Grist | Topics | 267 Results

RESULTS		Results 76 – 100 of 267
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Headline	Author	Published	Section
European biodiesel: riding on empty? Unlike the U.S., European governments are cutting back on agrofuel goodies	Tom Philpott	27 Dec 2007	Gristmill
European biodiesel makers have entered a rough patch. The price for their main feedstock, rapeseed, has risen more than 50 percent since the beginning of the year. But the price of the final product, biodiesel, has plunged, because producers are churning out far more biodiesel than the market can absorb.Similar conditions hold sway among U.S. ethanol makers: heightened corn prices combined with an ethanol glut. But U.S. producers are celebrating while their European cou ...
Topics: ag subsidies, agriculture, biofuels, energy, European Union, industrial ag (all these topics)

Life Is Like a Fuel Tank of Chocolates British duo's carbon-negative road trip fueled by chocolate		21 Dec 2007	News
Posted at 1:35 PM on 21 Dec 2007 This weekend, while you're finishing up the last of the chocolates in your advent calendar -- oh admit it, you ate them all already -- Britons Andy Pag and John Grimshaw will be rolling to the end of a chocolate-fueled road trip. The duo claim that their trip from Poole, England through the Sahara desert to Timbuktu, Mali, will be the world's first carbon-negative ...
Topics: biofuels, carbon neutral, climate, energy, innovation, news (all these topics)

If fuel prices keep rising, liposuction will pay for itself Boat aims to set speed record ... powered by human fat	Adam Stein	20 Dec 2007	Gristmill
Here's a nice PR gimmick (and by nice, I mean totally disgusting): power your monster "eco-boat" with biodiesel made from human fat: You can also make biodiesel from tallow (animal fats), fish oil, seaweed and algae. In fact, in an extraordinary show of dedication to the project, the skipper, Pete Bethune, underwent liposuction, and the fat (all 100ml) was used to make a small amount of Biodiesel for Earthrace! I think this mostly shows an extraordinar ...
Topics: biofuels, energy (all these topics)

Don't tell Canis!	JMG	20 Dec 2007	Gristmill
This is one of those stories where you don't know whether to be hopeful or depressed after reading it. Like drug addicts who will try snorting every powder in the house, we seem to be willing to subject any substance on the planet to the real acid test of our age: Will it help us keep carburbia going?
Topics: innovation, scientific research, biofuels, energy (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)

The big picture An unbiased, factual report on biofuels: How rare is that?	biodiversivist	15 Dec 2007	Gristmill
The Worldwatch Institute has produced an interesting summary of what's happening in the world of grain supplies. They also just published a book called Biofuels for Transport. Along with all of the positive potential for biofuels, I'm sure it also discusses the 'potential' problems with 'first generation' biofuels. These are some of the latest buzzwords being used to support industrial agrofuels. The word 'potential' suggests that there are not yet any actual probl ...
Topics: food, agriculture, biofuels, energy (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: agriculture, biofuels, energy, ethanol, legislation, politics (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)

Get your No-Doz out The neverending debate on corn ethanol continues	biodiversivist	05 Dec 2007	Gristmill
This is my response to Brooke Coleman's response to, uh, this response ... Welcome back, Brooke. I do think ethanol is better than oil ... Hundreds of millions of Americans do not 'think' that the theory of evolution is valid. What you or I want to believe is largely irrelevant. The arguments we bring to the table to back up what we 'think' is what matters. The following graphic is an attempt to explain a concept called leakage -- the fatal flaw in any atte ...
Topics: ethanol, biofuels, agriculture, energy (all these topics)

Ethanol and E. coli, part II Use of distiller grains in livestock rations has exploded	Tom Philpott	05 Dec 2007	Gristmill
Yesterday, I posted about how feeding cattle distillers grains -- the leftover from the corn-based ethanol process -- seems to raise the incidence of E. coli 0157. I was a bit vague on precisely how much of the stuff was making it into the livestock-feed supply. Thanks to the indefatigable Ray Wallace, I now know. The answer is: a boatload, and growing. Ray pointed me to an account of a letter sent by the National Corn Growers Association to the USDA. In it, NCGA ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, energy, ethanol, waste (all these topics)

Humor fails Saddening video report on Indonesian palm oil plantations	JMG	05 Dec 2007	Gristmill
Here is a short, painful four-minute news report about palm oil plantations -- watch it and weep:
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, deforestation, energy, Indonesia, rainforests (all these topics)

Maybe not such a great idea after all? Feeding ethanol waste to cows	Tom Philpott	04 Dec 2007	Gristmill
Perhaps the most persistent debate around corn ethanol involves its 'net energy balance' -- that is, whether it consumes more energy in production than it delivers as a fuel. Even the studies that credit the fuel with a robust energy balance, like this one from the USDA, acknowledge that it's pretty much a wash unless you account for the "co-product" of the ethanol-making process. The ethanol process consumes only the starch component of corn, leaving behi ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, energy, ethanol, food, waste (all these topics)

Gristmill community chastised! The global nature of global warming	biodiversivist	02 Dec 2007	Gristmill
This is my formal rebuttal to Brooke Coleman (director of the Renewable Energy Action Project), specifically to comments found in Tom Philpott's latest corn ethanol article. I'm using my access to the bully pulpit to pull it out of comments, like I did the last time a corn ethanol enthusiast joined the discussion. Welcome to the best environmental blog on the planet, Brooke. You don't seem to have a very high opinion of this community, but maybe you'll warm up t ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, climate, energy, ethanol, oil (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)

