Our weekly compilation of renewable energy news and information from around the Web.
Green Fuels on the March
The past two years have been difficult for green fuels as the global recession has slowed investment into new products and a decline in the price of oil has squeezed margins. Many of the first generation, corn-based ethanol providers have shuttered their operations.
Green fuels got a boost las week, however, as Ford Motors announced that its 2011 line of F-Series Super Duty diesel pickup trucks would be rated B20 (capable of running on fuel with a mixture of up to 20% biodiesel).
“We have a fleet advisory board and we go through a very specific process of communication with our customers, and we are always asking them what they are looking for,” said Ford spokesperson Anne Marie Gattari. “Biodiesel compatibility kept coming up over and over again and it speaks to fuel economy, it speaks to an environmental solution, and it allows an opportunity for us to advance our technology.”
Ford, like most all manufacturers, has approved biodiesel blends up to B5 so increasing the capability of its vehicles to use higher ratios of biodisel, regarding emissions compliance, engine components and other specifications requires significant modifications. “The new 6.7-liter Power Stroke V-8 turbocharged diesel will employ an after treatment system to help comply with 2010 federal regulations to reduce nitrogen-oxide levels in diesel emissions by more than 80 percent compared with the previous standard,” the company stated.
Down on the Farm
Iowa Senator Charles Grassley hosted a contingent of EPA officials at an Iowa farm last Thursday, in a play on the infamous statement of EPA-appointee Margo Oge, who said she had never been to a farm. The controversy arose when Ms. Oge began drafting controversial regulations on “indirect land use charges” — to the outrage of several farm groups — only to concede that she had never been to a farm.
Grassley asked the EPA to come to Iowa for a first-hand look at family farming after the incident received media coverage. Gina McCarthy, Assistant Administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation at EPA, and Margo Oge, Director of the Office of Transportation and Air Quality at EPA, were the Senator’s guests at the event.
The daylong tour, in an area near Des Moines, Iowa, began with an information session to discuss low carbon fuel standards, corn and soybean technology, and EPA’s AgSTAR program. The group then visited a family farm to learn about the work farmers are doing to produce safe, quality products in an environmentally friendly manner. Later, the group visited the Renewable Energy Group’s facility in Newton for a tour and an overview and update from the ethanol and biodiesel industries.
Senator Grassley said, “The EPA has tremendous power and authority, and the decisions it makes on several issues will have a major impact on the rural economy, from the family farm to opportunities in value-added agriculture industries, including renewable energy. It is absolutely essential that the government officials in charge understand the issues and the impact of their rules, regulations and directives.”
Biofuels Digest editor Jim Lane, a critic of the EPA’s approach to indirect land use charges, said “Steven Covey wrote that ’seeking first to understand’ was one of the seven habits of highly effective people. This visit gives hope that EPA will commence a new era of effectiveness.” Lane and other advocates of biofuels raised concerns over the EPA’s approach to biofuels and the contention in the draft regulations that linked the use of soybeans as a biofuel with the deforestation of Amazonian rainforests.
What’s a Billion Between Friends
Co-founder of Sun Microsystems and former Klein Perkins partner Vinod Khosla raised a little more than $1 billion for a new clean tech investing fund at Khosla Ventures. The fund says it is looking for both seed round and late stage investments in companies with new technologies, including renewable energies and biorefineries.
So Long Van: We Hardly Knew Ye’
White House ‘green jobs czar’ Van Jones resigned over the weekened, after mounting criticism of his past statements (including some obscenity-laced tirades caught on YouTube and a link to a 9/11 ‘truther’ organization). While the move was fodder for cable news, it should have little impact on renewable energy more generally. The industry is formed by the thousands of entrepeneurs, investors and institutions trying to find more efficient ways to produce energy. There are billions of dollars in incentives available and billions of dollars in equity funds awaiting deployment. The departure of one player or another should not make a difference to the industry as a whole. As Charles De Gaulle has been quoted to say, “the graveyards are full of indispensible men.”