Interesting Reuters piece last week on the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and very tardy 2014 ethanol-use requirements, now more than 10 months overdue from EPA. Reuters reports: The Obama administration is trying to balance its support for renewable fuels with awareness of infrastructure constraints at gas stations as it finalizes targets for 2014 biofuel use, agency officials said… Keep reading →
The Renewable Fuel Standard was designed to introduce increasing volumes of biofuels into the US liquid transportation fuel system as part of the 2005 Energy Policy Act. The standard has been expanded over time with greater focus given to advanced biofuels like cellulosic ethanol that do not use food crops as a direct feedstock. Blending… Keep reading →
The always-ugly battle between US oil refiners and the biofuels industry over EPA’s renewable fuel standards heated up again today when 31 oil executives sent a letter to President Obama urging EPA to stick with fuel blending volumes proposed last November. The proposal aims to find a balance between encouraging the continued growth of the… Keep reading →
WASHINGTON – Project LIBERTY, the nation’s first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant to use corn waste as a feedstock, announced the start of production today. Once operating at full, commercial-scale, the biorefinery in Emmetsburg, Iowa will produce 25 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol per year – enough to avoid approximately 210,000 tons of CO2 emissions annually.… Keep reading →
The EPA recently announced changes to the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS2) that improves opportunities for biogas to be utilized as a vehicular fuel by qualifying it as an advanced cellulosic biofuel. Biogas-derived Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) produced from landfills, municipal waste-water treatment facility digesters, agricultural digesters, and separated MSW digesters… Keep reading →
Biofuels proponents have been meeting with White House officials this week in attempts to ensure Renewable Fuel Standard blending requirements will not be reduced this year, as first indicated by EPA. The various groups also want new classifications of biofuels to be included as accepted fuels under the legislation. “More than 35 applications for new… Keep reading →
Elite Oil Fields Redefine Meaning of Crude’s ‘Big Three’ CNBC: Move over ExxonMobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips—there’s a new “Big Three” in U.S. energy production. And they’re not companies. In a new update to its drilling productivity report from last week, the Energy Information Agency said North Dakota’s Bakken and Texas’ Permian Basin and Eagle Ford Shale are quietly generating… Keep reading →
A tanker carrying 1 million barrels of crude oil from Iraqi Kurdistan reportedly just rounded the Florida pan handle and is scheduled to land in Galveston, Texas. The buyer is unclear and Iraq’s official crude oil marketer SOMO is threatening to sue anyone purchasing the cargoes, which the government in Baghdad views as violating the… Keep reading →
A new documentary called Pump seeking to promote alternative fuels in the US takes aim at the existing downstream oil products complex and suggests change is afoot. The movie is due out in September and today Submarine Deluxe, in association with Fuel Freedom Foundation and iDeal Film Partners released the trailer that can be viewed… Keep reading →
Many people love the smell of gasoline, but carcinogenic benzene flavors those aromatic vapors. What if instead of harmful toxins you could fill up your Ferrari or Lamborghini with a “green” fuel that smelled like a manly cologne? That’s exactly what some Dutch researchers are working on, with an eye toward supplying the luxury car… Keep reading →
