Florida presents its 3rd annual Farm to Fuel Summit

The state of Florida is holding its third annual Farm to Fuel Summit later this month (July 30-Aug 1) in Orlando. As in previous years its an agenda packed with discussion about the development in biofuels in Florida, widely considered to have some of the greatest second generation biofuels potential due to its plentiful agricultural waste and forest.

(Register here for the summit)

The summit will include an agronomists workshop dedicated to helping farmers understand what are the best fuel crops to grow in Florida. "For the first time we are developing information for the agricultural community about what crops we can grow here," says Jay Levenstein, deputy commissioner for Agriculture and Consumer Services. "We have a lot of information we can give them."

The summit will be attended by Ed Schafer, the US Under-Secretary for Agriculture, as well as Bob Dineen, head of the US Renewable Fuels Association.

Jack Youngblood, a member of the pro-football Hall of Fame (St Louis Rams) is expected to explain his interest in the biofuels potential of north Florida forestland, along with a group of other professional sports stars, including Ryan Klesko and John Smoltz (baseball) and Bobby Rahal (motor racing).

Panelists will look at the growth of biofuels infrastructure in the state, including pipelines and fuel storage terminals, as  well as  the development of second-generation cellulosic ethanol technology.

Among the panelists will be two names familiar to readers of this blog: Bradley Krohn, president of United States EnviroFuels in Tampa, will give a talk titled 'Construction of a Commercial Sugarto-Ethanol BioRefinery,' while Dr. Jose Sifontes, president of Sigarca in Gainesville will speak on 'Bioenergy and Agricultural Products from Animal Waste.'

- David Adams

Europe growing more cautious about biofuels goals.

Biofuels appear to be losing their gloss on Europe, where governments are adopting a more cautious approach to previously announced goals for ethanol and biodiesel, according to a report in The New York Times.

Critics of biofuels have urged the EU to re-examine its plan calling for biofuels to fuel 10 percent of cars and trucks by 2020, which is part of a broader commitment to provide 20 percent of all energy in the EU from renewable sources, up from 8.5 percent now.

The British government yesterday announced it is slowing down its biofuels plans. Ruth Kelly, the British transport minister, told the British Pariliament that the introduction of biofuels should be slowed down (BBC video link here), citing a newly released report by Professor Ed Gallagher (BBC video link here), head of the UK Renewable Fuels Agency, warning that current goals for biofuel production could cause a global rise in greenhouse gas emissions and an increase in poverty in the poorest countries.

Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by The Guardian newspaper.

- David Adams

Creative musician turns to biodiesel to make do

Brandon Beck, 26, is a struggling musician with the Florida Orchestra. He lives in an RV and drives 450-600 miles a week. So how does he make do?
He brews his own biodiesel using restaurant trap grease.

Read Brandon's story in The St Petersburg Times award-winning  series, 'Paycheck to Paycheck' , with story and photos by my good friend and colleague, John Pendygraft.

Brandon makes about 40 gallons a week, at a cost of about 80 cents a gallon.

"The future of this country is all about energy independence at this point. You've got to start somewhere, and you've got to do your part," he says.   

- David Adams

Grease theft war in Florida! Blame it on biodiesel

Some thieves steal money. Some steal jewels. But for an increasing number of thieves in Florida, grease is the word.

Yes, grease — that slick liquid that’s left over after you fry a chicken or cook a burger (with fries, of course).

“Florida has become a hotbed for grease theft,” said Chris Griffin, who’s in charge of legal affairs for Griffin Industries, one of the country’s leading collectors of restaurant grease.

[Photo: Dirk Shadd, St. Petersburg Times]

Fasten your seatbeats: jet fuel made from algae.

Worried about the impact of rising oil prices on your holiday travel?

Well, here's an interesting new idea. The French-Dutch airline AirFrance-KLM has reportedly entered an agreement with Dutch technology company, AlgaeLink, to explore the development of jet fuel from algae oil.

AlgaeLink says it is cultivating algae in the Netherlands and Spain. It hopes to start delivering algae-derived oil to KLM by the end of 2008.

It's not a wierd as it may seem. Another New Zealand company, Aquaflow, says it has been working with Boeing on its own algae jet fuel. Richard Branson's airline, Virgin, has also been testing a biojet fuel, made from coconuts and palm oil.

Whether or not this brings down fuel prices is hard to say. From what I have read algae is an excellent, clean source of biodiesel. But it has so far proved expensive to produce. It would certainly reduce air pollution.

Click here to read more about AlgaeLink.

