Posts

May 22, 2013

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4:19 PM | Could sugar dumping push ethanol production up?

Pulling out an interesting little option from the 2008 Farm bill, the USDA is considering re-directing US produced sugar to ethanol production to drive up sugar prices. From what I understand, the US sugar industry is completely supported by farm … Continue reading →

April 15, 2013

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2:52 PM | The “future” of clean coal – is not in our future

A new report from the CRS reveals the sad state of what many believe is an impossible venture – “clean coal” that involves capturing the CO2 released as the coal is burned: http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/293655-report-federal-clean-coal-power-project-faces-uncertain-future

April 01, 2013

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3:20 PM | IMF report on energy subsidies, implications for a carbon tax & energy security

IMF presents some new analysis of energy subsidies which I have previously wondered about. It is worth looking over: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/27/imf-want-to-fight-climate-change-get-rid-of-1-9-trillion-in-energy-subsidies/ $25/ton as the cost of carbon seems low to me. $502 billion in US energy subsidies including this carbon tax.. I don’t … Continue reading →

March 29, 2013

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3:25 PM | Nice summary of the RFS (and a new blog to follow!)

For those who are confused about RFS, RINs, and other acronyms in my last post, I found a great summary on a new blog that we’ll add to our blogroll. Seems like he is making some nice posts of the … Continue reading →

March 22, 2013

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3:05 PM | post about RINs, ethanol, etc

As we’ve hinted at before, some interesting things are starting to happen with high corn prices, high RIN prices, the blend wall and ever compounding RFS requirements! We all know that corn prices have been high – so high in … Continue reading →

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3:05 PM | Corn, ethanol, RIN prices, and the blend wall!

As we’ve hinted at before, some interesting things are starting to happen with high corn prices, high RIN prices, the blend wall and ever compounding RFS requirements! We all know that corn prices have been high – so high in … Continue reading →

February 28, 2013

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4:03 PM | the rebound effect and how energy efficiency may not be the “low hanging fruit”

An interesting paradox: as we conserve more energy, we use more. We pointed out some research in the past on this effect, and some debate about the potential impact of this effect has surfaced in a couple places. First, there … Continue reading →

February 24, 2013

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4:15 PM | The blend wall and what we will do will all the cellulosic ethanol

While we’ve discussed production issues with cellulosic a bit on this site (here and here), if John is right and we do scale up in the next couple years, whatever are we going to do with it all? http://farmdocdaily.illinois.edu/2013/02/ethanol-blend-wall-biodiesel-RFS.html They … Continue reading →

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4:15 PM | The blend wall and what we will do with all the cellulosic ethanol

While we’ve discussed production issues with cellulosic a bit on this site (here and here), if John is right and we do scale up in the next couple years, whatever are we going to do with it all? http://farmdocdaily.illinois.edu/2013/02/ethanol-blend-wall-biodiesel-RFS.html They … Continue reading →

February 21, 2013

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8:45 PM | Has biofuels led to major land use changes in the US?

And is the land that is being converted from grassland to corn and soy the “marginal land” that people take about growing dedicated bioenergy crops? A new article in PNAS this week seems to answer “yes” to both these questions. … Continue reading →

Wright, C. & Wimberly, M. (2013). Recent land use change in the Western Corn Belt threatens grasslands and wetlands, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1215404110

Citation

February 07, 2013

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7:41 PM | updates on the court challenge to the RFS: minimal long-term impact

I like how this post by Judy Endres explains the recent court ruling “overturning part of the RFS”. The devil is in the details: Although the court rejected EPA’s approach favoring overestimation of projected cellulosic biofuel production, the RFS itself, … Continue reading →

February 01, 2013

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5:49 PM | comparing original RFS volumes with revised volumes (some perspective)

Today the EPA released revised mandated amounts of biofuel to be blended under the RFS legislation. To put these numbers in perspective I have taken the original requirements for cellulosic in the 2007 law and compared to the revised amounts … Continue reading →

December 22, 2012

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5:26 PM | US military allowed to continue biofuels collaborations

I posted on a bill this summer trying to stop the US military from trying to reduce their long term energy costs by partnering with biofuels companies. The US military consumes a huge amount of fossil fuels in the US, often … Continue reading →

December 13, 2012

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4:04 PM | thoughtful opinions on the major questions w/ the future of biofuels..

Some insightful and honest opinions about some of the major questions about the future of biofuels. Def worth the 5 min read.. http://www.biofuelsdigest.com/bdigest/2012/12/13/15-burning-questions-and-answers-for-biofuels-in-2013/

November 27, 2012

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6:09 PM | Natural gas shutting down coal plants (with energy price comparison calculator!)

