Biodiesel industry rejects EU land use impact study
Europe’s biodiesel industry rejected the findings of a draft EU study showing that the cultivation of rapeseed to make road transport fuels is worse for the climate than using conventional diesel. (Reuters)
Industry split emerges over biofuels’ indirect impact
European bioethanol producers have broken ranks and urged EU policymakers to introduce rules on the indirect climate impacts of biofuels that distinguish between “good and bad biofuel pathways,” Reuters has learned. (Reuters)
Bill would ease ethanol rule when corn stocks low
Two U.S. lawmakers are seeking to dilute the requirement to blend increasing amounts of ethanol into the nation’s motor fuel mix, aiming to alleviate upward pressure on food prices when corn supplies are short. (Reuters)
Posted in Biofuel, Energy, Ethanol, Regulation, Transport
Certain biofuel mandates unlikely to be met by 2022; unless new technologies, policies developed
WASHINGTON — It is unlikely the United States will meet some specific biofuel mandates under the current Renewable Fuel Standard by 2022 unless innovative technologies are developed or policies change, says a new congressionally requested report from the National Research Council, which adds that the standard may be an ineffective policy for reducing global greenhouse gas emissions. Achieving this standard would likely increase federal budget outlays as well as have mixed economic and environmental effects. (EurekAlert)
Ethanol Industry Reacts to NAS Report
Comment on this post Posted by Cindy Zimmerman – October 4th, 2011
The ethanol industry is challenging a new report from the National Academies of Science that questions the ability of the biofuels industry to meet current goals under the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS2) and the ability of biofuels to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (DomesticFuel)
Posted in Biofuel, Crazy carbon schemes, Dioxycarbophobia, Energy, Ethanol, Regulation
Analysis: Corn export dominance to bend, not break
For the first time in 40 years, U.S. corn exporters are not out-selling the rest of the world.
Domestic ethanol is sucking up record crops. Emerging suppliers like Brazil and Ukraine are taking export share, while traditional exporters like Argentina move to open new markets. And consumers worldwide are looking to save every penny, cutting shipping costs or using other types of feed.
After supplying four out of every five kernels of corn traded internationally in the mid-1990s, U.S. market share was projected to shrink to 45 percent this season, with U.S. dominance particularly hard hit in the past 10 years. (Reuters)
Posted in Biofuel, Ethanol, Regulation
Biofuels May Push 120 Million Into Hunger, Qatar’s Shah Says
Rudy Ruitenberg
Biofuel policies in countries from Australia to the U.S. may push 120 million people into hunger by 2050 while doing little to halt climate change, said Mahendra Shah, an advisor to Qatar’s food security program.
Posted in Agriculture, Biofuel, Ethanol
Insight: Chasing high corn prices, U.S. farmers skip rotations
Farmer Brian Schaumburg has planted corn for five straight years in some of the thousands of acres he tends in central Illinois.
Farmers who eschew crop rotations that help to replenish the soil with nutrients take a risk that yields will decline. But corn prices soared to a record earlier this year, making so-called corn-on-corn crops a worthwhile bet for many farmers in Illinois, the No. 2 U.S. corn state after Iowa.
“Last year and this year, we’re seeing a little yield drag but, even so, corn pays,” Schaumberg said from the air-conditioned cab of his crop-cutting combine as he mowed down tall corn stalks, gathering kernels of the yellow grain. (Reuters)
Posted in Agriculture, Biofuel, Corporate welfare, Ethanol
More False Hope About Renewable Energies That Consumers Reject
Robert L. Bradley Jr., CEO and founder of the Institute for Energy Research, says that alternative energy sources fail the cost, reliability and scalability tests.
Americans seek affordable energy and expect greater fiscal prudence from Washington. Yet the Obama administration continues to tout economically failing, deficit-swelling renewables as the elixir to our economic and energy needs.
“Green jobs” is the code word for the ruse, which is nothing more than artificial job creation for energies that consumers emphatically reject.
Don’t be fooled by the political hype. Alternative energy sources fail the cost, reliability, and scalability tests. Whether it is ethanol for transportation or wind and solar for electricity, politically correct energies are an economic drain. (Forbes)
Posted in Biofuel, Biomass, Corporate welfare, Energy, Ethanol, Green jobs, Green scams, Solar, Wind
Analysis: Ethanol industry to stay hungry for U.S. corn
The U.S. ethanol industry is keeping its foot on the gas pedal at production plants, and if the trend continues it could defy a government forecast that the industry will have its first drop in corn use since the turn of the century.
The government forecast, which was issued on Monday, was based on expected weaker gasoline use and higher corn prices. Ethanol is blended with gasoline. In addition, some analysts said the expiration of an industry tax credit at the end of the year could also eat into profits.
But for the near term, both domestic and export sales are strong, plus profit margins — though volatile — are largely healthy, factors that should feed continued strong demand for corn for ethanol. (Reuters)
Posted in Agriculture, Biofuel, Energy, Ethanol, Regulation
Bioenergy targets based on flawed science, report shows
Existing targets for biofuels and other forms of bioenergy are based on flawed carbon accounting and should be revised downwards, a draft report by a panel of 19 top European scientists showed. (Reuters)
‘Serious’ Error Found in Carbon Savings for Biofuels
JAMES KANTER
The European Union is overestimating the reductions in greenhouse gas emissions achieved through reliance on biofuels as a result of a “serious accounting error,” according to a draft opinion by an influential committee of 19 scientists and academics.