- David Adams

Grease trap rustlers feeding black market in biofuels

Continuing our theme of stories about the impact of rising gas prices, the Associated Press is reporting a new phenomenon of grease trap thieves. As more people turn to biofuels, apparently cooking fat has now become a hot item. Grease haulers who pick up the grease residue from local restaurants to be recycled into biodiesel, are finding the traps empty.

Click here to read more about the mysterious grease rustling.

Photo by AP.

- David Adams

UF study: Farmers & foresters can harvest big bucks from the carbon market

Florida’s farmers and foresters can reap hundreds of millions of dollars under proposed climate change legislation now pending in Congress, according to a new study released this week by the University of Florida.

The report, titled "Opportunities for Greenhouse Gas Reduction in Forestry and Agriculture in Florida," contends that farmers  can earn more than $340-million a year by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and selling emission credits under a federal cap and trade program like the one created by the Lieberman-Warner bill now under consideration.

“Our report demonstrates that we can combine the ethical imperative of responding to climate change with power of the market, while protecting Florida’s natural resources,” Dr. Stephen Mulkey, lead author of the report from the University of Florida School of Natural Resources and Environment, said in a press release sent out by the Environmental Defense Fund.

Among the report's findings: Florida farmers can reduce 7.36 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions from increased use of wood, energy crops, crop residues and ethanol as biofuels, for an offset value of  $147-million per year.

“We are always looking for new ways to help keep Florida’s agricultural producers profitable,” John Hoblick, president of Florida Farm Bureau Federation, said in the news release. “Giving them access to a voluntary market that will compensate them for their environmentally friendly practices is clearly a good thing and is something we are proud to be promoting.”

For links to both the full report and to an 8-page executive summary, click here. To read the EDF press release, click here.

--Craig Pittman

The global food price crisis. How much are biofuels to blame in Haiti?

There a lot of talk these days about the global food crisis. I spent several days this week researching all the different contributing factors, including biofuels, climate change, fertilizer prices, the emerging economies of China and India etc.

Despite all the finger pointing at ethanol and biodiesel, no-one really knows how much they are to blame. There are several other factors that must be taken into consideration. In Haiti's recent food riots, for example, the real culprits are trade policies that have decimated Haitian agriculture and a catastrophic drought half a world away in Australia that has pushed up the price of rice on global markets.

Click here to read the story.

(I had to make a lot of cuts for space reasons, so here is some of the edited material that was edited out)

Biofuels defenders say the world's energy system is in transition and that farming technology and productivity will eventually catch up with the increased demands for crops, both for food and fuel.
"This takes a while to work it's way through the system and for farmers to produce correspondingly," said Reid Detchon, director of the Energy Future Coalition. "The system does respond to higher production when prices go up."
This will be achieved with a combination of new technology as well as modern production methods to increase yields and reduce dependency on expensive fossil fuel fertilizers. "There is so much slack in the system that can be made up with improved production and yield that there's no doubt in my mind this can be addressed," said Detchon.

Others predict that the days of self-correcting cycles of supply and demand may be over, due to new factors such as climate change, demand from emerging markets and higher energy prices.
"The increases in grain prices are not caused by short-term supply disruptions, as is the normal case, and it will likely take several years for supplies to increase to rebuild stocks and allow prices to fall," according to Don Mitchell, lead economist in the World Bank's Development Prospects Group.
Some argue the case for biofuels may have suffered irreparable damage from the food price shock.
"If you do it irresponsibly it deserves to get bashed," said Mario Fernandez, a south Florida ethanol advocate who helped advise former Governor Jeb Bush's pro-ethanol policy. He blamed the U.S. government and major grain producers and ethanol blenders for relying too heavily on corn as a raw material for ethanol, rather than looking overseas at sugar-producing countries such as Brazil.
"You have to accept that it doesn't have to be 'made in the USA,''' he said.
Fernandez tried to explain the risks of using food crops to senior State Department officials two years ago as the Bush administration was preparing to unveil its new biofuels strategy. "I said you have to be very responsible about how you do this," he said. "They didn't get it."

The ethanol industry points to one study which found that only four percent of the rise in food prices could be attributed to corn, while another study found that a $1 rise in the price of a barrel of oil had twice the impact of a $1 rise in the price of a bushel of corn.
Instead, the ethanol industry says U.S. oil consumption is set to drop this year for the first time in years, partly thanks to ethanol. The 6.5 billion gallons of ethanol blended last year displaced 228 million barrels of oil, worth more than $26 billion at today's prices.

