Tracking the Biodiesel Industry

Policies that will Help Grow the Industry
The past 12 months have been a rough time for the biodiesel industry and some believe much of the biodiesel industry’s problems are self-induced. The industry has been betting that two federal policies, a tax credit (blenders credit) and production requirement (called the Renewable Fuel Standard), would help turn [...]

Florida RPS: Glass half-full or half-empty?

Opposition to a state RPS is economically self-defeating

It Is About the Jobs

These are permanent jobs, tied to the local base of renewable biomass resources; they can’t be outsourced or off-shored.

Cellulosic Ethanol Comes to the Southeast

We have heard a lot of promise and lots of talk about cellulosic ethanol. Friday January 29th, I attended the opening ceremony of the DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol LLC (DDCE)/Genera cellulosic ethanol plant in Vonore, Tenn.
This scale-up of the technology represents a major milestone in sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels.  SACE has not been a [...]

Cold snap burning you up?

Across the southeast and beyond, we’ve been “enjoying” a pretty crisp cold snap. For my family, it started with a lovely, deep and playful snowfall the weekend before Christmas. That brought the kids outdoors - but the recent colder temperatures made outdoor activities planned for New Year’s a hurried affair.
We’ve also been using our fireplace. [...]

Copenhagen Close-up: Denmark’s Thrifty Use of Bioenergy

Both open-burning and rotting are worst-case scenarios for the climate.

Copenhagen Close-up: Changing the game to a Bright Green future

This post was co-authored by John Wilson.

Are LEGO bricks what we need to change our energy future? And why were people playing with them at a side event at “the biggest intergovernmental meeting in history“?
The LEGO game was just one of many exhibits at the Bright Green Expo which I attended in Copenhagen, Denmark yesterday. [...]

What happened with my Home Green Home

In 2007, our family renovated an older home. We tried to pay close attention to energy efficiency and clean energy concerns. Recently, I calculated the impact of our green rehab in terms of cost savings, reduced energy use, and reduced CO2 emissions. As you can see from the graph below, we cut everything roughly in [...]

NREL study misses the forest for the breeze

The new technical report (Sullivan et al, “Comparative Analysis of Three Proposed Federal Renewable Electricity Standards,” May 2009) from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory reinforces the results of prior reports that the impact of a renewable electricity standard (RES) on electric rates will be quite small. Unfortunately, the report also suggests that the southeast will [...]

Can dirt be clean?

Buried in my backyard is a few hundred pounds of what may be one of the most interesting solutions to global warming: biochar.
And today I see that CNN is reporting on the Georgia facility where I bought my charcoal dirt.
Over the railroad tracks, near Agriculture Drive on the University of Georgia campus, sits a unique [...]