Grist | Topics | 29 Results

RESULTS		Results 1 – 25 of 29
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Headline	Author	Published	Section
Sweetening the deal Lugar calls for end to tariff on Brazilian sugarcane ethanol	Kate Sheppard	03 Jul 2008	Gristmill
Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) stopped by ($ub. req'd) the American Enterprise Institute yesterday to give a speech arguing that Congress should lift the 54-cents-a-gallon tariff on imported ethanol. 'To demonstrate leadership the United States should lift its tariff on Brazilian ethanol that now shelters the U.S. industry,' Lugar told the AEI crowd. Many politicians -- including Lugar, who's from a big corn state -- have supported the tariff to protect American biofuel ...
Topics: biofuels, energy, ethanol, Muckraker, news, politics (all these topics)

A fuel's errand Republican House members ask EPA to scale back ethanol mandate	Kate Sheppard	02 Jul 2008	Gristmill
More than 50 Republican representatives sent a letter [PDF] to the Environmental Protection Agency last week urging the agency to lower the mandate for ethanol production in response to both the recent flooding in the Midwest and drought in the South. They argue that one-third of the country's corn crop will be used for ethanol to meet the Renewable Fuel Standard, and while the weather this year will cause a decrease in supply of corn, the RFS will increase demand ...
Topics: biofuels, Congress, energy, ethanol, Muckraker, news, politics, regulation, severe weather, US EPA (all these topics)

Corn polls New surveys suggest changing views on biofuels	Ron Steenblik	11 Jun 2008	Gristmill
Biofuel policy has made it to the polls. Yesterday, the National Center for Public Policy Research, a nonprofit, non-partisan educational foundation based in Washington, D.C., released the results of a survey (PDF) conducted at the beginning of this month which claims to have found that most Americans -- 'including those in the Farm Belt' -- want Congress to reduce or eliminate the mandated use of corn ethanol. In response to the key question, 'What do you think Congr ...
Topics: European Union, biofuels, ethanol, climate, politics, agriculture, energy (all these topics)

The farm bill ups the cellulosic ethanol ante Lost amid the crop-subsidy battle, a new biofuel regime	Tom Philpott	24 May 2008	Gristmill
Amid all the thunder and lightening about subsidies in the new farm bill -- which officially became law Thursday -- Congress made a major policy shift with regard to the goodies lavished on ethanol makers. Under previous policy, biofuel makers -- whether conventional or cellulosic -- benefit from a 51 cent a gallon tax credit conferred on gasoline blenders. No any more. According to a recent Environmental Law & Policy Center memorandum [PDF] summing up th ...
Topics: ag policy, agriculture, biofuels, energy, ethanol, legislation, politics (all these topics)

Bush: Not a Gristmill reader President hails cellulosic ethanol as a panacea	Tom Philpott	06 Mar 2008	Gristmill
I'm offended: President Bush evidently hasn't been following my string of posts about how cellulosic ethanol probably won't ever be viable. Addressing a renewable-energy conference, the president fretted that the ethanol boom he set in motion is 'beginning to affect the price of food.' He added: 'So we got to do something about it.' And what we 'got to do,' evidently, is throw more cash at cellulosic ethanol. Here's how The New York Times summed up his statement: ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, cellulosic ethanol, energy, ethanol, George Bush, politics (all these topics)

Cellulosic ethanol: not likely to be viable New study from mainstream ag economists at Iowa State	Tom Philpott	03 Mar 2008	Gristmill
Cellulosic ethanol represents a beacon on the horizon -- the justification cited by wiseguys like Vinod Khosla for dropping billions per year in public cash to prop up corn ethanol production. Corn ethanol, you see, is a bridge to a bright cellulosic future. But the beacon is looking more and more like a mirage, a ghost, a specter; the bridge we're hurtling down may well lead to a chasm. A quiet consensus seems to be forming among people you'd think would know th ...
Topics: ag policy, agriculture, biofuels, cellulosic ethanol, energy, ethanol, politics (all these topics)

Biofuels bombshell Researchers find corn ethanol, switchgrass could worsen global warming	Frank O'Donnell	07 Feb 2008	Gristmill
Some very respected researchers today have lobbed a real bombshell into the energy public policy world: they have concluded that ethanol produced both by corn and switchgrass could worsen global warming. In other words, Congress really blew it last year when it mandated a massive increase in biofuels (an action coated with green language but really an effort by both political parties to cater to farm states). This is also a slap at President Bush's effort to pa ...
Topics: biofuels, climate, energy, ethanol, politics (all these topics)

Cellulosic ethanol: It might be a bust Thus spake Chairman Peterson of the House Ag Committee	Tom Philpott	17 Jan 2008	Gristmill
David already pointed to it, but it bears repeating: House Ag Committee Chairman Colin Peterson, a tireless champion of ethanol and any other big-ag project he can get his mits on, has declared that cellulosic ethanol could well never 'get off the ground.' At best, he declared, cellulosic ethanol stands at least 10 years away from commercial viability (exactly what cellulosic boosters have been saying for three decades). Wait a minute. Ethanol's champions have long c ...
Topics: biofuels, cellulosic ethanol, energy, ethanol, politics (all these topics)

