Blogging For Biofuels
A frac-sand mine, which provides the main ingredient in hydraulic fracturing, in Wisconsin has been shut down for dumping polluted wastewater, the Star Tribune reports.
Procter and Gamble's (P&G) Tide Coldwater liquid laundry detergent will soon contain cellulosic ethanol. According to a report in the Cincinnati Enquirer, Tide Coldwater will blend cellulosic ethanol in "a scalable and commercial way."
In recent weeks, Big Oil has stepped up its attacks on ethanol. Today, those attacks landed right here in Minnesota. The American Petroleum Institute (Big Oil's big lobbying arm) sent in a letter filled with erroneous claims on ethanol to the Star Tribune. The letter was in response to an opinion piece written by Minnesota Corn Growers Association's President, Ryan Buck, which was published by the Strib on Sept 22.
Actor, Leonardo DiCaprio, recently gave a great speech on climate change at the UN General Assembly. And yes, he mentioned renewable energy.
The upcoming 2014 National Advanced Biofuels Conference and Expo (NABCE), which will be held in Minneapolis next month, will host a panel session with CEOs from three Minnesota ethanol plants.
Sales of E85 in Minnesota during the first seven months of the year grew 15 percent to 7.2 million gallons compared to 6.23 million gallons over the same period in 2013.
By now most of you have probably read or heard about the many tens of thousands of people who took to the streets in New York City over the weekend to voice their concern about climate change and to call for global action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
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.
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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.
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.)