Grist | Topics | 166 Results

RESULTS		Results 26 – 50 of 166
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Headline	Author	Published	Section
No More Required Why are biofuels losing steam in Europe -- and barreling ahead in the U.S.?	Tom Philpott	21 Feb 2008	Victual Reality
The signs are cropping up -- we just need to heed them. Photo: iStockphoto "Biodiesel: No War Required," reads a bumper sticker I see more often than you might expect in North Carolina. As in other states across the nation, a lot of activist energy here has gone into creating a market for diesel fuel made from vegetable oil. Of course, it's an uphill ride, given that ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, cellulosic ethanol, ethanol, European Union, progress, United States (all these topics)

ILSR, spinning like a top	JMG	19 Feb 2008	Gristmill
This is really, really sad. A group, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, which has done stalwart work on relocalizing the economy, has let their pro-local passion overcome their principles. Now they simply embarass themselves, beating the drums for corn ethanol, using flackery techniques that would do any corporate PR shop proud. Let's start in: New Anti-Ethanol Studies Reach Wrong Conclusion on Greenhouse Gases Wow, quite a headline, about not one but two studie ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, climate, energy, ethanol (all these topics)

Biofuels and the fertilizer problem Can a 'renewable fuel' rely on mining a finite resource?	Tom Philpott	13 Feb 2008	Gristmill
While scrolling through news accounts of the recent boom in the agrochemicals industry -- yes, that's how I spend my days -- I came across an interesting take on biofuels and phosphate, a key element of soil fertility. The article, from Investors Business Daily, takes a standard rah-rah position on what it deems a 'heyday in the heartland.' The journal wants to make sure its readers know there's plenty of cash to be made investing in the companies catering to the gre ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, cellulosic ethanol, energy, ethanol, industrial ag, sustainable ag (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)

Next market bubble: farmland! Thanks to the ethanol boom, big investors are plowing cash into corn country	Tom Philpott	07 Feb 2008	Gristmill
Big investors seem to have forgotten how to exist without some sort of speculative bubble. In the last decade, they've whipped cash from tech stocks to bonds to emerging markets to real estate to junk mortgages. With the latter bubble now deflating rapidly, they've turned to ... Midwestern farmland? Yes, big cornfields. Here's a Chicago asset manager talking about who's buying up farmland, quoted in USA Today: It's everybody from the person concerned about the sto ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, business, economy, energy, ethanol (all these topics)

USDA food-safety czar: Ethanol waste causes tainted beef -- and that's okay Let cows eat vaccines along with distillers grains	Tom Philpott	28 Jan 2008	Gristmill
In December, a study came out suggesting a link between distillers grains -- a waste product of the corn-ethanol process -- and a spike in cases of beef tainted with the deadly E. coli 0157 virus. You see, the government-mandated ethanol boom has dramatically pushed up corn prices. To cut costs, feedlot operators have been substituting cheap distillers grains for pricey corn. Thus in the past year or so, we've seen an explosion in use of distillers grain as livestock ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, Department of Agriculture, energy, ethanol, food (all these topics)

Biomass, part III The most critical assumption on cellulosic biofuels: yields	Vinod Khosla	25 Jan 2008	Gristmill
My most critical assumption with cellulosic biofuels is on land efficiency: tons of biomass per acre, and hence gallons of fuel produced per acre, and more accurately, miles driven per acre. I believe biomass yields per acre will multiply by two to four times from today's norms. The lack of genetic optimization and research on cultural practices, harvesting, storage, and transport with would-be energy crops -- miscanthus, sorghum, switchgrass, and others -- m ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, cellulosic ethanol, ethanol (all these topics)

Stock analysts v. venture capitalists Tom Konrad on cellulosic electricity	Guest author	24 Jan 2008	Gristmill
The following is a guest essay by Tom Konrad, a financial analyst specializing in renewable energy and energy efficiency companies, a freelance writer, and a contributor to AltEnergyStocks.com. ----- Romm v. Khosla In a persuasive series of articles entitled "Pragmatists vs. Environmentalists" (Parts I, II, and III), Vinod Khosla has provided the reasoning behind his "dissing" of plug-in hybrids, which drew the ire of Joseph Romm. Nei ...
Topics: biofuels, business, cellulosic ethanol, energy, ethanol, renewable energy (all these topics)

Biomass, part I Where will biofuels and biomass feedstocks come from?	Vinod Khosla	22 Jan 2008	Gristmill
When it comes to biofuels we have choices. We can do it poorly, using short-run approaches with no potential to scale, poor trajectory, and adverse environmental impact. Or we can do it right, with sustainable, long-term solutions that can meet both our biofuel needs and our environmental needs. We do need strong regulation to ensure against land-use abuses. I have suggested that each cellulosic facility be individually certified with a LEEDS-like 'CLAW' ratin ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, cellulosic ethanol, energy, ethanol (all these topics)

Why Vinod Khosla is very wrong A pragmatic view of cellulosic biofuels	Joseph Romm	17 Jan 2008	Gristmill
So Vinod Khosla is not happy with with my recent attack on his (willful) ignorance, 'Khosla blows his credibility dissing plug-ins.' Gristmill has given the billionaire a platform to defend himself, but he just spouts even more nonsense in the bizarrely titled post, 'Pragmatists v. environmentalists, part I': I have been accused of dissing hybrids. I was mostly discussing Prius-type parallel hybrids and all the support they get, when one can get the same carbon ...
Topics: biofuels, cars, cellulosic ethanol, electric vehicles, energy, ethanol, hybrids, Prius (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)

