Author Archives: Paul

Could sugar dumping push ethanol production up?

Posted on May 22, 2013

Pulling out an interesting little option from the 2008 Farm bill, the USDA is considering re-directing US produced sugar to ethanol production to drive up sugar prices.  From what I understand, the US sugar industry is completely supported by farm … Continue reading →

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The “future” of clean coal – is not in our future

Posted on April 15, 2013

A new report from the CRS reveals the sad state of what many believe is an impossible venture – “clean coal” that involves capturing the CO2 released as the coal is burned: http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/293655-report-federal-clean-coal-power-project-faces-uncertain-future

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IMF report on energy subsidies, implications for a carbon tax & energy security

Posted on April 1, 2013

IMF presents some new analysis of energy subsidies which I have previously wondered about.  It is worth looking over: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/27/imf-want-to-fight-climate-change-get-rid-of-1-9-trillion-in-energy-subsidies/ $25/ton as the cost of CO2 seems low to me.  $502 billion in US energy subsidies including this carbon tax.. I don’t … Continue reading →

Posted in climate change, energy | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Nice summary of the RFS (and a new blog to follow!)

Posted on March 29, 2013

For those who are confused about RFS, RINs, and other acronyms in my last post, I found a great summary on a new blog that we’ll add to our blogroll.  Seems like he is making some nice posts of the … Continue reading →

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Corn, ethanol, RIN prices, and the blend wall!

Posted on March 22, 2013

As we’ve hinted at before, some interesting things are starting to happen with high corn prices, high RIN prices, the blend wall and ever compounding RFS requirements! We all know that corn prices have been high – so high in … Continue reading →

Posted in biofuels, policy | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

the rebound effect and how energy efficiency may not be the “low hanging fruit”

Posted on February 28, 2013

An interesting paradox: as we conserve more energy, we use more. We pointed out some research in the past on this effect, and some debate about the potential impact of this effect has surfaced in a couple places.  First, there … Continue reading →

Posted in energy, science, sociology | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

The blend wall and what we will do with all the cellulosic ethanol

Posted on February 24, 2013

While we’ve discussed production issues with cellulosic a bit on this site (here and here), if John is right and we do scale up in the next couple years, whatever are we going to do with it all? http://farmdocdaily.illinois.edu/2013/02/ethanol-blend-wall-biodiesel-RFS.html They … Continue reading →

Posted in biofuels, policy | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Has biofuels led to major land use changes in the US?

Posted on February 21, 2013

And is the land that is being converted from grassland to corn and soy the “marginal land” that people take about growing dedicated bioenergy crops?  A new article in PNAS this week seems to answer “yes” to both these questions. … Continue reading →

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updates on the court challenge to the RFS: minimal long-term impact

Posted on February 7, 2013

I like how this post by Judy Endres explains the recent court ruling “overturning part of the RFS”.  The devil is in the details: Although the court rejected EPA’s approach favoring overestimation of projected cellulosic biofuel production, the RFS itself, … Continue reading →

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comparing original RFS volumes with revised volumes (some perspective)

Posted on February 1, 2013

Today the EPA released revised mandated amounts of biofuel to be blended under the RFS legislation. To put these numbers in perspective I have taken the original requirements for cellulosic in the 2007 law and compared to the revised amounts … Continue reading →

Posted in biofuels, policy | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments