writeaboutwarming

November 26, 2012 - Making fuel from trash has been a kind of holy grail – long sought after, much desired.   Many have cried “Eureka,” only to find that either money or interest had dried up.   I suspect lack of interest was frequently the culprit, when energy companies were the source of funds.   Now, however, we have two companies that have built multimillion-dollar factories for the purpose of large-scale, commercial production of cellulosic biofuel.   One will, in fact, be shipping product by the end of this month. KiOR has built their plant in Columbus, Mississippi, at a cost of $200 million.   Its goal is the manufacture of 13 million gallons of fuel annually from wood waste.   How can they already be shipping fuel?   They have customers!   FedEx, Weyerhauser and Chevron, to be exact.   This sounds serious, for which we can all be grateful.   Here’s why:   No. 1 - KiOR’s fuel isn’t made from an edible crop, like corn. ...

August 27, 2012 - Did you know that a large number of ethanol refineries in this country are owned by corn farmers?  I wonder if the owners are family farmers or agribusiness farmers; there's a big part of me that suspects the latter.  Perhaps you've heard that the President has been asked to order reduced corn ethanol production, as a result of the drought.  The corn is needed for, of all things, food.  More than 150 members of Congress asked the EPA  to relax government rules regarding the percentage of corn used in ethanol manufacture.  This idea surfaced weeks ago, and has still not been acted upon.  Refineries have produced about ten percent less ethanol this year, due to a scarcity of corn coupled with a higher price.  (The Bush II-era law mandates an increased percentage of ethanol in our gasoline every year.) That hungry people should have to compete with ill-advised government programs runs counter to every basic survival instinct ...