Notable quotable	David Roberts	16 Jan 2008	Gristmill
"I really think the more I look at this whole cellulosic issue, there is a lot bigger problem to overcome here than people realize in terms of the feedstocks. We have a lot of work to do in that regard. I'm not sure cellulosic ethanol will ever get off the ground." -- Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.), chairman of the House Agriculture Committee
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, cellulosic ethanol, energy, ethanol (all these topics)

Business-y news I should write more about, but probably won't	David Roberts	15 Jan 2008	Gristmill
GE is going to double its investment in renewable energy from $3b to $6b; Toyota plans to offer plug-in hybrids by 2010; meanwhile, GM, which also promises a plug-in by 2010, just struck a deal with Coskata, a start-up which will be making cellulosic ethanol from waste products. [Token acknowledgement that cars are not the way of the future, Grist is car-obsessed and in the pocket of The Man, public transit is awesome, and something about the happy motoring delusional ...
Topics: business, cars, cellulosic ethanol, electric vehicles, energy, ethanol, hybrids (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)

Pragmatists v. environmentalists, part I Prius: Green or greenwash?	Vinod Khosla	14 Jan 2008	Gristmill
I have been accused of dissing hybrids. I was mostly discussing Prius-type parallel hybrids and all the support they get, when one can get the same carbon reduction by buying a cheaper, similar-sized and -featured car and buying $10 worth of carbon credits. I was objecting to greenwashing (powered by a large marketing machine) that suggests hybrids can solve our problems. Corn ethanol, which has been heavily maligned in the mainstream media, reduces carbon emis ...
Topics: biofuels, cars, electric vehicles, energy, ethanol, hybrids, Prius (all these topics)

Monsanto counts its cash Seed-and-chemical giant sees its profit triple	Tom Philpott	04 Jan 2008	Gristmill
In a gold rush, the firms that supply the gold diggers with tools -- not the gold diggers themselves -- make the highest and steadiest profits. That's a platitude, but it's also usually true. And it's now playing out in the boom in corn-based ethanol. Don't waste much time envying corn farmers. Sure, they've seen the price of their product double over the past year and a half or so. But they've also seen their costs inch up. Fertilizer, land rents (much of the farml ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, business, energy, ethanol, food, industrial ag (all these topics)

A negative-carbon corn ethanol plant? Cogeneration and ethanol production	Joseph Romm	03 Jan 2008	Gristmill
I am not the biggest fan of corn ethanol. But I am the biggest fan of cogeneration, also known as combined heat and power, or CHP (well, maybe the second-biggest fan). It is probably the single most overlooked strategy for sharply cutting greenhouse-gas emissions while reducing overall energy costs. Now a new EPA report finds that running an ethanol plant on natural gas CHP can, with the right design, result in negative net CO2 emissions (click on figure to enlarge) ...
Topics: biofuels, climate, cogeneration, energy, ethanol, greenhouse-gas emissions (all these topics)

The corn supremacy A new piece on the insanity that is U.S. ethanol policy	Joseph Romm	20 Dec 2007	Gristmill
I have an article in Salon on the insanity that is America's ethanol policy. The new energy bill sets this country on a path to finish the assault on the world food supply begun by the (even lamer) 2005 energy bill. As I explain, our ethanol policy does not help fight global warming, but it does threaten food supplies: In just the past two years, food prices have jumped 75 percent in real terms ... The Economist points out the amazing statistic that "the deman ...
Topics: ag policy, agriculture, biofuels, ethanol, food, politics (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)

Now entering the dead zone The ethanol boom could trigger a 'tipping point' in the Gulf	Tom Philpott	18 Dec 2007	Gristmill
Days after Congress voted to ramp up the government mandate for corn ethanol, bringing it to fully three times current production levels within a decade, we get bracing news from the Gulf of Mexico. Here is the AP: The nation's corn crop is fertilized with millions of pounds of nitrogen-based fertilizer. And when that nitrogen runs off fields in Corn Belt states, it makes its way to the Mississippi River and eventually pours into the Gulf, where it contributes to ...
Topics: agriculture, biofuels, ethanol, oceans (all these topics)

Time for some rehab Agriculture is drunk on corn-based ethanol	Thomas Dobbs	14 Dec 2007	Gristmill
Thomas Dobbs is Professor Emeritus of Economics at South Dakota State University, and a W.K. Kellogg Foundation Food & Society Policy Fellow. ----- American agriculture is becoming addicted to corn-based ethanol, and the economic and environmental effects of this addiction call for some intervention! The explosive growth in U.S. ethanol production from corn is having worldwide ramifications. December 6 articles in The Economist ('Cheap no more' ...
Topics: ag policy, ag subsidies, agriculture, biofuels, economy, ethanol, food, legislation, politics (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)

Corn ethanol to the max Bush to ethanol industry: don't worry, you're gonna get your fat mandate	Tom Philpott	12 Dec 2007	Gristmill
The stock market is a glorified casino, and I'm no betting man. Plus I'm broke. But if I were flush and even a bit of a gambler, I'd be buying up shares in ethanol companies and corporations that sell inputs to corn farmers. Why? Because every U.S. politician who matters seems determined to engineer conditions that will make corn-based ethanol production triple over the next several years, reaching what most people consider its maximum of 15 billion gallons. The H ...
Topics: ag policy, agriculture, biofuels, ethanol, politics, US EPA (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: politics, legislation, energy, oil, biofuels, ethanol (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: agriculture, biofuels, energy, ethanol (all these topics)

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