Grist | Topics | 265 Results

RESULTS		Results 26 – 50 of 265
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Headline	Author	Published	Section
Let them eat biofuel Food vs. fuel debate, German edition	Tom Philpott	21 Apr 2008	Gristmill
Defending her country's biofuel mandates in a time of global food crisis, German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently denied that turning food crops into car fuel affects prices.Those looking for reasons behind the recent spike in food prices shouldn't blame ethanol and biodiesel makers, she argued. Instead, look at how people are eating in the global south: If you travel to India these days, then a main part of the debate is about the "second meal." People ar ...
Topics: biofuels, energy, environmental justice, food, Germany, international politics (all these topics)

Bush's bread man Baltimore baker takes on great quacking menace	Glenn Hurowitz	21 Apr 2008	Gristmill
Last week, The New York Times' David Streitfeld told the story of one J.R. Paterakis, a Baltimore 'baker' who opposes the Conservation Reserve Program, which provides incentives to farmers to set aside their land for wildlife, clean water, and (incidentally) massive carbon sequestration. Seemed like an opportunity to deploy my rye wit. The program has been a huge success -- protecting 35 million acres of land and partially restoring the 'duck factory' of the upper ...
Topics: wildlife, energy, biofuels, Big Ag, politics, agriculture, food (all these topics)

Notable quotable	JMG	17 Apr 2008	Gristmill
'It's a crime against humanity that food should be diverted to biofuels.' -- Palaniappan Chidambaram, India's finance minister (via)
Topics: biofuels, energy, food, India, quotables (all these topics)

Lieberman-Warner is a mess Climate Security Act could be worse than the 2007 energy bill	biodiversivist	08 Apr 2008	Gristmill
Last year the Energy Independence and Security Act put into place mandates that will in all likelihood increase GHG emissions. The Lieberman-Warner act (critiqued by Sean here) could turn out to be just as ineffective. From an analysis [PDF] of the Energy Independence and Security Act by the NRDC: ... the requirement for renewable fuels, such as ethanol and biogasoline, will grow from 9 billion gallons in 2008 to 36 billion gallons in 2022. So far, so good, ...
Topics: biofuels, cellulosic ethanol, climate, energy, greenhouse-gas emissions, legislation, NRDC, politics (all these topics)

Worse than coal Industrial agrofuels: enemy of the entire planet	biodiversivist	07 Apr 2008	Gristmill
Apologies for the terrible photo, but it was pouring (and snowing) when I took it. That's Duff Badgley again, the dirty hippie, protesting at a Safeway store. You can see the marquee advertising the price of B-5 (5 percent) biodiesel at $4.20 a gallon. Biofuel proponents are not going to like having their fuel compared to coal, but think about it. Most of the CO2 in the United States comes from liquid fossil fuels. Replace them with today's biofuels, and you would ...
Topics: biofuels, cars, energy, green living, oil (all these topics)

Your used fry grease or your life	JMG	06 Apr 2008	Gristmill
And so it's come to this -- Mad Max is after used fry grease.
Topics: biofuels, energy (all these topics)

Up, up, and away: corn edition Corn hits a new record -- $6 a bushel	Joseph Romm	06 Apr 2008	Gristmill
At the end of February, I blogged on a Fortune article that had the subhead 'The ethanol boom is running out of gas as corn prices spike.' That article noted: Spurred by an ethanol plant construction binge, corn prices have gone stratospheric, soaring from below $2 a bushel in 2006 to over $5.25 a bushel today. As a result, it's become difficult for ethanol plants to make a healthy profit, even with oil at $100 a barrel. Just six weeks later, we have an AP article ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, cellulosic ethanol, Department of Agriculture, energy, food (all these topics)

Algal update Texas forum on what's new, April 10	Erik Hoffner	02 Apr 2008	Gristmill
For the interest of those who haven't given up entirely on biofuels, I humbly present the National Algae Association forum in Texas on April 10. This meeting will serve as an update on what's new in this promising branch of the nascent sustainable biofuel movement: biodiesel from cultured algae (outside of biodiesel from waste oil, that is). This week's Renewable Energy World podcast had an interesting interview with the principal of one algae-fuel company, Solix Bio ...
Topics: biofuels, energy, renewable energy, Texas (all these topics)

