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1. Europe, Cutting Biofuel Subsidies, Redirects Aid to Stress Green

   Governments in Europe and elsewhere have begun rolling back generous, across-the-board subsidies for biofuels, acknowledging that the environmental benefits of these fuels have often been overstated.
   
   

   http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/22/business/worldbusiness/22biofuels.html

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2. Argonne GREET Model

   How Does GREET Work? To fully evaluate energy and emission impacts of advanced vehicle technologies and new transportation fuels, the fuel cycle from wells to wheels and the vehicle cycle through material recovery and vehicle disposal need to be considered. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Argonne has developed a full life-cycle model called GREET (Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Transportation). It allows researchers and analysts to evaluate various vehicle and fuel combinations on a full fuel-cycle/vehicle-cycle basis.
   
   

   http://www.transportation.anl.gov/software/GREET/

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3. VeraSun Energy: America's Source for Renewable Fuels_

   Produces fuel-grade ethanol and distillers grains based in Brookings, South Dakota. ... VeraSun Energy Announces Plant Managers for Charles City and Welcome Ethanol ...

   http://www.verasun.com/

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4. Ethanol Stocks Are Poised to Refuel - Barrons.com

   THE ETHANOL INDUSTRY BENEFITS from federal subsidies, tariffs and production mandates. Oil refiners get a credit of 51 cents per gallon of ethanol blended with gasoline. The typical blend is 90% gasoline/10% ethanol. Due to a federal dictate, more than half the gasoline sold in the U.S. now contains ethanol, which accounts for 7% of total gasoline consumption. There is also a 54-cents-a-gallon tax on imported ethanol. The government mandates that 9 billion gallons of ethanol be used this year, rising to 10.5 billion in 2009 and 15 billion by 2015. [ethanol corn husking] Dave Reede/Getty Images Ethanol has strong support from farm-belt legislators, since demand has helped corn prices nearly triple in the past two years; it also cuts gasoline prices. Ethanol has been widely criticized as a wasteful, inefficient way to fuel automobiles. The industry, many argue, wouldn't exist without federal subsidies. The critics make valid points, but ethanol has strong bipartisan support on Capitol Hill, and that's unlikely to change. The farm bill preserves the 54-cent tariff and reduces the refiners' credit to 45 cents a gallon from 51 cents through 2010. The tariff helps keep low-cost Brazilian ethanol out of the U.S., but Brazil's potential exports total only 1 billion gallons, a small fraction of U.S. needs. REFINERS ARE BLENDING ethanol with gasoline not because of government edicts but because i
   
   

   http://online.barrons.com/article/SB121279970958653929.html?page=2

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5. WSJ: As Biofuels Catch On, Next task is to Deal with Environmental, Economic Impact

   Global production of biofuels is rising annually by the equivalent of about 300,000 barrels of oil a day. That goes a long way toward meeting the growing demand for oil, which last year rose by about 900,000 barrels a day. Without biofuels, which can be refined to produce fuels much like the ones made from petroleum, oil prices would be even higher. Merrill Lynch commodity strategist Francisco Blanch says that oil and gasoline prices would be about 15% higher if biofuel producers weren't increasing their output. That would put oil at more than $115 a barrel, instead of the current price of around $102. U.S. gasoline prices would have surged to more than $3.70 a gallon, compared with an average of a little more than $3.25 today.

   http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120631198956758087.html

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6. Our Towns - They Used to Say Whale Oil Was Indispensable, Too - NYTimes.com

   Whaling, after all, was one of the world’s first great multinational businesses, a global enterprise of audacious reach and import. From the 1700s through the mid-1800s, oil extracted from the blubber of whales and boiled in giant pots gave light to America and much of the Western world. The United States whaling fleet peaked in 1846 with 735 ships out of 900 in the world. Whaling was the fifth-largest industry in the United States; in 1853 alone, 8,000 whales were slaughtered for whale oil shipped to light lamps around the world, plus sundry other parts used in hoop skirts, perfume, lubricants and candles. Like oil, particularly in its early days, whaling spawned dazzling fortunes, depending on the brute labor of tens of thousands of men doing dirty, sweaty, dangerous work. Like oil, it began with the prizes closest to home and then found itself exploring every corner of the globe. And like oil, whaling at its peak seemed impregnable, its product so far superior to its trifling rivals, like smelly lard oil or volatile camphene, that whaling interests mocked their competitors. “Great noise is made by many of the newspapers and thousands of the traders in the country about lard oil, chemical oil, camphene oil, and a half-dozen other luminous humbugs,” The Nantucket Inquirer snorted derisively in 1843. It went
   
   

   http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/nyregion/03towns.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=whale%20oil&st=cse&oref=slogin

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7. How Free Trade Can Help Solve the Energy Crisis: WSJ

   By ROBERT MCFARLANE and GEORGE PHILIPPIDIS
   July 26, 2008; Page A9
   
   The unprecedented escalation in oil and food prices is a clear and present danger to our economy and national security. The root cause of this crisis is our dependence on a single commodity, oil, for transportation -- we burn 145 billion gallons of gasoline a year. The only permanent solution is diversity in our fuel supply to ensure competition and choice in the marketplace.
   
   While a number of alternatives to oil are being developed, we already have one strategic solution at our disposal: biofuels, both domestic and from Latin America.
   
