Blogging For Biofuels
On Sept 16, Chevron Corp CEO, John Watson, told the Economic Club of Minnesota that renewable energy will play a limited role in the country's energy future. His comments, which were reported by Bloomberg and Finance & Commerce, shouldn't be surprising considering how supportive Big Oil has been when it comes to renewable energies like biofuels.
Today, the National Council of Chain Restaurants (NCCR) - which includes representatives from Dominos Pizza, White Castle and CKE Restaurants (parent company of Carl's Jr) - will end a two-day visit to Capitol HIll where it has spent time lobbying congress on a variety of issues, including reforming the RFS.
With all signs pointing a reversal in the EPA's original plan to reduce ethanol consumption under the RFS this year, it was only a matter of time before Big Oil stepped in to make some ludicrous arguments. But the latest salvo from the American Petroleum Institute (API), which is the oil industry's lobbying arm, is perhaps its most ludicrous one yet.
Following the successful launch of two cellulosic production facilities in Iowa in the last two weeks, Fuels America is making a new case for the preservation of the RFS to the White House.
Let's face it, going to the gas station to fuel up your vehicle isn't exactly something anyone looks forward to. And each time you fuel up, you leave the station a little poorer. But what if you could win some cash when you fuel up your vehicle?
Sales of E85 in Minnesota during the first half of the year grew 22.64 percent to 6.01 million gallons from 4.9 million gallons recorded in the same period in 2013.
At last week's National Conference of State Legislatures (2014 NCSL), we met a few state legislators who opposed the production and consumption of ethanol based on the false assertion that there is more corn being produced for ethanol than it is for food.
There are some people out there who are convinced ethanol does not reduce greenhouse gases. We have a whole section in our website devoted to this subject. But there's also this great video from the Illinois Corn Growers that clears the air on this issue.
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Fuels America has launched a new campaign that focuses on people who benefit with a weakened Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). The timing of the campaign seems to suggest that the EPA may be getting close to announcing the final rule for the renewable volume obligation (RVO) for 2014. (However, comments by the EPA's Paul Machiele at the ACE conference in Minneapolis last week seem to indicate that there still isn't a specific date set to announce the final rule.)
As we've mentioned before, biofuels are set to get caught in the partisan crossfire in the days and months leading to the elections in November. For the upcoming gubernatorial elections in Minnesota, several candidates have already made it clear where they stand on biofuels.
As we continue to wait on the EPA to announce the 2014 Renewable Volume Obligations (RVO) under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), the agency's recent announcement of Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) data for June may have provided an inkling of what we can expect.
Sales of E85 in Minnesota in 2014 as at end-May jumped 41.7 percent to 4.79 million gallons from 3.38 million gallons that was recorded in the same period in 2013.
As if the oil and gas industry needed another tax break. A new report by the Wall Street Journal today says that American oil and gas companies are paying less in federal income taxes as a result of the domestic energy boom.
As we get closer to the mid-term elections in November, expect to see ethanol and the biofuels industry-at-large getting caught in partisan crossfire throughout the corn belt states. One such event transpired in Iowa this week.
For the last seven months, the biofuel industry has been left in limbo with regards to the Renewable Volume Obligations (RVO) under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) for 2014. The fact that it has taken this long has had a negative effect on ethanol producers as well as investments into advanced biofuels. Uncertainty has done the industry no good.
A big debate has erupted in Chicago over the city's proposal to require many gas stations to sell E15. Proponents for E15 want it to replace the mid-grade 89 octane gas sold in most stations in the city, a move which makes sense considering that E15 blended with 87 octane gas would produce a fuel with an octane rating of closer to 90. And it would be cheaper than 87 octane gas.