BigThink Smart people talk about serious questions	David Roberts	14 Jan 2008	Gristmill
Check out this cool new site, BigThink. It's a collection of short video interviews with notable or famous people, asking them a series of common questions. Strangely addictive. The environment section is fairly anemic thus far (the site just launched a few weeks ago), but you can watch Mitt Romney, Dennis Kucinich, John McCain, and Bill Richardson all answering the question, Is ethanol overhyped? (Hint: Cellulosic! Cellulosic!) Also, I really like Gillian Caldwell, ...
Topics: biofuels, energy, ethanol, politics, websites (all these topics)

Notable quotable	David Roberts	18 Dec 2007	Gristmill
'I really would like to vote for this bill because we desperately need an energy bill. The world and particularly the United States faces a real challenge on energy in the future. But I cannot vote for this bill primarily because of the corn ethanol mandate. A recent article in The Economist noted that our use of corn for ethanol doubled the price of corn about a year ago. Farmers then moved lands from soybeans and what would have been in soybeans and wheat to corn. We ...
Topics: quotables, politics, legislation, energy, agriculture, biofuels, ethanol (all these topics)

To those who are blas� about expanding the RFS Once in place, the RFS will be nigh impossible to eliminate	Ron Steenblik	13 Dec 2007	Gristmill
Several posts during the past week, and countless ones elsewhere, have asked people to support the Energy Bill making its way through Congress. Some people have no problem with one of its major provisions, which calls for substantially expanding the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) -- the regulation that requires minimum amounts of ethanol, biodiesel, or other biofuels to be incorporated into the volume of transport fuels used each year. Indeed, some would even welcome t ...
Topics: biofuels, agriculture, energy, legislation, politics, ethanol (all these topics)

Bartlett opposes energy bill over RFS	David Roberts	07 Dec 2007	Gristmill
I'm a fairly enthusiastic supporter of the energy bill that just left the House, but I am painfully aware that the Renewable Fuel Standard, which would mandate (insofar as one can mandate ponies) 36 billion gallons of ethanol by 2036 -- and worse yet, 15 billion gallons of corn ethanol by 2015 -- is a grotesquerie that will do far more harm than good. I tend to think that it will get ratcheted back by a subsequent Congress, particularly once the perversity becomes cl ...
Topics: biofuels, energy, ethanol, legislation, oil, politics (all these topics)

Will the energy bill bail out ethanol? The corn industry hopes Congress will pull its fat out of the fire	Tom Philpott	28 Nov 2007	Gristmill
I used to love to start my writing day by taking a poke or two at the corn-based ethanol industry -- you know, the biggest greenwash ever. Photo: mrobenalt These days, the debunking of corn fuel almost seems like it's piling on. Today, two major newspapers -- the LA Times and The Wall Street Journal -- ran front-page stories that essentially say: everyone hates government support for corn-based ethanol, except for people with a direct financial (or polit ...
Topics: ag policy, ag subsidies, agriculture, biofuels, energy, ethanol, politics (all these topics)

Independent Qu�bec Backing away from corn ethanol	Ron Steenblik	13 Nov 2007	Gristmill
The big news north of the (U.S.) border is that Qu�bec's government has decided that there is no future in corn ethanol. As explained in an article posted on Canada's Cyberpresse website, back in May 2005 Qu�bec's then Minister for Agriculture, Yvon Valli�res, gave a green light, 'for obvious economic and ecological reasons,' to the construction of the first plant to manufacture ethanol from corn kernels, in the town of Varennes. However, during an emission o ...
Topics: energy, biofuels, ethanol, Quebec, politics (all these topics)

Masters of their domain Politicians and the art of deception	biodiversivist	08 Nov 2007	Gristmill
Compare this video (posted by David) of Hillary squirming while she tells a whopper with the video below of McCain being brutally honest (via a comment by greyflcn in same post). Refreshing. We human beings are masters of deception, and of detection of said deception -- the result of an evolutionary arms race: Update: I didn't realize that this is old footage before his flip flop. Update: Compare his demeanor in the above clip to his demeanor in the clip b ...
Topics: biofuels, elections, energy, ethanol, John McCain, politics, presidential race 08 (all these topics)

WTF happened to a 'new direction'? Obama condemns mining reform package as too hard on the mining industry	David Roberts	08 Nov 2007	Gristmill
Barack Obama is ticking me off. First he opportunistically attacks Clinton for not being enthusiastic enough in her support for corn ethanol -- which he knows perfectly well is an environmental dead end. Then ... this: Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said he does not support mining reform legislation that recently passed the House of Representatives and would work to find a compromise that is more friendly to the mining industry. 'T ...
Topics: Barack Obama, biofuels, elections, energy, ethanol, mining, politics, presidential race 08 (all these topics)

