The Advanced Biofuels Leadership Conference 2014 preview

This morning in Washington the 5th annual Advanced Biofuels Leadership Conference — ABLC 2014 — opens for business and networking like crazy.

Our delegates this year come from 35 US states and 19 countries this year — the US, Canada, Panama, Venezuela, Brazil and Argentina, France, Germany, Italy, the UK, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Indian, Japan, and Australia.

The conference brings together more than 150 C-Level executives this week — a record for ABLC — to Washington for a true leadership event for all advanced biofuels and chemicals, where the real leaders gather for real dialogue on the real issues.

Highlight speakers today include the first of two Energy Security Addresses, this one from Acting Undersecretary of the Navy Tom Hicks, plus a dialogue on leadership with Christophe Schilling, CEO of the #1 Hottest Company in Renewable Chemicals, Genomatica. Plus, keynote addresses from Granbio CEO Bernardo Gradin, and American Process CEO Theodora Retsina.

In addition, ACORE’s longtime biomass guru Lt. Col. Bill Holmberg (USMC, ret.), will receive the first Holmberg Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Bioeconomy.

On the subject of national security, those of you who read the Digest each and every morning will remember that today, April 21st, is the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Veracruz. The battle hasn’t quite achieved the cinematic immortality afforded to Iwo Jima or the Battle of the Bulge. But it is worth pointing out that more Medals of Honor, our highest military decoration, were awarded for that battle than any other single American military action, before or since.

What was the battle about? Petroleum. It was the first military action overtly aimed at protecting US petroleum assets and US citizens working them — the first, unfortunately, of all too many actions in defense of petroleum. As former NATO commander Wes Clark challenged us here on the ABLC stage two years ago, the best way to honor those who have served in harms way for 100 years of defending petroleum is to create alternatives. Each one of you is a soldier in that effort, and we recognize and salute each one of you for your efforts.

At the opening of ABLC, Biofuels Digest editor & publisher Jim Lane said, “To create a globally scaled alternative energy is the biggest industrial creation that has even been attempted, and it will require maximum effort, just as was required at the Battle of Veracruz. And some organizations will fall. But it must be done, because it should be done, and it can be done.”