Two Senate Committees Seek Control over Renewable Fuels Standard

Biofuels Digest

Meghan Sapp | June 10, 2013

 

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API lands Brazil investment to commercialize cellulosic process

Ethanol Producer Magazine

By Susanne Retka Schill | May 02, 2013

 

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Torrefied Pellet Pursuit

Biomass Magazine

By Chris Hanson | April 04, 2013

 

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30 US Governors back Renewable Fuel Standard

Biofuels Digest
Jim Lane
March 14, 2013   Read more

Report shows 100 biomass power projects came online in 2012

Biomass Magazine
By Erin Voegele
January 18, 2013

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US ethanol production in Sep drops to lowest recorded level: EPA

platts

Houston (Platts)--18Oct2012/353 pm EDT/1953 GMT



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8,000 anaerobic digesters in the EU, says systems maker, but less than 200 in the US: why?

Biofuels Digest

Jim Lane
October 18, 2012   Read more

Obama, Romney address biodiesel question from soybean group

Biodiesel Magazine


By The American Soybean Association
October 15, 2012

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Presidential candidates’ energy views go in different directions

Duluth News Tribune

Published October 07, 2012, 12:00 AM

By: Don Davis , Forum Communications

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What’s in store for Biopreferred.gov, and biobased product labeling?

Biobased Digest
Jim Lane
August 16, 2012

The centerpiece of the USDA’s push to sell biobased products through the federal government and in the costumer market – Biopreferred.gov – is on the move, but not without its challenges.

Perhaps the single most impressive driving force these days in terms of direct US government activity on the biobased front is its Biopreferred.gov program. The goal there? To translate a Congressionally mandated federal buying preference for biobased products into actual buying.

It’s a small team with mighty tasks – hindered, from the outset in that the US government has not ever measured its biobased product purchasing – not inside the USDA, not anywhere. So, there’s been quite a bit of work to be done in establishing standards, baselines, and some kind of a federal scorecard.

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World powers eye emergency food meeting; action doubted

Reuters
By Gus Trompiz and Nigel Hunt


* Conference call to discuss possible Rapid Response Forum
* Want to avoid grain export embargoes, unilateral action
* French minister analyzing situation with U.S.
* Pressure grows on U.S. to change ethanol policy
* Brazil source sees little action short of crisis

PARIS/LONDON, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Leading members of the Group of 20 nations are prepared to trigger an emergency meeting to address soaring grain prices caused by the worst U.S. drought in more than half a century and poor crops from the Black Sea bread basket.

France, the United States and G20 president Mexico will hold a conference call at the end of August to consider whether an emergency international meeting is required, aiming to avoid a repetition of the food price spike that triggered riots in poorer countries in 2008.

Yet even as the third grain surge in four years stirs new fears about food supply and inflation, many say the world's powers are no better prepared to rein in runaway prices. Apart from a global grain database, which has yet to be launched, and the Rapid Response Forum that authorities are considering convening for the first time, the G20 has few tools.

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U.S. Ethanol Fuel Mandate: Senators Press EPA To Cut Regulations Due To Drought

Huffington Post
Reuters
Posted: 08/07/2012 6:05 pm

WASHINGTON, Aug 7 (Reuters) - As the worst drought in more than 50 years withers the Midwest corn crop, 25 U.S. senators urged the Environmental Protection Agency to cut the mandate that requires fuel blenders to add grain-based ethanol to gasoline.

The senators representing 25 percent of the chamber urged EPA chief Lisa Jackson to adjust the Renewable Fuels Standard, or RFS, that requires fuel blenders to mix 13.2 billion gallons of ethanol into gasoline this year.

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Renewable fuel standard hits political divide at energy hearing

The Hill
By Zack Colman - 07/10/12 12:32 PM ET

The renewable fuel standard (RFS) for transportation fuel is becoming another proxy battleground between Republicans and Democrats in the renewable energy debate, as the parties demonstrated Tuesday during a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Energy and Power hearing.

Enacted by the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the Environmental Protection Agency-administered RFS requires 36 billion gallons of renewable fuel to be blended into transportation fuel by 2022.

Republicans charge that that type of policy places the government in a position to pick winners and losers in the economy.

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Vilsack: Biofuels can continue to lower consumer gas prices

Ethanol Producer Magazine
By Tom Vilsack
July 09, 2012

As Americans joined family and friends to celebrate America’s independence, tens of millions took to our highways and Interstates – and I know that gas prices were on the minds of many.

President Obama understands the impact gas prices can have for families, and he is committed to an “all of the above” energy approach to solving our nation’s energy challenges – including reducing pain at the pump.

That includes developing the homegrown biofuels that save Americans money at the gas station and reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

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Senate passes Farm Bill with energy programs intact

Ethanol Producer Magazine
By Kris Bevill
June 21, 2012

The U.S. Senate passed its version of the Farm Bill in a 64-35 vote on June 21 after considering more than 70 amendments and completing the floor debate in a timely fashion not often experienced in Congress as of late. The bill offers a reason for biofuel stakeholders to celebrate, at least temporarily, as the Senate agreed to retain energy title programs and provide mandatory funding for those programs for the next five years as passed earlier this year in the Senate Agriculture Committee’s version of the bill.