Who are you calling sensible, punk? Hillary Clinton struggles to explain away her previous opposition to corn ethanol	David Roberts	07 Nov 2007	Gristmill
Over the years, Hillary Clinton has voted against subsidies and mandates for corn ethanol in the Senate a number of times. If you know anything about corn ethanol, you know that's a good thing. When Clinton released her (otherwise excellent) energy plan this week, it contained a whole boatload of ... subsidies and mandates for corn ethanol. That is, conversely, a bad thing. Obama's campaign took the opportunity to bash Clinton for it -- not for switching from a sensi ...
Topics: biofuels, elections, energy, ethanol, Hillary Clinton, politics, presidential race 08 (all these topics)

He's even lazy about pandering Fred Thompson half-heartedly justifies flip-flop on ethanol	David Roberts	05 Oct 2007	Gristmill
Ol' Fred Thompson has decided that ethanol's great after all, even though he voted against subsidies as an allegedly-small-government conservative in the Senate. Why, Fred? We know it can't be a craven pander to Iowa voters, so what's the explanation? 'I have voted against subsidies in the Senate,' said Thompson. 'But I think it's a matter now of national security and we've got to avail ourselves of a lot of different resources, and I think renewable has to be a par ...
Topics: biofuels, elections, energy, ethanol, politics, presidential race 08 (all these topics)

The lash is back Stratfor analysis of the backlash against ethanol	David Roberts	13 Sep 2007	Gristmill
Stratfor's Bart Mongoven on why the growing negative buzz around ethanol is having limited political effect:... the backlash against biofuels is in full swing. The critics, however, are running head on into the powerful agricultural lobbies in the United States and Europe that so successfully championed the issue in the first place. These advocates say that ethanol, biodiesel and other nonpetroleum-based transportation fuels reduce pollution, help fight climate change ...
Topics: biofuels, energy, ethanol, politics (all these topics)

All so predictable Corn ethanol bubble stretched thin	biodiversivist	19 May 2007	Gristmill
Expect the venture capitalists who started this pyramid scheme to quietly jump ship, leaving those who came in last holding the steaming bag. This article is behind the Wall Street Journal subscription wall and I can't post the whole article, though I would certainly like to. Several excerpts follow: Earlier this year, Mr. Chambliss introduced a bill calling for even greater ethanol use, though with one striking difference: The bill caps the amount of that fuel tha ...
Topics: biofuels, energy, ethanol, lobbying, politics (all these topics)

The great Cornholio Corn ethanol politics	biodiversivist	16 May 2007	Gristmill
I really don't have anything to add, so here are some excerpts from Motley Fool telling it like it is: My theory is that the political support for massive biofuel expansion comes down to securing constituents' votes. Politicians know they can benefit politically from selling the benefits of biofuels ... and they also know there's too much at stake politically to back away from the issue. What states' politicians stand to benefit the most from backing biofuel? For sta ...
Topics: ag policy, biofuels, energy, ethanol, politics (all these topics)

Alice in ethanol-land Edwards, Canada, and now South Africa	Ron Steenblik	21 Mar 2007	Gristmill
Former Senator John Edwards (D-N.C.) -- now a presidential hopeful -- has just published his latest energy plan. One important plank of that plan foresees the nation producing (not just consuming, which would allow for imports) 65 billion gallons a year of ethanol by 2025. ('I'll meet your bid for 2030, Barack, and raise it by five billion!') If the 51 cents a gallon volumetric ethanol excise tax credit (VEETC) is extended beyond the end of 2010 -- as most commentat ...
Topics: biofuels, Canada, elections, energy, ethanol, John Edwards, politics, South Africa (all these topics)

A Bridge to Somewhere? What we've learned from the biofuels series	Tom Philpott	15 Dec 2006	Main Dish
Future or folly? Photo: iStockphoto After spending much of the last several months thinking about the biofuels boom and its implications in preparation for this special series, we've come to a few conclusions. Like other energy sources, biofuels have significant environmental liabilities. Boosters' rhetoric about "renewable energy" aside, topsoil -- from which biofuel feedstocks spring -- is ...
Topics: ag policy, agriculture, biofuels, cellulosic ethanol, energy, ethanol, politics (all these topics)

Give Green, Go Yellow How cash and corporate pressure pushed ethanol to the fore	Tom Philpott	06 Dec 2006	Main Dish
... got all liquored on that road house corn ... -- Tom Waits, "Gun Street Girl" Before it became widely used as a car fuel, ethanol was just grain liquor -- and the federal government was not particularly kind to it. We pledge allegiance to ADM. Shortly after the American Revolution, the new government imposed a draconian tax on the stuff, hoping to pay down wartime debt. ...
Topics: ag policy, ag subsidies, biofuels, business, energy, ethanol, politics (all these topics)

The Big Three The numbers behind ethanol, cellulosic ethanol, and biodiesel in the U.S.	Maywa Montenegro	04 Dec 2006	Main Dish
America devours oil like no other country in the world. Representing 5 percent of the global population, the country consumes fully a quarter of the world's oil. Every year, to move ourselves and our goods around, we burn 140 billion gallons of gasoline and 40 billion gallons of diesel -- enough to propel the average U.S. car around the world 1.6 billion times. But rising price ...
Topics: ag policy, ag subsidies, agriculture, biofuels, cellulosic ethanol, energy, ethanol, politics (all these topics)

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