U-boat sightings European biodiesel industry being bankrupted by loophole	biodiversivist	02 Apr 2008	Gristmill
They call them U-boats because they pull into a port just long enough to do a U-turn and head off to Europe. They stop just long enough to blend a touch of fuel into the tank so they can claim the government subsidy. Let's say you have a million gallons on board from, say, a palm oil plantation in Indonesia, or a soybean operation in South America. An hour or two after your arrival, your pockets are bulging with just short of a million U.S. taxpayer dollars. From the ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, business, economy, energy, fossil fuels, international politics, shenanigans (all these topics)

WSJ: Biodiesel's advocates smarter than corn ethanol's Subsidies contribute to muddying of biodiesel instead of boosting the industry	Joseph Romm	01 Apr 2008	Gristmill
The WSJ reports today: The U.S. taxpayer forks over a $1 subsidy for every gallon of biodiesel that is blended in the U.S. for export later. The idea was to give a nudge to the U.S. biofuel industry. But it is boomeranging, as the Guardian reports today in the latest installment on biodiesel 'splash-and-dash.' ... Increasingly, traders ship biodiesel from Asia or Europe to U.S. ports, where it is blended with a 'splash' of regular diesel, the paper reports. That ...
Topics: biofuels, business, energy, shenanigans (all these topics)

NRDC vs. me Blogger Nathanael Greene takes on Philpott re: biofuels	Tom Philpott	31 Mar 2008	Gristmill
The Natural Resources Defense Council evidently remains pretty sanguine about biofuels as a "solution to energy dependence and global warming."Over on the group's Switchboard blog, senior policy analyst Nathanael Greene recently took exception to some unkind words of mine on cellulosic ethanol. I responded in the comments section. I hope a robust debate follows.
Topics: cellulosic ethanol, NRDC, biofuels, energy (all these topics)

'The Clean Energy Scam' Biofuel boom leveling rainforest, Time reports	Tom Philpott	30 Mar 2008	Gristmill
From an excellent article in Time: Indonesia has bulldozed and burned so much wilderness to grow palm oil trees for biodiesel that its ranking among the world's top carbon emitters has surged from 21st to third according to a report by Wetlands International. Malaysia is converting forests into palm oil farms so rapidly that it's running out of uncultivated land. But most of the damage created by biofuels will be less direct and less obvious. In Brazil, for instance, ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, Brazil, deforestation, energy, ethanol, rainforests (all these topics)

Don't look now, but clean tech is contributing to climate progress New report on massive growth of renewables last year	Joseph Romm	27 Mar 2008	Gristmill
Climate Progress is the title of my blog posts' main home, as much as the 'progress' part strains credulity at times. I only see two major quantitative areas of sustained progress: clean energy deployment (especially in Europe) and private sector clean-tech funding. Those folk at Clean Edge, who wrote the best 2007 book on clean tech, The Clean Tech Revolution, have quantified these gains -- and made predictions about the future -- in a new report you can read here. S ...
Topics: biofuels, business, energy, renewable energy, wind power (all these topics)

Biodiesel in the dumps To survive, producers wanly import feedstock and export fuel	Tom Philpott	21 Mar 2008	Gristmill
At this point, serious greens still promoting biofuels are in a tight corner. Global grain stocks are at all-time lows and prices at all-time highs. That means heavy incentives to clear new land to plant crops -- in precious rainforest regions in South America and Southeast Asia that sustain indigenous peoples and store titanic amounts of carbon. These lands are also concentrated centers of biodiversity. Sacrificing them for car fuel is a heinous crime. Anyone who ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, business, energy, international politics (all these topics)

Hurtling down a bridge to nowhere Another study says cellulosic ethanol ain't happening	Tom Philpott	20 Mar 2008	Gristmill
As the case against corn-based ethanol firms up, we're hearing a drumbeat of claims that corn is only a bridge to a bright cellulosic future. In this vision, ethanol won't be distilled from corn grown on prime land but rather from stuff no one wants: plant 'wastes,' wood pulp, prairie grass, pocket lint. The latest such claim comes from Nobel Laureate Steven Chu, director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory at Cal-Berkeley. Flush with a $500 million grant fr ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, cellulosic ethanol, energy (all these topics)

Misplaced priorities Thoughts from a cellulosic ethanol agnostic	biodiversivist	17 Mar 2008	Gristmill
Photo: rsgranne and danipt via Flickr. 'If America can win a race to the moon, we can win a race for a battery,' Bill Clinton said last night on TV, stumping for Hillary. He also pointed out that if our cars got 100 mpg, the rise in fuel prices -- which is inevitable -- will have a much smaller economic impact. In short, he thinks America needs to get its shit together and start leading the world again with innovation.Easier said than done, in my opinion. We se ...
Topics: energy, cellulosic ethanol, biofuels (all these topics)