   Biofuels like ethanol and biodiesel are cheaper than fossil fuels, and will become even cheaper if we eliminate the senseless tariff on ethanol imports from Brazil. Ethanol can be used safely as a 10% blend with gasoline in all existing cars, and as an 85% blend in the increasing number of flexible-fuel cars on our roads. That means a 10% to 85% potential drop in gasoline use and, hence, freedom from the oil stranglehold.
   
   The public has been bombarded with lies and half-truths about biofuels, especially in the last six months. Americans should realize that biofuels are superior to fossil fuels. Biofuels are renewable, nontoxic and biodegradable. They are also beneficial to the automobile engine, the environment and the economy.
   
   Biofuels are available today by the billions of gallons from a variety of sources: corn, sugarcane and soon from cellulosics. Cellulosic ethanol promises to dramatically boost domestic production in the near future. In the meantime, sugarcane ethanol already produced in Latin American sugar mills can become a key U.S. fuel supply.
   
   Cellulosic biomass, in the form of existing agricultural and wood waste, is abundant (over a billion tons annually), inexpensive and requires no additional land. It has no food or feed value and therefore no effect on food availability and prices. A number of technologies are pursued for production of cellulosic ethanol and other biofuels, such as butanol and biodiesel. Most likely there will be no single technology winner. Rather, technologies will be adapted to the particular characteristics of local biofuel feedstocks.
   
   Lower fuel prices will come only with an ample supply of alternative fuels. Cellulosic ethanol can extend corn ethanol's potential of 15 billion gallons per year, but it will not happen overnight. Resolving commercialization issues, building a large number of plants, and ramping up cellulosic ethanol production to billions of gallons will require a number of years.
   
   To quickly boost its biofuel supply, the U.S. should partner with Latin America. Sugarcane ethanol from Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Central America should become an integral part of the U.S. energy strategy. An increase in Latin American cane ethanol capacity is the fastest, most cost-effective and lowest-risk strategy to secure abundant ethanol fuel. The U.S. needs Latin America for energy security, and Latin America needs the U.S. for capital and technology infusion. It's a classic win-win partnership -- provided U.S. trade barriers to sugarcane ethanol are eliminated.
   
   Biofuel production is sustainable. The U.S. corn ethanol industry is investing in technology improvements to reduce land demand through higher productivity and to minimize its carbon footprint. Cellulosic ethanol will come from existing waste materials, not additional land.
   
   Still, both corn and cellulosic ethanol can learn sustainable business lessons from Brazil. Its sugar mills have become biorefineries that co-produce sugar, ethanol and electricity in a renewable fashion, thus satisfying food, fuel and energy needs at the same time. The plants are self-powered by renewable energy derived from cane fiber and other biomass. As a result, Brazilian ethanol today is cost-competitive with oil at just $70 a barrel ($45 a barrel before the dollar weakened) without government subsidies -- a significant price advantage over gasoline.
   
   The U.S. should immediately pursue a multifaceted biofuels strategy. First, while the corn industry improves productivity and sustainability, the U.S. should treat the commercialization of cellulosic technologies as a matter of national security -- a new Manhattan Project deserving all the necessary resources to accelerate deployment.
   
   Second, the U.S. should pursue closer energy integration with Latin America though regulatory convergence and open biofuels trade, thus encouraging private investment in sugarcane ethanol production. This is the fastest and most efficient means to boost ethanol availability within three to four years, and displace gasoline use to an extent significant enough to cause oil demand and prices to drop.
   
   Third, consumers should be educated and financially incentivized to switch to flexible-fuel vehicles, creating demand for mass production of such vehicles, which will dramatically cut U.S. dependence on foreign oil.
   
   Energy security can not be achieved with a silver bullet. It is not a competition between corn ethanol and sugarcane ethanol or between biofuels and plug-in hybrids. The sooner we realize that U.S. energy security needs all of the above, the sooner our country will be able to commit to a coherent long-term energy policy. U.S. and Latin American biofuels are the kick-start needed to break oil's unbearable monopoly in transportation fuels.
   
   Mr. McFarlane served as President Ronald Reagan's national security advisor (1983-85). Mr. Philippidis is energy director at Florida International University in Miami.
   
   See all of today's editorials and op-eds, plus video commentary, on Opinion Journal.
   
   And add your comments to the Opinion Journal forum.
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   http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121702724001286291.html

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8. EPA Declines to Reduce Ethanol Requirements - WSJ.com

   By SIOBHAN HUGHES, JESSICA RESNICK-AULT and LAUREN ETTER August 8, 2008; Page A3 WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration denied a request to reduce the amount of ethanol that must be blended into the U.S. gasoline supply, dealing a setback to food producers, livestock ranchers and others who say the mandate is contributing to high food prices. [Chart] The decision marks a victory for U.S. corn growers and ethanol makers. But it is unlikely to settle the broader debate over U.S. biofuels policy and the degree to which the U.S. should continue to subsidize alternative fuels such as corn-based ethanol. Within minutes of the administration's announcement, groups representing poultry producers, livestock farmers and other industries vowed to take their case to Congress and the next presidential administration. President George W. Bush has promoted ethanol as part of a plan to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil. Three years ago, he signed a law that mandated that 7.5 billion gallons of renewable fuel a year be added to the nation's fuel supply by 2012. Last year, he signed a law that increased that requirement almost fivefold, raising the requirement to 36 billion gallons by 2022. The government's support for corn-based ethanol has frustrated chicken and hog producers, who say the mandate has increased the cost of feeding their livestock by
   
   

   http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121812843826021093.html?mod=sphere_ts&mod=sphere_wd

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