biofuels

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Despite an aggressive push with promotions and massive state investment, and more stations offering E85 for sale in Minnesota now than a few years ago, significantly less of it is being bought by consumers.[read more]

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All energy markets are volatile at times, sedate at others. If the Energy Security Trust is really about saving the American consumer from price swings, it will fail.[read more]

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The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) has been circulating a video titled “40 Facts about Ethanol.” Unfortunately, this list of “facts” that couldn’t be further from factual.[read more]

testing biofuels on USS Nimitz

Cutting transportation sector emissions is critical to mitigating climate change. New research initiatives signal government recognition of the importance of transportation decarbonization and the need for innovative technologies.[read more]

The Des Moines Register has one version of the story - the agribusiness industry decided it could do without the subsidy since the renewable fuels mandate seemed securely in place: So established is corn-fed ethanol that the industry allowed the expiration of the 45 cents-per-gallon tax credit for ethanol production, as well as the...[read more]

Americans want the U.S. to lead the world in renewable energy, but these are screwy times in our nation’s capital. Some people are trying to turn clean, renewable energy into something dirty. The fossil fuel industry and the radical right, including Grover Norquist and politicians looking to score cheap political points, are taking on...[read more]

 In my list of Top 10 Energy Related Stories of 2010, I made three predictions for 2011. Those predictions were:  I believe high oil prices will continue to put a strain on the economies of oil-importing nations. I expect that we will see oil prices once again head above $100 per barrel, although I expect the annual average...[read more]

Recently it was announced that Range Fuels has gone into foreclosure, thus marking the official end of their story. For all practical purposes, the company has been finished since early 2011, but the foreclosure puts an end to the notion that they will yet rise triumphant from the ashes. Last week, Heather Duncan — a reporter for The...[read more]

  The Government is currently considering the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligations (Amendment) Order 2011. I have seen a copy, and I can tell you that there is plenty to be concerned about in terms of its inadequacy. But in this column I'm going to concentrate on one particular aspect: an appalling oversight which involves a...[read more]

In 2008, Admiral Gary Roughead, U.S. Navy, then Chief of Naval of Operations, established  Task Force Energy and Task Force Climate (prior to the Obama Administration).  Since then, Task Force Energy has provided a serious focal point for fostering changing Navy thinking and approaches to energy use and...[read more]

  It’s worth noting a pair of recent developments on the Defense Department energy front. One is a useful reminder of what DOD can achieve now with the proper support, and a cause for optimism; the other, more pessimistic, illustrates the pressing need for accelerated innovation in the alternative fuels industry more broadly...[read more]

In an article in today's Washington Post an official of the National Wildlife Federation was quoted linking rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline with breaking our addiction to oil. Even with the administration having delayed its decision on the project until 2013--quite possibly killing it--this point merits further exploration. Just...[read more]

This week I will be at the 2011 ASPO-USA Conference. I will deliver one talk on technical due diligence and one on our new energy reality. I will also participate in a roundtable discussion on investing. On the talk on our new energy reality, I am going to have a slide on my general observations over the past few years. One of those observations is that the concept of Energy Return on Energy Invested — EROEI — is frequently misused. The most common example is when people simply dismiss a process because it has a low EROEI or a net negative energy return. So as I am finalizing my slides, I thought I would share my EROEI observations here.[read more]

Rewards for Performance, Not Over-Hyped Promises I recently wrote a post detailing some steps that I believe should be taken to improve the nature of how we provide incentives for biofuels: How to Fix the Broken Cellulosic Ethanol Incentive System. My proposal is like a feed-in-tariff for next generation biofuels. The highlights are that...[read more]

According to a recent article in the People’s Daily, Beijing’s 19 million inhabitants are seeing the grease used to fry up their dim sum and other delicacies carted off by eight licensed collectors of used cooking oil, known as “hogwash,” for recycling into biofuel.[read more]