Crop, Stop, and Roll E.U. likely to cut subsidies for farmers		13 Mar 2008	News
Posted at 1:11 PM on 13 Mar 2008 With crop prices through the roof and scientific concerns being raised about the greenness of biofuels, various European countries have cut back tax breaks and subsidies for farmers -- and now the European Union as a whole is planning to follow suit. source:� The Wall Street Journal see also, in Grist:� E.U. says it will be mindful of sustainability in boosting biofuels From ...
Topics: ag subsidies, agriculture, biofuels, energy, European Union, news, politics (all these topics)

Biodiesel: coming soon to a stream near you? Another black eye for the 'green fuel'	Tom Philpott	12 Mar 2008	Gristmill
Apparently, biodiesel makers are having trouble keeping their product from spilling into waterways -- when they're not actively dumping glycerin (a biodiesel product) into streams.That's the message from an article in Tuesday's New York Times.According to industry dogma, biodiesel is "nontoxic, biodegradable and suitable for sensitive environments," The Times reports. Not so fast. According to a Canadian scientist, quoted in the article:[A]s with most organic ...
Topics: animal welfare, biofuels, energy, water pollution (all these topics)

Small-scale, community-owned biodiesel goes global An honest, interesting statement from Piedmont Biofuels of North Carolina	Tom Philpott	06 Mar 2008	Gristmill
I'm a fierce critic of biofuels, but I've always had a soft spot for small, region-based biodiesel projects that create fuel from local resources, providing jobs in the bargain. (I proudly ran Emily Gertz's feature on the topic in our 2006 biofuels series.) The income from such projects remains within communities, rippling around and building wealth. Rather than being just another conduit for transferring cash from communities into the pockets of global investors, fu ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, energy, industrial ag, North Carolina, waste (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)

On the Ball: The three R's Readying for the Olympics, revisiting artificial turf, and racing with Formula One	Sarah K. Burkhalter	05 Mar 2008	Gristmill
As Beijing prepares for the Summer Olympics, officials claimed the best run of blue-sky days on record between Jan. 21 and Feb. 18, and said that 26 of February's 29 days met the city's clean-air standard. International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge lauded Beijing's pollution-reducing efforts, stating, 'I can't hide the fact that there is today a danger of atmospheric pollution in Beijing, but our Chinese friends are doing tremendous efforts to reduce ...
Topics: air pollution, biofuels, cars, China, energy, sports (all these topics)

Wildlife, Shmildlife USDA head suggests harvesting switchgrass on conservation land		04 Mar 2008	News
Posted at 1:25 PM on 04 Mar 2008 Department of Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said Tuesday that it would be a "great idea" to allow farmers to grow and harvest biofuel-bound switchgrass on land currently set aside as wildlife habitat. More than 34 million acres in the U.S. are in the Conservation Reserve Program, which pays landowners to convert cropland to native grasses and keep it largely untouche ...
Topics: biofuels, Department of Agriculture, energy, habitat loss, habitat protection, news (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)

Biofuel blight: tastes great, less filling Alcohol refinery may enhance tourist industry	biodiversivist	03 Mar 2008	Gristmill
Tourists, bird watchers, and native cattle herders in Kenya's Tana River delta may soon have a spanking-new alcohol refinery in the middle of their wetland. Granted, the wetland will be slightly less wet because a third of its water will be diverted to cropland. Always one to look for a silver lining, I would hope that this refinery will include an air-conditioned bar where tourists and herders alike can gather for happy hour after a long, hot day of wildlife viewing ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, cellulosic ethanol, energy, ethanol, Richard Branson (all these topics)

It's bloomin' idiotic Can words describe how bad corn ethanol is?	Joseph Romm	02 Mar 2008	Gristmill
Well, maybe my words can't describe how bad corn ethanol is, or Mayor Bloomberg's, or those of top scientists, but I think I have found someone's words that do: Opus's from Bloom Country. First, however, the lastest grim news from Fortune: 'The ethanol boom is running out of gas as corn prices spike.' Yes, 'plans for as many as 50 new ethanol plants have been shelved in recent months.' Why? Spurred by an ethanol plant construction binge, corn prices have gon ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, energy, ethanol (all these topics)

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