While the demand for ethanol has diverted corn to the production of fuel, there has been little lost overall production of corn for food. Last year U.S. farmers harvested a record crop. Even so, making ethanol a substitute for gasoline, sold mostly as E10 (10 percent ethanol blended gasoline), this has caused the price of corn to rise.
"By using ethanol as a substitute, that bids up the price of corn," said Bruce Babcock with the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development, at Iowa State University. "It creates a whole new demand."
Because U.S. exports account for 70-75 per cent of world trade in corn, this has had a knock on effect on world prices. "The U.S. (corn) price is the world price," said Babcock.
Even so, ethanol only accounts for 25 per cent of the U.S. corn crop. Of that, biofuels production only uses the starch in corn, leaving the protein, fibre and other nutrients to be turned into dehydrated animal feed, known as distillers dried grains, or DDG.

- David Adams

The global food price crisis. Who is to blame?

A caller to the The Diane Rehm Show this morning warned that if "we don't do something about this gasoline price and the food prices, it's going to be Iraq everywhere."

One of the panelists, Moises Naim, editor of Foreign Affairs magazine described a "perfect storm" scenario of various factors coinciding to force up prices, including biofuels, climate change, affluence in China and India, and market speculation. Read more about this in The St Petersburg Times this weekend.

Click here to listen to Diane Rehm's Friday show with guests: Moises Naim, editor in chief, Foreign Policy"magazine, Matt Frei, chief anchor, BBC World News America, and Scott Wilson, foreign editor, The Washington Post.

- David Adams

 

 

 

The "veggie car conman." A lesson in biofuels conversion

Here's a whacky story from the Los Angeles Times about a company that offers diesel car conversions to biodiesel.
The company is called Lovecraft and its founder Brian Friedman is doing battle with the new owner Tacee Webb.

Click here to read the story.

- David Adams

Biodiesel licenses being introduced in Mexico

Mexico's energy ministry said Monday it will issue licenses to companies for the first time to produce biofuels as part of an effort to cut auto emissions and help poor farmers earn more income, Reuters reported.

Companies will be able to produce both ethanol and biodiesel, but the government said in December it would encourage biodiesel because it would be difficult for Mexican companies to compete against Brazil and the United States in ethanol production.

Click here to read more.

- David Adams

Farm to Fuel announces $25-million awards

The state handed out $25-million in “Farm to Fuel” grants on Tuesday, including $11-million for two biofuel producers that have projects around Tampa Bay. But the money won’t be spent on local projects.

U.S. EnviroFuels received $7-million from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services for a $47-million sugar waste-to-ethanol facility in Venus. The company’s plans for an ethanol plant at Port of Tampa has been held up by a legal dispute.

Agri-Source Fuels, which has a biodiesel plant in Dade City, received $4-million for a new, $21-million biodiesel plant in Pensacola.

The state created the Farm to Fuel program to spur investment in biofuel production and research in Florida. The grants included research money for university programs around Florida. Projects include algae-to-biodiesel, citrus-to-ethanol and other emerging biofuel technologies.

-Asjylyn Loder, Times staff writer

Europe growing wary over biofuels - plans to draw line between good and bad biofuel crops.

Biofuels may have a role to play in reducing carbon emissions, but they could also create environmental problems unless implemented with care, according to a new report by Britains's prestigious Royal Society.

The report called for more research into all aspects of biofuel production and use.

The report says the British government should use financial incentives to ensure companies adopt cutting-edge and carbon-efficient technologies.

Advocates say biofuels can help cut greenhouse gas emissions by replacing (or blending with) fossil fuels, especially in the transport sector. Biofuels can also help stretch depleting worldwide fossil fuel resources, helping keep down the rapidly rising cost of gasoline.

But a number of recent scientific studies have shown that the carbon savings from using biofuels compared with petrol and diesel vary hugely, depending on what crop is grown and where, how it is harvested and processed, and other factors.

As this blog has reported, there are also concerns that widespread planting and use of biofuel crops would threaten natural ecosystems and raise food prices.

In another sign of growing concern about the impact of biofuels, European Union officials are planning to  propose a ban on imports of certain biofuels, according to The New York Times.

If approved by European governments, the law would prohibit the importation of fuels derived from crops grown on certain kinds of eco-sensitive land — including forests, wetlands or grasslands.

A draft law to be unveiled next week would also require that biofuels used in Europe are certified as being carbon positive, i.e. are good for the atmosphere and contributing to greenhouse gas reductions.