The European Environment Agency Scientific Committee writes that the role of energy from crops like biofuels in curbing warming gases should be measured by how much additional carbon dioxide such crops absorb beyond what would have been absorbed anyway by existing fields, forests and grasslands.
Instead, the European Union has been “double counting” some of the savings, according to the draft opinion, which was prepared by the committee in May and viewed this week by The International Herald Tribune and The New York Times.
Despite the only “value” of biofuel being to reduce the anxiety of those poor souls living in terror of DiOCarbs (O2C) Pielke Jr. insists we should be thrilled about the “carbon free” energy (which it isn’t, it is still hydrocarbons but from a crappy, inefficient source). The bottom line is that it is still all about denying you abundant, affordable energy.
Don’t Count Carbon, Count Carbon Free Energy Supply Instead
In case you wanted more evidence that policies based on accounting for carbon dioxide emissions are hopeless, the NYT reports that a scientific advisory body to the EU is going to soon issue a report that undercuts the carbon accounting of the UN FCCC and its Kyoto protocol as well as a host of EU biofuels policies: (Roger Pielke Jr.)
Congressional Investigator: More Solar Bankruptcies to Come
Lachlan Markay
A top congressional investigator said on Tuesday that he believes more companies that benefitted from the stimulus bill’s renewable energy loan guarantee program will go bankrupt before all allotted funds are spent. (The Foundry)
Merkel’s Solyndra – Germany’s Green Industries Start Their Collapse
Continue reading
Posted in Biofuel, Corporate welfare, Ethanol, Green scams, Solar, Wind
Exclusive: EU to delay action on biofuels’ indirect impact
The European Union’s top climate and energy officials have agreed to delay by up to seven years rules that would penalize individual biofuels for their indirect climate impacts, details of the deal showed.
The political compromise is designed to protect EU farmers’ incomes and existing investments in the bloc’s 17 billion euro-a-year ($24 billion) biofuel sector, while discouraging new investments in biofuels that do nothing to fight climate change. (Reuters)
Does this Fat Make Me Look Green?
Chris Horner
The Department of Energy’s daily compilation of stories they believe will make their black hole for hard-earned taxpayer money look edgy and swell includes a fashionable note today:
LATER ALLIGATOR: Per The New York Times, researchers at the University of Louisiana think they have identified a potential source for biodiesel that currently goes straight to landfills: alligator fat, about 15 million pounds of it every year:
http://goo.gl/jtEsn
So. This is what an agency designed to reduce our dependence on foreign oil (squirrel!) is on to now. Who would have thought the handbag industry would get America moving again? Yes, yes, I know. It beats using the stuff that works and of which we have more than anyone else.
UPDATE: An IER expert writes in to temper my enthusiasm. “Hey…1.25 million gallons is 1/36000th of our diesel consumption, so if we just find 35,999 other species to grind up into our tanks, we’re home free.” (American Spectator)
If those suffering DiOCarb Spectrum Disorders would settle down and leave agriculture producing food rather than pretend fuels then there would be significantly larger grain stocks and only political worries feeding the world’s population. Forget biofuels, they compete with people and critters.
In the world’s breadbasket, climate change feeds some worry
It can’t happen here, can it?
The United States, the breadbasket and supplier of last resort for a hungry world, has been such an amazing food producer in the last half-century that most Americans take for granted annual bounteous harvests of grain, meat, dairy, fruits, vegetables and other crops.
When horrific images of drought or famine in Africa, Asia or other regions land in American media, America is usually first in line with food aid shipments, air drops, and other rescue efforts from its seemingly endless stores.
The U.S. alone accounts for half of all world corn exports, 40 percent of soybean exports and 30 percent of wheat exports.
But climate change fears are sounding some warning bells. (Reuters)
German government, oil lobby clash on biofuel use target
Germany’s government and its oil industry association on Tuesday disagreed about whether the country can reach its 2011 biofuel use quotas as sales of a new gasoline blend with a higher biofuel content remain sluggish. (Reuters)
Testing the water for bioenergy crops
Water significant limiting factor in growing crops like switchgrass
Posted in Biofuel
Study: Cost of renewable energy will rise along with cost of oil
An article published in the September 2011 edition of Nature Climate Change determines the cost of renewable energy will not become more competitive as fossil fuel prices rise, because fossil fuels account for large portions of the cost to manufacture, transport, and mine materials for renewable sources. Over the entire life-cycle of energy production from these renewable sources, significant portions were originally derived from fossil fuels:
Wind: 34% of life-cycle energy production from fossil fuels used in manufacturing
Solar: 33%
Ethanol: 100%
The article admits that in most life cycle analyses of renewable energy sources, the inconvenient truth of significant use of fossil fuels is omitted from the analyses. (Hockey Schtick)
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