From March of 2008 to December of 2010, Virginia Clean Cities provided program management and administrative support for the Clean School Bus USA Middle Peninsula Project. The objective of this project was to promote healthful air, especially for student riders, by reducing diesel exhaust emissions from school buses in Virginia’s Middle Peninsula and Piedmont region through the deployment of alternative fuels and ...
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EDTA
The Electric Drive Transportation Association (EDTA) 2010 Conference and Annual Meeting takes place in Washington, DC this year from January 26-28, 2010. The meeting is co-located with the Washington, DC Auto Show. Alleyn Harned (pictured on right), Virginia Clean Cities’ Program Coordinator, will be at the conference and Washington Auto Show, and will blog about the action. Check back on January 26th ...
Continue Reading →The Path to the Commercialization of Advanced Biofuels
DOE moderated a session on the path for commercialization. The panel consisted of several cellulosic ethanol innovators who outlined business plans, feedstock thoughts, and growth prospects.
Verenium Corporation enzymes for cellulosic biofuels, with two joint partnerships with BP. Working in Florida for a cellulosic pilot. Cannot afford to loose momentum. Infrastructure incompatibility is bogus argument � we�d never have the internet. Lets build something for the next 100 years.
Abengoa Bioenergy in ...
Continue Reading →General Session Oil Companies Investment
Marathon and Murphy Oil outlined some of their activities and investments in ethanol. Marathon has invested in production with two plants and a network spread out across the Midwest and into the southeast with a Virginia impact in the valley. Marathon’s Cliff Cook believes E85 is not the magic bullet, but instead blends over E10 will be more effective in expanding ethanol use as long as there are older traditional vehicles on the road. To ...
Continue Reading →Tom Stephens: General Motors 2/16
Tom Stephens provided an informational tour of General Motor’s restructuring and improvements over this past year. He showcased some of the company’s innovative technology, such as the expected capacity for the Chevy Volt to use E85 after the initial model year.
The review of GM technology was far more informative than the Washington insider panel. The panel served as a showcase for petroleum, automotive, and convenience industry lobbyists to disregard science and good policy to beat each other ...
Continue Reading →International Landscape for Ethanol: 11:15 2/16
The Global Renewable Fuels Alliance moderated an international discussion on the international landscape for biofuels. There was a discussion of complex and nuanced protectionism versus free trade market forces for biofuels trade with the reality that nearly all countries have established varying levels of tariffs and market barriers to promote local agriculture. The food for fuels debate has also significantly eroded the political support for biofuels even as conventional oils prices skyrocketed and oil related political conflicts ...
Continue Reading →Indirect Land Use Change Debate: 10:15 2/16
Two friends were placed in the awkward situation of debating indirect land use impacts. In summary, there is much research and policy work yet to be done.
Michigan State University professor Bruce Dale disagreed substantially with the concept of indirect land use change, defining it as the concept that biofuels sales in the US reduce US exports and cause other countries clear land to grown more crops and export them. In response he tested models and found no correlation ...
Continue Reading →Federal US EPA Regulations and the Impact of Ethanol: 8:40 2/16
Immediately following the welcome was a discussion on EPA regulations and specifically on RFS2 from early February 2010. [LINK RFS2] There was a great summary of RFS2 provided by the EPA and also a realization that renewable fuels lifecycle science has evolved significantly over the last year gearing up to the EPA regulation release. The National Academy of Sciences will also review EPA�s approach on RFS2 to confirm science.
Continue Reading →Welcome and opening remarks: 8am 2/16
The full conference kicked off this morning with a welcome and a series of presentations and comments from the Renewable Fuels Association and the EPA. We heard from RFA President and CEO Bob Dinneen that the state of the ethanol industry is strong, that 10.6 billion gallons were produced last year, and that there is a lot of work remaining for this industry to take advantage of opportunities ahead. Dinneen’s energetic recounting of ethanol industry growth ...
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