Looking for a good investment? Food prices going up, along with everything else	biodiversivist	27 Nov 2007	Gristmill
From an article in the Telegraph by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard (Hat tip to Gristmill reader KO): What has abruptly changed is the twin revolution of biofuel politics and Asia's switch to an animal-protein diet. Together, they have shattered the fragile equilibrium. Investors who want to take advantage of agflation must tread with care, both for moral reasons and questions of timing. Riiiight ... moral reasons. The way I see it, you can go the PETA route and ca ...
Topics: economy, biofuels, energy, food (all these topics)

Palm Leader? Palm oil may be certified sustainable, some greens skeptical		26 Nov 2007	News
Posted at 2:22 PM on 26 Nov 2007 Hoping to quell criticism from biofuel bashers, palm-oil producers have drawn up criteria for certifying their product as sustainable. It's a nice idea, but green group Friends of the Earth has threatened to withdraw its support of the standards, saying that Malaysia and Indonesia -- which together produce nearly 85 percent of the world's palm oil -- are using the voluntary initiative as a ...
Topics: biofuels, deforestation, energy, Friends of the Earth, Indonesia, Malaysia, news (all these topics)

The cash nexus Is there really so much money in environmental devastation that it can't be stopped?	Tom Philpott	26 Nov 2007	Gristmill
In the Nov. 12 New Yorker, Elizabeth Kolbert published an article (unavailable online; abstract here) typical of her style: spare, restrained, vivid, cogent, devastating. The topic was Canada's tar sands, now being profitably exploited by the major oil companies: Shell, Conoco-Phillips, Chevron, and ExxonMobil. And they've only just begun. According to Kolbert, the oil majors intend to invest more than $75 billion over the next five years in building infrastructure t ...
Topics: biofuels, Brazil, business, Canada, energy, oil (all these topics)

Asking the wrong questions An alternative view on biofuels, from a Briton in Sudan	Ron Steenblik	24 Nov 2007	Gristmill
I've just discovered a great blog maintained by Clive Bates, a self-described 'selfless public servant, amateur chef, novice mountaineer, lawless cyclist, overweight runner and occasional optimist.' He is being modest: he's the former head of ASH (Action on Smoking and Health) in the UK and more recently the Head of Environmental Policy at the UK Environment Agency. Over the last two years, Bates has written extensively and persuasively on a wide range of topics ...
Topics: biofuels, climate, energy (all these topics)

French connections Is it something in the air?	Ron Steenblik	20 Nov 2007	Gristmill
Interesting things are happening in the francophone world. Last week I reported that the Quebec government had decided to stop supporting any new ethanol plants based on corn as a feedstock. Now the French government, perhaps flowing out of its broad social dialogue on the environment (known as 'Le Grenelle fran�ais de l'environnement'), is reported to be thinking of slashing subsidies benefiting the production of ethanol in the country. Ooh la la, what in the world ...
Topics: biofuels, cars, energy, ethanol, France (all these topics)

Greased lightning	Clark Williams-Derry	20 Nov 2007	Gristmill
Here's an interesting biodiesel stat: [T]he region's supply of fryer grease is limited. Each Oregonian contributes about a gallon of used cooking oil a year to the grease market. [Emphasis added.] That's really not much grease -- especially considering that Oregon residents consume about a gallon and a half of highway fuels per person each day. So as much as I love biodiesel, fryer grease just isn't going to power rush hour.
Topics: biofuels, energy (all these topics)

They Were Cobbed Busting ethanol market bad news for investors		19 Nov 2007	News
Posted at 11:02 AM on 19 Nov 2007 The U.S. ethanol boom has been brought up short by market glut, making corn-based fuel "2007's worst energy investment," a Bloomberg News Service article declared today. President Bush made ethanol a centerpiece of his energy plan and lavished it with subsidies; ethanol distilleries that went up quickly in anticipation are now having to shut down. Producer Pacific Ethanol Inc., backed by Mi ...
Topics: Big Ag, biofuels, business, energy, ethanol, news (all these topics)

Notable quotable	David Roberts	15 Nov 2007	Gristmill
'It certainly appeared a year ago that we were going to have a national push on ethanol, and we wanted to have the vehicles ready. But we always knew that food-based ethanol would not be the answer. The shift to cellulosic ethanol has been slower than we were led to believe. If we don't end up with cellulosic ethanol quickly, we are going to hit the wall on ethanol.' -- William Clay Ford, Jr., chairman of Ford Motor Co.
Topics: biofuels, cellulosic ethanol, energy, ethanol, quotables (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: biofuels, energy, ethanol, politics, Quebec (all these topics)

Toxic optimists vs. plaid shirts Delusional Beltway optimism about energy	Michael Tobis	12 Nov 2007	Gristmill
A couple of weeks ago, I attended a seminar hosted by several departments at the University of Texas on the topic of 'peak oil.' The occasion was the visit of David Sundalow of the Brookings Institution, who is hawking his new book Freedom from Oil. This was mutually convenient for him and the university, which is trying to carve out a position as an optimistic, rolled-up-sleeves, can-do problem-solver in the fields of energy and water. I have no objection to that ...
Topics: biofuels, books, cars, climate, energy, ethanol, hybrids (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)

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