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Tennessee’s Governor lashes at legislators over ‘ridiculous’ biofuels flap: “They may have single-handedly cost an awful lot of jobs.”

In Tennessee, a controversy blew up in the Legislature over a contention that legislators were not advised that a Dupont Danisco project, which received $70 million in state support, had changed its short-term feedstock strategy to corn cobs, from switchgrass, and had reduced its capacity from 5 million to 250,000 gallons.
At the same time, Governor [...]

BlueFire Ethanol receives $3.8 million reimbursement from DOE; proceeding with Fulton, MS development

In California, in a “Benjamins for biofuels update,” BlueFire Ethanol Fuels has received $3.8 million reimbursement from the Department of Energy – in the form of a reimbursement – funds that will allow the company to proceed with a shift of its demonstration-level project to Fulton, Mississippi. BlueFire was originally awarded a $40 million grant [...]

Synthetic Genomics: 50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy candidate profile

Synthetic Genomics
Based in: California
2008-09 rank: 19

Business: Synthetic biology and algal fuel developer.
Model: R&D partner
Past milestones:
ExxonMobil, the last of the oil majors to commit to a major investment in biofuels, announced that its Research and Engineering unit will invest $300 million into in-house algae research, and up to an additional $300 million in La [...]

Today in Biofuels Opinion: “We are basically going to see a shortage of capacity within two or three years. We’re being lulled by present excess capacity.”

Ardent Energy Group: “Yemane Daniel Gezahegne, CEO of Ardent told the Ethiopian Reporter that biofuel can help Ethiopia reduce its dependence on oil imports that are costing the country more than $1 billion dollars a year…He said that after three years of research on various possible projects to reduce the oil dependency, AEG decided to [...]

Shell drops investment in advanced biofuels developer Choren: sells stake to VW, Daimler, Hamburg investors

In Germany, advanced biofuels developer Choren announced that Shell Oil has divested its stake in the company, selling its shares to Volkswagen, Daimler and a consortium of Hamburg-area investors.
Shell, which will continue to provide technical support to the advanced biofuels project, did not give a reason for the divestiture, although the other shareholders, according to [...]

UNICA says sugarcane ethanol “is a better alternative fuel for the environment than electricity.”

In Brazil, the LA Times is reporting on the Brazilian sugar and ethanol’s continuing push to open up US markets for its ethanol. According to the report, the sugar and ethanol trade association UNICA is suggesting that sugarcane ethanol “is a better alternative fuel for the environment than electricity.” The article also reports on the [...]

BP outlines 3-pronged biofuels strategy, says biobutanol plant will open at commercial scale in 2013

In the UK, BP outlined a three-pronged strategy for biofuels: “growing a material sugarcane ethanol business in Brazil, building a cellulosic biofuel business in the U.S. and developing advanced molecules like biobutanol,” according to BP spokeswoman Thea Sherer.
A report in Ethanol Producer confirmed that the Vericipia plant — a joint venture between BP and Verenium, [...]

Paper in Climatology Journal finds “Deforestation generally results in [climate] warming, with the exception of a shift from forest to agriculture.”

In Maryland, a new study in the International Journal of Climatology – by researchers from the University of Maryland, Purdue University, and the University of Colorado in Boulder – found that “most land-use changes, especially urbanization, result in warming. A clear exception is conversion of land from other uses to agriculture, which produces relative cooling, [...]

Second Generation Biofuel Producer Tax Credit Act of 2009 proposes to add algae, drop first-gen fuels from tax credits

In Washington, Congressman Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) issued the following statement on the Second Generation Biofuel Producer Tax Credit Act of 2009, legislation introduced this week to alter the structure of biofuels tax credits and raise offsetting revenues for increases in the cost of the health care package.
“The Second Generation Biofuel Producer Tax Credit Act [...]