Currently, most of the crops for biofuels used in Europe consist of rapeseed (commonly known as canola in the United States) grown in parts of Europe. Some palm oil is also imported from Asia, as well as soy and ethanol from Brazil.

The ban would primarily affect palm oil from South East Asia, and possibly imports of soy from Brazil.

Click here for more news from the BBC.
Click here for another report from The New York Times.

- David Adams

New biodiesel plant planned for Miami

Two California companies, Oilsource Holdings and Greenline Industries, say they are planning to produce up to 60 million gallons a year of biodiesel in South Florida.

The companies have formed a joint venture, Biomix Energy Corp. of Miami, and are planning to meet with Miami-Dade and Broward county leaders on potential sites and incentives.

Read more in the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel.

- David Adams

Governors focus on getting biofuels to market

Bestirred by weird weather, bothered by dependence on foreign oil, and blitzed by advertising, many a motoring do-gooder has purchased a flex-fuel vehicle.
If said motorist lives here in Florida, a cruel surprise awaits: Sioux Falls has more ethanol stations than all of Florida.
Bringing biofuels to Floridians -- and to other ethanol-hungry parts of the U.S. -- is the theme of a two-day National Governors Association conference at Tampa’s InterContinental Hotel. Gov. Charlie Crist joined the governors of Minnesota, Montana, and Kansas on Thursday morning to voice their commitment to getting biofuels flowing.
“Governors have the opportunity in states across the country to drive a national conversation, and, frankly, to make some national policy by the agreements we forge with one another,” said Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius.

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, chairman of the governors association, said states can act as “laboratories of democracy.” They are smaller and more “nimble” than the federal government, he said.
Crist has styled himself a climate-change warrior in recent months, joining state-by-state efforts to reform energy policy in the Sunshine State and around the country. On Thursday, he cautioned against pessimism and politics, billing his green crusade as a bipartisan effort. He consistently side-stepped the issue of cost, an issue his critics have hammered in recent weeks.
“If you look at this full of gloom and pessimism, then you will depress people from moving forward and doing what’s right,” Crist said.
Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer echoed Crist’s optimism. “American has always led by converting adversity to opportunity.”
When it comes to reforming transportation, alternative fuels face several hurdles on their way to our cars, explained Rick Eggebrecht, co-founder of VeraSun Energy, a South Dakota company that produces 560-million gallons of ethanol each year.
First, many states don’t make the fuels at home, and don’t have the rail resources to get it cheaply to market, Eggebrecht explained. Then there aren’t enough places that can store the fuels, and blend them with gasoline. Finally, retail stations face enormous costs to retrofit their stations to sell biofuels. This is where governors and legislators can help, creating tax breaks and incentives to help speed infrastructure development, he said.
Florida doesn’t yet produce ethanol, and has limited production of biodiesel. Several alternative fuel projects in the state have run into delays.
--Asjylyn Loder, Times staff writer

Protecting the forest from Brazil's economic growth. Can it be done?

I have a story in the paper today looking at how economic growth in Brazil is impacting the Amazon rain forest and the savanna that surrounds it. To write the story I travelled to Mato Grosso state, the heart of the soybean industry.

I visited the agri-industrial town of Lucas do Rio Verde to learn about a project created by The Nature Conservancy in conjunction with local farmers and municipal officials. The idea is to find a way to sustain agricultural growth without harming the environment.

A dusty highway carves through this agricultural boom town, lined by huge tin-roofed grain silos, bearing the names of the world’s largest, mostly U.S.-owned, agri-business giants, Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland, and Bunge (see photos). An endless procession of tractor-trailers rumbles down the dusty, two-lane highway, Route 163, which continues north into the Amazon.

With this kind of agricultural expansion going on, analysts question whether the notion of 'Responsible Soy' can compete with the huge economic interests at play?

Brazil currently accounts for about 30 to 35 percent of an increasingly lucrative world market for soybeans, which has seen prices rise to all-time highs, in part because of the extra demand for biofuel.
A federal mandate that goes into effect in January will require blending every gallon of diesel in Brazil with 2 percent biodiesel. This is set to rise to rise in stages to 5 percent by 2018. (Brazil already mandates the blending of gasoline with 25 percent ethanol.)

"Only soy today has the production capacity to meet that demand," recognizes Carlos Klink of The Nature Conservancy. "That means a lot of expansion."

Mato Grosso could increase two or three times double or triple its agricultural production without cutting down any more forest, local authorities say.

