But the Republican candidates are divided over whether the government should require increased production of the fuel or whether to continue the subsidies and import tariff upon which the industry has come to depend. Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, supports some of the biofuel industry’s priorities, such as the continuation of tax subsidies, but he has stopped short of endorsing the 36 billion-gallon mandate. The next administration is likely to be lobbied by the ethanol industry to increase the market for the fuel by allowing more of it to be used in conventional gasoline. The focus on biofuels in Congress owes a lot to the importance of the Iowa presidential caucuses, according to the industry’s critics.
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The new energy legislation sets a rising mandate for renewable energy up to 36 billion gallons a year by 2022 and establishes higher fuel economy standards for passenger cars and light trucks for the first time in more than three decades. But many analysts believe there’s enough political momentum within the Democratic-controlled Congress to insert the renewable tax credits - many of which expire at the end of 2008 - into other legislation in the new year. Also, key proponents of the renewable energy mandate have vowed to bring up the bill in the next Congress. Their strong lobbying effort motivated Republican senators to block the revenue-raising items that could have cost the large oil companies more than $13 billion over the next 10 years. He said many refiners feared that uncertain production of biofuels in the years ahead - in the case of drought, or if planned advanced biofuel technologies didn’t deliver - would mean multi-billion-dollar investments would leave stranded assets. We reserve the right to edit and publish your comments along with your name; we reserve the right not to publish reader comments.
A Nobel Prize-winning scientist has warned that switching from fossil fuels to biofuels could do the planet more harm than good. Prof Paul Crutzen calculated the global warming effects of the fertiliser needed to grow energy crops like biodiesel and bioethanol were much worse than has been estimated. He believes a larger proportion than thought of the nitrogen in fertilisers is converted into nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas, New Scientist magazine reported. But Prof Crutzen and his colleagues calculated the true figure was closer to 3-5% - enough to negate the savings in carbon dioxide emissions made by switching from fossil fuels. They estimated that biodiesel made from rapeseed was the least efficient biofuel, potentially having a significantly greater warming effect than fossil fuels. Prof Crutzen, of the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, Germany, won the 1995 Nobel Prize for chemistry for his work on the threat to the ozone layer.
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A scientific exploration of hot springs in Iceland has uncovered a new strain of bacteria which is able to produce hydrogen and ethanol fuels. The discovery is a huge boost for the development of alternative energy, especially for sugar producers who may soon find a new market for their crops in the EU. Not only would cost-effective measures of producing biofuels from local crops help countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific help local economies, it could gain them more foreign exchange through the sale of biofuels to countries with a demand for environmentally friendly fuel, like America and Europe. Biofuel producing bacteria discovered in Iceland A scientific exploration of hot springs in Iceland has uncovered a new strain of bacteria which is able to produce hydrogen and ethanol fuels. Iceland
Department of Agriculture cutting its estimates of the amount of corn and soybeans left at the end of the 2007/08 marketing year in August of 2008. But corn and soybeans gained technical momentum as the session progressed amid hopes that the Senate will vote in favor of an amendment to a farm bill that would require the production of 36 billion gallons of biofuels by 2022 — five times more than this year’s output — as a fallback in case an energy bill falters. Already, the government is estimating that 24 percent of the 2007 corn crop will used to produce ethanol, up from 14 percent just two years ago. There wasn’t anything bearish in the S&D report other than a little upward revision in the global ending stocks,” said Terry Reilly, analyst with Citigroup.
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Climate survey pooh-poohs biofuels
A poll of 1000 climate change “decision makers” from 105 countries, including government and industry officials, listed solar energy as the technology with the top potential to cut carbon emissions. But biofuels derived from crops, such as corn-based ethanol, placed last, with only 21 per cent saying it was the best option when considering the side effects. Biofuel production has been on the rise in recent years as it is seen as a clean form of energy in an era of soaring oil prices and growing worries about carbon emissions blamed for global warming. Doug Miller, head of the polling company Globespan which conducted the survey, said more policymakers were hopeful about finetuning second-generation biofuels, such as those made from forestry waste. Policymakers may fear “that a kind of disaster with an impact on food prices is going to turn consumers and the political system off the next generation” of biofuel, Mr Miller said. The survey also found that 92 per cent of policymakers believed it was important for all countries to be involved in the next agreement on global warming.
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At the same time, engineers and process-control technicians are developing systems to reduce the amount of energy used in producing bioethanol and to achieve an energy efficiency of 95 per cent, compared with 46 per cent by traditional methods. The European Union (EU) produces enough biodiesel from rapeseed oil and bioethanol from beet sugar to meet only about three per cent of its needs
Two more firms have signified an interest to pour in much-needed capital for this sunshine industry, said Zubiri who is the principal author of the country
Seaweeds can now control global warming
Carbon dioxide is the gas whose increase in the atmosphere is leading to climate change. Sahoo is co-author of a paper that appraises the use of marine algae for carbon sequestration - taking in carbon dioxide from the air. Half the photosynthesis in the world takes place in the oceans and the seas, Sahoo told. What Sahoo and his co-authors are suggesting is a huge increase in these numbers so that not only can seaweeds take in more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere but they can also be converted into biofuel when they die and then replace fossil fuels - helping fight climate change in two important ways.
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New Report Presents Growth Drivers and Challenges Faced by Biofuel
In last couple of years, the production and consumption of biofuels have entered a new era of global growth, experiencing expansion both in the scale of the industry and the number of countries involved. The Biofuels Market in Australia explores the current developments and market potential of biofuels and the impact these fuels are having on the overall economy of the country. The report focuses on the market trends, the benefits derived and the environmental impacts of the biofuels in the country. The report further describes the government policies, current and future R&D in the sector and the competition that exists within the biofuels market of Australia.
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