Agriculture Energy Coalition released a statement applauding the Senate for reauthorizing energy title programs, which include the Renewable Energy for America Program, the Biorefinery Assistance Program and the Biomass Crop Assistance Program, and said their continued funding will continue to expand rural economies and create jobs. “These programs have been successful in supporting the growth of new renewable industries, creating markets for U.S. agriculture and saving energy,” the group said in its statement. “We urge members of the House, which is currently considering energy legislation, to quickly take up and pass the Farm Bill and its energy title.”

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US Senate group starts up “seed to wheel” review of US Renewable Fuel Standard

Biofuels Digest
Jim Lane
May 30, 2012

The US Renewable Fuel Standard: Time to Add, Modify or Delete?

In Washington, staff members working for least eight US Senators will join a study group aimed at a “seed-to-wheel examination of the US Renewable Fuel Standard,” the Digest has learned.

The goal of the study group is to examine which provisions are working, and which provisions could be improved in the 113th Congress. The intent of the study group is to put the key biofuels and RFS elements on the table for a more in-depth discussion and analysis of issues.

The study group, styled “the Biofuels Investment and RFS Market Congressional Study Group,” is planning to commence its work in mid-June, and continue its sessions until late September, when Congress takes its election-season recess. Each session would last approximately one hour, and is directed toward congressional staff of Members on key committees of jurisdiction or from offices who have a particular interest in the subject.

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Is the ethanol boom coming to an end?

AGprofessional.com
University of Illinois
May 30, 2012

U.S. ethanol production has increased rapidly since 2006, reaching about 13.95 billion gallons in 2011 (Table 1). The increase was driven by a combination of high crude oil prices, federal Renewable Fuel Standards (RFS) for domestic renewable fuel consumption, a generous tax credit for ethanol blenders, and large net exports in 2010 and 2011. The expansion in domestic ethanol production has been one of the main drivers of the corn market since 2006, as corn is the primary feedstock for ethanol production in the U.S. The USDA estimates that corn processed for ethanol production totaled 5.021 billion bushels in the 2010-11 marketing year and projects use at 5 billion bushels for the current marketing year. Accounting for co-product production, net corn consumption for ethanol production in 2011-12 will be near 3.35 billion bushels, or about 26 percent of total expected consumption.

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House subcommittee hearing focuses on BCAP

Biomass Power & Thermal
By Luke Geiver
May 21, 2012

Before the U.S. House of Representatives Agriculture Committee concluded a series of hearings on programs potentially affected by a new Farm Bill, the Subcommittee on Conservation, Energy and Forestry listened to testimony on the Biomass Crop Assistance Program and other biomass-related programs set to expire.

Ryan Stroschein, director of the Agriculture Energy Coalition based out of Washington D.C., told the committee about the need to continue BCAP as part of the Energy Title because it’s the only program of its kind. “Without this program, the agricultural community is reluctant to embrace these crops and forest residues due to the risk involved,” he said. Stroschein told the committee that if national investments and policy commitments to biomass programs continue, economic and job growth will too.

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Hearing hashes out national clean energy standard

Biomass Power & Thermal
By Anna Simet

May 22, 2012

The U.S. Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources held a hearing May 17 to gather testimonial regarding S. 2146, the Clean Energy Standard Act of 2012, as introduced by U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M, earlier this spring.

Among testifiers was Howard Gruenspecht, acting administrator for the U.S. Energy Information Administration. He discussed an EIA analysis performed at the request of Sen. Bingaman to examine the potential impact of the proposed legislation on the development of future electricity markets, and projected carbon dioxide emissions from electricity generation. Though they could vary significantly by region, he said, impacts on electricity prices over the next decade are minimal, the EIA found. Projected national average electricity prices start to rise, however, after 2020.

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United States Leads World in Exports of Ethanol

The Wall Street Journal's MarketWatch
May 1, 2012, 7:57 a.m. EDT

Hart Energy study insists U.S. production mandates are out of sync with market reality

HOUSTON, May 1, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Hart Energy's newly released study, U.S. & Brazil Ethanol Outlook to 2022, finds the United States has vaulted over Brazil to lead the world in the export of ethanol, a title it is positioned to retain in 2012 and beyond.

The study also dismisses the notion that goals of two programs in the U.S. can be achieved. Biofuels volumes required by the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) do not match with the realities of commercialization and availability, Hart Energy maintains, and changes in these policies will be necessary in the next few years.

"Much of the focus has been on the 'blend wall,' biodiesel, and cellulosic biofuels targets of the RFS program in the public forum," said Tammy Klein, assistant vice president of Hart Energy. "But what's so striking to us is that Brazilian ethanol is needed to meet targets under those programs -- and our forecast shows it will not be available at critical points in the study period."

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