Ethanol | 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.
Corn Ethanol Hoses Police Fleet 0
Posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago
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.
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.
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.
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.
News of a compromise foretold

How bad is the Peterson-Waxman deal on climate legislation? 7
Posted 4 months, 4 weeks ago
Surprising no one--but disappointing many--House energy chief Henry Waxman has caved in to the demands of the the agribusiness industry over the climate bill. How bad is it?
Who's king now?

King Corn, meet Big Oil 2
Posted 5 months, 3 weeks ago
Back in March, Tom Philpott flagged some moves from Shell Oil and Valero Energy (the largest U.S. oil refiner) that indicated Big Oil was falling for biofuels. Now, the NYT shows Tom had it right.
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.
King Corn vents spleen

Why farm-state pols rage against the EPA’s biofuel stance 3
Posted 6 months, 1 week ago
Why are farm-state pols howling against recently proposed EPA rules that don't affect their beloved ethanol program at all? They seem to be anticipating trouble from a coming cap-and-trade scheme.
the view from the blend wall

Resistance grows to increasing the amount of ethanol in gasoline 3
Posted 6 months, 2 weeks ago
The ethanol lobby may still be reeling in the subsidies, but it doesn't seem to be having any luck dealing with their other obsession, the so-called "blend wall," i.e. the legally prescribed limit to the amount of ethanol that can be mixed into gasoline. The NYT has a nice summary of the mounting scientific and industry backlash against ethanol lobbyist Growth Energy's EPA petition to raise the blend wall from 10% to 15%.
Don't be corny

A bad idea, plus lots of cash 7
Posted 6 months, 2 weeks ago
This is a blog post about the intersection of a bad idea and lots of cash--your cash. The bad idea is this: growing crops to ferment and distill them into ethanol for internal-combustion engines.
Biofoolish

The EPA holds corn ethanol accountable ... sort of 18
Posted 6 months, 2 weeks ago
The EPA has delivered its much-awaited proposal for evaluating the greenhouse gas-reducing performance of biofuels. Well, actually, the agency delivered two different options, neither of which stands up well to scientific scrutiny.
Ethanol's Big Day

Barack gives biofuels the big thumbs up 0
Posted 6 months, 2 weeks ago
The Obama administration came out big time today for biofuels.
Dysfunctional foods

Ethanol waste: it’s what’s for ... breakfast? 6
Posted 6 months, 2 weeks ago
Distillers grains is the stuff left over after they turn corn into car fuel. The ethanol industry generates a whole lot of it nowadays -- and has been marketing it as animal food and even an additive for human food. Too bad it contains industrial residues, including antibiotics.
Deposing King Corn?

Corn ethanol approaches a moment of truth 33
Posted 7 months ago
Corn ethanol may have reached a turning point. But it is regulators, not legislators, who are in the driver's seat. A series of regulatory rulings may help to determine whether corn ethanol or soy biodiesel will play any meaningful role in our future biofuel mix.
Sour corn

Is ethanol’s Congressional free ride coming to an end? 2
Posted 7 months, 2 weeks ago
The Congressional Budget Office just released a paperl ooking critically at the relationship between ethanol, food prices, and carbon emissions.
Rot-gut liquor

Amid a sea of troubles, ethanol now has an antibiotics problem 1
Posted 7 months, 2 weeks ago
Ah, distillers grains, the leftover mash from the corn-ethanol process. Finding a high-value use for this "coproduct" is vital to the ethanol project. The industry's strategy -- slough it off onto CAFOs -- looks increasingly dicey as problems related to antibiotics emerge.