Great article on how the natural gas revolution is influencing electric power in the US, and how coal plants are threatened more by gas than by the EPA.. http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/the-demise-of-coal-fired-power-plants/2012/11/21/e7ca1e6e-fdda-11e1-b153-218509a954e1_story.html Some people quoted in this article say that if gas hits $3 – … Continue reading →

November 26, 2012

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5:15 PM | geoengineering news roundup

As John mentioned, we are long overdue for an update on geoengineering news. Of course the big story is Russ George dumping iron in the pacific ocean. It is unclear if this is: A way to generate carbon credits A … Continue reading →

November 22, 2012

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5:38 PM | Biofuels mandates around the world

Here is a list of biofuels mandates around the world: http://www.biofuelsdigest.com/bdigest/2012/11/22/biofuels-mandates-around-the-world-2012/ Happy Thanksgiving from the blog group!

November 20, 2012

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5:00 PM | POET and DuPont prepare for commercialization…

On the heels of KiOR’s commercial production startup, POET announces more details about their commercial process, slated to begin in 2013. They have been buying corn cobs and corn stover from farmers for the past two seasons in preparation for this.. … Continue reading →

November 19, 2012

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5:00 PM | next gen biofuel feedstock also a noxious weed?

Sometimes we don’t always think about the weed potential when we are studying potential bioenergy feedstocks and “energy crops”.. Other things that are not mentioned alot are how susceptible to disease and pests these bioenergy crops may be when grown in monocultures.. … Continue reading →

November 15, 2012

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6:58 PM | Why governments need to pick energy “winners”

Nice report that challenges our ideas about carbon tax or cap and trade as the solution to both climate change and sustainable energy: http://www.wwf.org.uk/research_centre/?6263 The report argues that although carbon pricing has an important role to play in reducing emissions, … Continue reading →

November 12, 2012

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8:43 PM | US to become top producer of oil & gas and self-sufficient in energy

Says a new report from the IEA.. What does this mean for alternative and renewable energy and climate change? Renewables become the world’s second-largest source of power generation by 2015 and close in on coal as the primary source by 2035. … Continue reading →

November 09, 2012

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4:48 PM | California moves forward with carbon trading

California is ready to launch carbon trading platform next week: http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/67080

November 05, 2012

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4:00 PM | Agrivida publishes details of engineered maize for biofuel

For biofuels to be economical, we will need some technology breakthroughs. In the US, the RFS is driving us to produce liquid fuel, usually with enzymes that convert sugars and starches in the biomass to ethanol or other liquid molecules … Continue reading →

Shen, B., Sun, X., Zuo, X., Shilling, T., Apgar, J., Ross, M., Bougri, O., Samoylov, V., Parker, M., Hancock, E. & Lucero, H. (2012). Engineering a thermoregulated intein-modified xylanase into maize for consolidated lignocellulosic biomass processing, Nature Biotechnology, DOI: 10.1038/nbt.2402

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November 02, 2012

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3:40 PM | coolest visualization of US electricity generation, distribution and potential

This is by far the coolest and most informative way to look at the electricity grid in the US – where the power is coming from, how is it distributed, and what is the potential for alternatives (wind, solar, biomass, … Continue reading →

November 01, 2012

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4:39 PM | stunningly beautiful photos of glaciers

A quick post here – just want to share some stunning photos of glaciers melting around the world from our friends at Yale Environment 360. I’m not quite sure you can look at these and not question climate change, but in any … Continue reading →

October 22, 2012

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2:57 PM | No wonder electric cars aren’t selling!

While this probably isn’t the reason electric cars have not lived up to the hype and might only sell about 50,000 in 2012 (less than 1% of total sales), maybe it is a reason we shouldn’t encourage them (yet). I … Continue reading →

Troy R. Hawkins, Bhawna Singh, Guillaume Majeau-Bettez, and Anders Hammer Strømman (2012). Comparative Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Conventional and Electric Vehicles, Journal of Industrial Ecology, DOI: 10.1111/j.1530-9290.2012.00532.x

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October 19, 2012

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6:08 PM | While housing recovers, clean-tech continues to suffer

A123 Systems bankruptcy filing this week probably surprised no one… but wanted to share two articles with a broader perspective on the difficulty in the clean energy sectors. I can sum them up pretty easily: “The rise of abundant and … Continue reading →

September 28, 2012

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5:37 PM | policy: is RFS and CAFE going to crash into eachother?

ruh roh… Gevo might be in trouble…. http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-09-24/gevo-shifting-production-to-ethanol-at-minnesota-biofuel-plant and perspectives on the future of the RFS…. I cut and paste the best sections below since that article is long and some of it is not that good.. http://www.biofuelsdigest.com/bdigest/2012/09/28/when-will-i-be-loved-supporters-of-the-us-renewable-fuel-standard-begin-to-rally/ At the … Continue reading →

September 17, 2012

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3:16 PM | lopsided voices: clean energy vs. fossil fuels in the election campaign

In the new post- Citizen’s United world, whoever has the most money has the biggest voice. For those not familar with the ruling and don’t feel like reading the wikipedia article linked above, in essence, the Supreme Court decided: “…that the … Continue reading →

September 11, 2012

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2:33 PM | reminding us about the Jevon’s Paradox

This short article (linked below) reminds us of something I’ve posted on before: the Jevon’s Paradox, or the idea that we will use more energy as it becomes cheaper. So the natural gas revolution we are seeing in the US … Continue reading →

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