaning “to consider, examine” “Skeptic does not mean him who doubts, but him who investigates or researches as opposed to him who asserts and thinks that he has found.” [Miguel de Unamuno, “Essays and Soliloquies,” 1924] “Trust, but Verify” – President Ronald Reagan […]

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