South Dakota Senator John Thune blasts ILUC, proposes to ease wood waste restrictions

In Washington, Senator John Thune of South Dakota authored a strong defense of biofuels in Politico.com, writing that “the development of the biofuels industry has created jobs across the nation and given agricultural producers new, reliable crop markets, while decreasing our demand for fossil fuels. Biofuels can be an even more significant part of our long-term energy strategy,” he added, “if Congress and the Obama administration embrace some common-sense proposals.”

Thune said that the 2007 Energy Bill excludes cellulosic ethanol produced from wood waste recovered from federal forests and most private forestland. He described unrelated land use changes from around the world as an “arbitrary penalty applied to domestic renewable fuel production.”

Free Subscription to the Daily Biofuels Digest e-newsletter

Related Stories

South Dakota hearings promote waste-to-ethanol technology, rue restructions on waste wood from public lands

In South Dakota, hearings held by Senator John Thune highlighted opportunities for wood waste-to-ethanol technology, while participants criticized a change made in the US House of Representatives to t...

Chair of Senate Energy committee says ILUC must go from Renewable Fuel Standard; RFS needs feedstock, tech neutralization, forest biomass rethink

In New Mexico, Senator Jeff Bingaman, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee, authored an article in politico that mirrored an article penned earlier this week by Senator John T...

Sen. Thune pushes for cellulosic ethanol producer incentives in Farm Bill

U.S. Senator John Thune (R-South Dakota) announced that the Senate farm bill will provide $200 million in producer incentives to produce and deliver energy-dedicated crops such as corn cobs, perennial...

South Dakota and Nebraska Senators move to attach 36 Mgy Renewable Fuel Standard to Farm Bill

Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson and South Dakota Senator John Thune have co-sponsored an amendment to the Farm Bill, adding a Renewable Fuels Standard target of 36 billion gallons of ethanol by 2022. 21 ...

South Dakota senator pushes for national E20 mandate; says national policy should be to reduce dependence on foreign oil

In Washington, South Dakota Senator John Thune is meeting with the director of President Bush's economic council to push for an E20 mandate to increase demand for ethanol. Thune said that lack of supp...

Today in Biofuels Opinion: “It’s disingenuous to consumers that all commodity costs are coming down, interest rates are coming down, everything is coming down, and the national brands are taking their prices up.”

Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa: "An article in the Los Angeles Times on March 2 stated, “One large grocery company operating in Southern California has seen the wholesale price for a carton of Kellog...