"Brazil has enormous potential to increase soy production without causing any more deforestation," I was told by Miguel Vaz, president of Fiagril, a local soybean company that is building a 30-million-gallon biodiesel plant on the outskirts of town.
In April The Nature Conservancy joined with other environmentalists, soy farmers and commodity traders to create the 'Round Table for Responsible Soy', an effort to draw up international standards.
"We have to sit down and talk face to face," said Klink. "They are asking for our help. It's a very strong, clear sign that these guys are serious. They see how the market is going internationally."

The big US agri-business companies, Cargill, ADM and Bunge, appear to be going along with this new thinking. I spoke with Scott Roney, ADM's vice-president for Compliance and Ethics.

" ADM has committed itself to responsible and sustainable bioenergy around the world," he told me. "We are working with NGOs to conduct supply chain analysis .... In my experience I have seen people in South America are pretty atuned to environmental issues," he added.

"We welcome engagement from parties who have good information and  good faith intent to try and find solutions to issues, or give a positive direction for responsible development of agriculture. We think the environmental stewardship and agriculture go hand in hand, and so it is certainly not offensive to us to engage with any group that is interested in trying to address those issues and create sustainable agriculture."

Environmentalists  aren't all in agreement with such  collaborative efforts with big industry.  But more and more, they recognize that  it may be the only way to make progress. (in photo, The Nature Conservancy's Giovanni Malmann, left, helped soy farmer Darci Eichelt map his land, marking off with stakes where he needs to reforest.)

"I commend TNC's work," says Vasco van Roosmalen, field director for the Amazon Conservation Team, which works with indigenous groups in the Amazon. "Some balance has to be found. There's no option., economic expansion isn't going to cease."

But van Roosmalen, says there's no one solution for the Amazon. It's so vast, different ideas have to be used in different areas. Fundamental issues remain, such as protecting eco-diversity, limiting the impact of roads and hydro-electric dams will affect fish and water.

"What's missing most is that the legislation needs efficient and active presence in these areas. Any system for preserving standing forest should include payment for ecological services. That's one of the big solutions."

This raises one of the big issues being debated today. How can the evolving system of carbon credit be applied to the rain forest. Van Roosmalen, and many others, argue that the best way is to involve the indigenous people who have been living in the forest all these years and know how best to protect it.

"You can't expect (indigenous peoples) to protect those lands with bows and arrows," he said. "Nor will money do it alone. Conservation is inherently local. The indigenous people are the eco-system managers of the forest. It's really about getting the cash and transforming it into the right incentives on the ground."

Click here to read my article in The St Petersburg Times

Click here for some historical perspective from the AP.

- David Adams

Biofuels interest growing in the Caribbean and Central America

Biofuels hold great potential for the poor countries of Central America and the Caribbean, helping them substitute expensive oil imports with local agricultural production, according to panel at the 31st annual Miami Conference on the Caribbean Basin.

''Biofuels are here to stay and they are going to get bigger over time,'' Jeffrey Jacobs, of Chevron Technology Ventures, told the conference.

Click here to read more in The Miami Herald.

- David Adams

Are biofuels a "crime against humanity?"

A report written by a special rapporteur on the right to food and submitted to the United Nations General Assembly in August labels biofuels production a "crime against humanity" and calls for a five-year moratorium, claiming biofuels are responsible for current and future increases in food prices that could lead to widespread hunger in poor countries.
What impact will the report have on biofuels production? Will the report dampen enthusiasm for biofuels in Latin America?

Click here to read the expert analysis provided by our colleagues at the Inter-American Dialogue's Latin America Energy Advisor. It includes balanced assessments by Joel Velasco, Chief Representative in the United States for the Brazilian Sugar Cane Industry Association (UNICA), Laura Rusu, a spokesperson for Oxfam America and Terry McCoy is Director of the Latin American Business Environment Program
at the University of Florida.

- David Adams

'Green Dreams,' a National Geographic biofuels cover feature

National Geographic recently published an excellent long article about biofuels called 'Green Dreams.' I think it's perhaps the best article I have read on biofuels, together with a recent piece in Wired magazine about cellulosic ethanol technology. (Click here for a link.)

I just discovered that 'Green Dreams' has a fabulous inter-active version on the web which I strongly recommend.

Click here for a link to the website.

- David Adams

A new 'golden' biodiesel crop, that's not a food - or is it?

Two private U.S. companies have formed a joint venture to produce biodiesel from a non-food crop.

