Biofuels | Grist

Putting the cob in macabre

Corn-based meat and ethanol: burning the planet to a crisp 85
Posted 4 weeks ago Industrial meat and ethanol both come from corn. And both got a shucking from the research community this past week.
Ecologists to the rescue

Fixing the bioenergy accounting loophole 2
Posted 4 weeks, 1 day ago Dan Lashof knows that most people's eyes glaze over whenever "accounting" is mentioned and others tune out when discussion turns to "climate," so the number of people interested in "climate accounting" may be vanishingly small. But climate accounting may not be as obscure as it sounds.
the crude cost of fuel

Two new documentaries—‘Crude’ and ‘Fuel’—examine two sides of our petroleum problem 2
Posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago Crude and Fuel, two new documentaries, show the damaging effects of the world's addiction to oil, each film from its own unique angle.
Nuke it

Lamar Alexander loves the earth too much to support solar and wind 12
Posted 2 months ago
One of the few Congressional Republicans who talks about the need to address climate change makes an interesting argument against wind and solar energy. It's a bogus argument, but still interesting.
Are biofuels really worse than Canadian oil sands? 13
Posted 2 months ago
When several scientific studies began publishing reports that supported the common sense contention that food-based biofuels usurp farmland the Renewable Fuels Association (which just spent almost a quarter of a million dollars last quarter on lobbying) had to cobble together some kind of defense.
A win for the farm team

Offsets and Big Ag: Does the climate bill give away too much to the farm sector? 1
Posted 3 months, 1 week ago
The compliance market for offsets proposed under Waxman-Markey would result in a major realignment in the types of offsets offered, shifting away from renewable energy to offsets derived largely from land use, land use change, and forestry projects.
Everyone's got a lobbyist

Tally of interests on climate bill tops a thousand 0
Posted 3 months, 1 week ago
More than 460 new businesses and interest groups jumped into lobbying Congress on global warming in the weeks before the House neared its historic vote on climate change legislation, a Center for Public Integrity analysis of just-disclosed lobbying records shows.
Clarifying my position on lithium ion batteries

The limits of today’s electric car technology 18
Posted 3 months, 1 week ago
We will likely ship a billion new cars worldwide in the next 15 or so years. The key question is not whether hybrid or EV cars/batteries will be successful financially (they probably will), but rather what it will take to get 80% of these billion cars to be low-carbon cars.
Spray-and-trade

Can climate legislation survive the Senate Ag Committee’s embrace? 4
Posted 3 months, 3 weeks ago
Some have hoped that climate legislation would be strengthened in the Senate, but if the Agriculture Committee has any say, don't bet on it.
Star power

Mass. startup uses biotech smarts to take the corn out of ethanol 2
Posted 3 months, 3 weeks ago
Joule Biotechnologies mixes bioengineered micro-organisms with carbon dioxide and solar energy to produce corn-free ethanol.
A shot in the farm

USDA study finds that climate bill will benefit farmers 1
Posted 4 months ago
The climate and energy legislation that the House passed in June would increase revenues for farmers, according to a preliminary analysis released by the USDA. Could the report help convince farm-state senators to back a climate bill?
The Last Step

Ask Umbra on green moving companies 2
Posted 4 months, 2 weeks ago
Wrapping up her trifecta of moving-day columns, Umbra unpacks some info on the growing field of green moving companies.
Notable quotable

Et tu, Al? Franken gulps the ethanol-spiked Kool-Aid 5
Posted 4 months, 3 weeks ago
They grow a lot of corn in Minnesota--and turn a lot of it into ethanol. So how does the state's incoming junior senator feel about the corn-based fuel?
Notable quotable

Yet again, Vilsack bows to ethanol gods 82
Posted 4 months, 3 weeks ago
In what's becoming a ritual, USDA chief Tom Vilsack yet again declared his allegiance to ethanol.
Science being used as an excuse to balance budgets

Seattle and Berkeley drop biodiesel 0
Posted 4 months, 3 weeks ago
Here's a King 5 News video clip and here is a short article from the online Seattle PI, demonstrating how much easier it is to believe science when there's money involved.
The Grist List: From Poo to Potato

A loo that turns poo into fuel, and more 0
Posted 4 months, 4 weeks ago
Meet the LooWatt: a waterless eco-commode made from poop that turns your #1 and #2 into CH4. It's the diaper genie of the sustainability set.
The Negotiators

The Non-Concession concession? 1
Posted 4 months, 4 weeks ago
Henry Waxman and Ed Markey seem to have mastered the art of the non-concession concession: striking deals with potential opponents in ways that meet their needs while minimizing (though not entirely eliminating) the negative impacts.
So Farm, So Good

Eight reasons for farmers to support global warming action 0
Posted 5 months, 1 week ago By Alexandra Kougentakis, Jake Caldwell
Dead as Latin?

Imperium CEO can’t take the truth 0
Posted 5 months, 2 weeks ago
Cornmail

Peterson: Leave ethanol alone, or I’ll nuke Waxman-Markey 3
Posted 6 months ago
House Ag committee chair Collin Peterson (D.-Minn.) has already made it clear that he's furious that the EPA has proposed a framework for assessing the greenhouse gas footprint of ethanol. Now he's vowing to use his clout to crush the historic Waxman-Markey climate change bill, unless Congress passes a bill that would revoke the EPA's proposed rules.