Biofuel Blog War

The National Biodiesel Board is refusing to let food companies spread fear and misinformation in the continuing food-versus-fuel debate.
NBB CEO Joe Jobe, responding to Kraft Foods’ CEO Irene Rosenfeld’s blame of biofuels for the rise in food prices, has submitted his own opinion piece to USA Today asking how Kraft can continue to make soaring [...]

The Ethanol Promotion and Information Council has been recognized by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Nebraska chapter for its work in fighting the misperceptions that ethanol was the primary culprit to the rising cost of food.
EPIC’s media kit “Food AND Fuel” received the Award of Excellence from the organization. In addition, EPIC [...]

A segment on the Discovery Channel’s show “How Stuff Works” caught my eye this week and prompted that question. The segment points out that Xanthan gum, fermented from corn syrup, is used in oil drilling. Xanthan is combined with the drilling mud used to cool drilling equipment, and it helps to clear dirt and rock [...]

It was a pretty amazing event today at the Farm Foundation’s Food and Agriculture Policy Summit in Washington, D.C. today.
Seven former Secretaries of Agriculture (six in-person and one by videotape) debated the future of agriculture in America, especially what the immediate future would hold for the next person to head the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
A [...]

On Monday Nov. 17, six U.S. Senators sent a new letter to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson echoing a proposal that BIO previously made. BIO earlier called on EPA to release its proposed methodology for measuring greenhouse gas emissions during the rule’s comment period, but withholding conclusions on specific levels of reductions achieved by particular biofuels [...]

The newly formed ethanol advocacy group, Growth Energy, has aggressive plans for attacking some of the major issues impacting the growth of biofuels.
During an interview at the National Association of Farm Broadcasting annual meeting, Growth Energy board member Greg Krissek of ICM said they want to “especially focus on the federal work being done on [...]

The latest salvos on the EPA’s rulemaking process for the Renewable Fuel Standard come from six major environmental groups – the Environmental Defense Fund, National Wildlife Federation, Natural Resources Defense Council, Friends of the Earth, Union of Concerned Scientists, and Environmental Working Group – and academics at the University of California Berkeley.
In their letter to [...]

Representatives from both sides of the food versus fuel debate discussed the issue on Friday in Kansas City during a forum held by the Agricultural Business Council of Kansas City.
Speakers included USDA Undersecretary Tom Dorr; editor Morton Sosland of Sosland Publishing Co.; and Randy Schnepf, agricultural economist with the Congressional Research Service.
The panel moderated by [...]

Biofuels in general and ethanol in particular were part of the discussion at the World Food Prize symposium in Des Moines this year. Despite the food versus fuel controversy that permeated the headlines for 2008, there seemed to be more acceptance of biofuels as being able to co-exist with food production and being part [...]

Science magazine this week published an exchange between Vinod Khosla, the venture capitalist who has invested a great deal in alternative energy, and Timothy Searchinger and coauthor Richard Houghton critiquing and defending the February 2008 study, “Use of U.S. Croplands for Biofuels Increases Greenhouse Gases Through Emissions from Land-Use Change” The exchange reveals some of [...]