The joint venture, called Sustainable Oils, Inc. will produce and market up to 100 million gallons of biodiesel by 2010 made from camelina (also known as gold-of-pleasure or false flax), a plant people used to grow to provide oil for lamps before petroleum was discovered. Contrary to the announcement I note that some sources say it can be used as a vegetable oil, which would technically make it a food crop. The company says camelina is a distant relative of canola, with seeds that produce about 20 percent more oil than seeds from conventional plants.

Sustainable Oil is a joint venture between Green Earth Fuels, an established biodiesel manufacturer from Texas, and Targeted Growth, which specializes in creating genetically enhanced plants.

By the way, Reuters reports that U.S. biodiesel production more than tripled last year to about 250 million gallons.

Click here for more details from Reuters.

Looking for biofuels? Please hold.

Several local biofuel projects have suffered delays ranging from months to years. Quite a few projects have been announced in the past few months, and Florida's Department of Environmental Protection provides a fairly comprehensive list of producers they know of, and the status of those projects.

The list below comes from Sarah Williams, spokeswoman at DEP. The question marks on start dates are DEP's.

-Asjylyn Loder, Times staff writer

ETHANOL PRODUCTION

Alico, Inc. (LaBelle, FL)

• Production Capacity: 7.7-14 MGY

• Feedstock: Yard, wood and vegetative wastes

• Operational: 2008-09

Citrus Energy, LLC (Clewiston, FL)

• Production Capacity: 4 MGY

• Feedstock: Citrus processing waste

• Operational: 2008-09

Bartow Ethanol (Bartow, FL)

• Production Capacity: 2-5 MGY

• Feedstock: Citrus waste, sweet sorghum, and nonfood high starch sweet potato

• Operational: 2008-09?

Port Sutton Envirofuels, LLC (Tampa, FL)

• Production Capacity: 50 MGY

• Feedstock: Corn

• Operational: 2008-09?

University of Florida Research and Development Production Plant (Okeelanta, Florida)

• Proposed Production Capacity: 1-2 million gallons per year

• Proposed Feedstock: Sugarcane bagasse

• Operational: 2008-09?

BIODIESEL PRODUCTION

Agri-Source Fuels (Tampa, FL)

• Production Capacity: 20-120 MGY

• Feedstock: Chicken fat, cottonseed and soybean oils

• Operational: Yes

Purada Processing, LLC (Lakeland, FL)

• Production Capacity: 18 MGY (expanding)

• Feedstock: Soybean oil

• Operational: Currently not operating

Xenerga, Inc. (Kissimmee, FL)

• Production Capacity: 5 MGY

• Feedstock: Recycled cooking oil

• Operational: Yes

Renewable Energy Systems, Inc. (Pinellas Park, FL)

• Production Capacity: 1 MGY

• Feedstock: Recycled cooking oil

• Operational: Yes

 

Bringing biofuels to Florida - the hassles and hurdles

Asjylyn has a story in the paper today about the hurdles of bringing biofuels to Florida. She looks at three companies that have encountered difficulties bringing their projects to fruition, varying from lawsuits to loans.

Click here to read her story.

- David Adams

Biofuels in the Americas Conference at FIU in January

Florida International University (FIU) is organizing a 'Biofuels in the Americas' conference in January to promote the concept that oil-importing countries can make huge economic savings by switching to locally-produced biofuels.

"Energy security and sustainability in the Americas can and should be pursued by developing a portfolio of biofuels to supplement traditional fuel supplies," organizers say.

The conference objective is to serve as a forum for Western Hemisphere energy stakeholders to discuss the status of biofuels technology development; how to overcome the challenges to commercialization; the potential for regional technology transfer; and how hemispheric collaboration can help the Americas collectively secure its energy future.

Click here for conference details and registration.

- David Adams

The debate over biofuels at the UN

The UN's environment agency chief has called on producers of biofuels to guarantee that their crops are grown in a sustainable way - and not on deforested land.

Achim Steiner of the UN Environment Programme (Unep) made his comments in response to criticism from a group of scientists who complained to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that its analysis of biofuels is not critical enough.

The IPCC is meeting this week in Valencia, Spain where its latest policy guide on climate change is due to be unveiled on Saturday.

Click here to read more from the BBC.

- David Adams

Closing the US biodiesel loophole

As I reported last month, US biodiesel is being dumped on the European market by traders hoping to cash in on a US tax credit.

It is now being reported that the EU is seeking to close this loophole. The current policy cheats U.S. taxpayers, say EU officials, since the credit was designed to help reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil. Instead, the biodiesel is being sent to Europe.

Click here to read more.

- David Adams