The Top 10 Biofuels Stories of 2008: #4, Obama’s election and the Green Dream Team

With the election of ethanol supporter Barack Obama over ethanol foe John McCain, biofuels supporters drew a breath of relief. The appointment of biofuels subsidy author Tom Daschle to the cabinet was a good sign, as was the appointment of former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack to head USDA.

The appointments of Carol Browner as energy policy czar, Lisa Jackson as EPA Administrator, and Nancy Sutley to head the White House Council on Environmental Quality were generally welcomed by the environmental community.

Obama’s choice to head the Department of Energy, Steve Chu, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics and a founder of the Joint Bioenergy Institute, gave reason to hope that support of second generation biofuels would remain strong. The addition of environmental lawyer Seantor Ken Slazar as head at Interior, and reliable renewable energy supporter Hilda Solis of California as Secretary of Labor, added icing to the cake.

One wag dubbed the group as “Obama’s Green Dream Team” and the nickname stuck.

Free Subscription to the Daily Biofuels Digest e-newsletter

Related Stories

Today in Biofuels Opinion: “President-elect Obama’s Cabinet is beginning to look like a dream team for ethanol.”

Marcos Jank, president of Unica, the Brazilian Sugargrowers Association: "Today’s approval by the European Parliament of the Renewable Energy Sources Directive is a clear sign that a sustainable mar...

Obama “Dream Green Team” tackles Herculean task of addressing jobs, climate change, energy independence

In Washington, the Huffington Post and Reuters have published articles on the efforts of the Obama "Dream Green Team" to establish a strong climate change and alternative energy agenda. The Huffington...

Florida’s My Dream Fuels aims to plant 900,000 jatropha trees

In Florida, My Dream Fuel has initiated a campaign to recruit farmers to plant 900,000 jatropha trees, or enough to produce as much as 1.5 Mgy of jatropha oil from 2,250 acres. The company said that i...

The Top 10 Biofuels Stories of 2008: a Biofuels Digest special report

[caption id="attachment_8496" align="alignright" width="300" caption="A Hartford Courant cartoon offered a consumer's eye view of rising prices for corn, oil and the forces behind them"][/caption]...

The Top 10 Biofuels Stories of 2008: #2, Algae

Algae bloomed in 2008, with Sapphire Energy raising $100 million in funding and providing fuel for the January 2009 Continental Airlines test flight. Origin Oil, PetroAlgae, Solazyme, Aquaflow Bion...

Obama elected US president; Biofuels Digest election special

ELECTION SPECIAL Yesterday, voters in the United States chose Senator Barack Obama of Illinois as the 44th US President. Sen. Obama and Republican candidate Senator John McCain of Arizona had d...