biofuel

- U.S. Forest Service, April 9, 2015

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"457","attributes":{"alt":"usda forest service logo","class":"media-image","style":"width: 213px; height: 237px; margin: 3px 10px; float: left;"}}]]Today, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the award of over $9 million to expand and accelerate wood energy and other wood product markets. The federal funds will leverage $22 million in investments from partners, resulting in a total investment of $31 million in 23 states.

"Working with our partners, the Forest Service is promoting deployment of new technologies, designed to support new market opportunities for wood energy and innovative wood building materials," said Vilsack. "This funding also supports forest management needs on the National Forest System and other forest lands throughout the United States."

"The Forest Service recognizes the need for a strong forest products industry to help accomplish forest restoration work," said Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell. "One of the best opportunities for reducing the cost of restoration treatments is to ensure strong markets for the byproducts of these treatments."

This year over 100 proposals were received for the Wood Innovations grant program, highlighting the expanding use of wood as a renewable energy source and as a building material. The awarded funds will stimulate the use of hazardous fuels from National Forest System lands and other forested lands to promote forest health while simultaneously generating rural jobs.

For more information on the grant and cooperative agreement program, visit http://www.na.fs.fed.us/werc/wip/2015-rfp.shtm.

States receiving funding include: Alaska, Ariz., Calif., Colo., Idaho, Ill., La., Mass., Mich., Minn., Mont., N.C., Neb., Nev., Ore., Pa., S.C., S.D., Utah, Va., Vt., Wash., and Wis. See a complete list of the awards. 

- Benita Heath, April 8, 2015, Ironton Tribune

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"455","attributes":{"alt":"corporate tax cartoon","class":"media-image","style":"width: 300px; height: 215px; margin: 3px 10px; float: left;","title":"Cartoon: cartoonwork.com"}}]]Two months after Biomass owner Mark Harris paid off two-thirds of the back taxes he owed on property at The Point industrial park, he has yet to pay any of the first half taxes for 2014.

Those taxes, due on March 6, total $5,193.49 on all six parcels, plus a 10 percent penalty. On top of that Harris has not paid 3,975.25 on two parcels with a delinquency dating back to 2011.

Lawrence County Treasurer Stephen Burcham and Lawrence County Prosecuting Attorney Brigham Anderson started in October 2013 to get the back taxes paid, first by sending Harris a notice.

Then in July of 2014, a foreclosure hearing was scheduled but Harris called the treasurer saying he had only received the notice 10 days prior.

At that time Burcham gave Biomass 90 days to come up with the more than $45,000 it owed the county then on all six parcels.

- April 4, 2015, Grand Island Independent

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"453","attributes":{"alt":"oglala national grasslands","class":"media-image","style":"width: 333px; height: 250px; margin: 3px 10px; float: left;","title":"Photo: planetdoteco.com"}}]]A new study from University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers show that crops, including the corn and soybeans used for biofuels, expanded onto 7 million acres of new land in the U.S. over a recent four-year period, replacing millions of acres of grasslands.

The study — from UW-Madison graduate student Tyler Lark, geography professor Holly Gibbs and postdoctoral researcher Meghan Salmon — addresses the debate over whether the recent boom in demand for common biofuel crops has led to the carbon-emitting conversion of natural areas. It also reveals loopholes in U.S. policies that may contribute to these unintended consequences.

 “We realized there was remarkably limited information about how croplands have expanded across the United States in recent years,” said Lark, the lead author of the study. “Our results are surprising because they show large-scale conversion of new landscapes, which most people didn’t expect.”

The conversion to corn and soybeans alone, the researchers say, could have emitted as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as 34 coal-fired power plants operating for one year — the equivalent of 28 million more cars on the road.

- April 8, 2015, Bangkok Post

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"452","attributes":{"alt":"krabi thailand biomass power facility","class":"media-image","style":"width: 333px; height: 234px; margin: 3px 10px; float: left;","title":"Photo: cpecc.net"}}]]A biomass power plant with large piles of palm kernel shells used for fuel caught fire in Khao Phanom district of Krabi early Wednesday morning, and damage was estimated at 100 million baht. 

The fire at Saraff Energies Co started about 1.30am. The plant was temporarily closed for maintenance. 

It first emerged at a grinder and then burnt a conveyor belt and spread to hundreds of tonnes of stored palm kernel shells used as fuel at the biomass power plant on Nua Khlong-Chai Buri Road.

More than 10 fire engines and crews from four sub-districts battled the blaze, which took more than four hours to control. The fire destroyed the steel warehouse where palm kernel shells were stored over an area of about two rai. The fire extinguishing system at the plant was out of service at the time.

Two Myanmar workers were injured. One suffered burns and the other cut his leg escaping from the plant.

The power plant is part of the very small power producer (VSPP) programme and receives government support. It normally generates about 10 megawatts of electricity and sells the power to the Provincial Electricity Authority.

Police said damage was put at 100 million baht. 

- by George Plaven, April 6, 2015, EO Media Group

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"451","attributes":{"alt":"boardman coal plant in oregon","class":"media-image","height":"317","style":"width: 333px; height: 220px; margin: 3px 10px; float: left;","title":"Photo: Wweek.com","width":"480"}}]]As a potential source of renewable energy, giant cane could be the answer to saving Portland General Electric’s coal-fired power plant in Boardman long after the facility quits using coal by 2020.

On the other hand, as an invasive species, giant cane could spread wild across the Columbia Basin, choking out native vegetation and undoing years of work by local tribes to restore river habitat.

A proposed bill in Salem attempts to strike a balance between the competing environmental interests. House Bill 2183 would require farmers who grow giant cane for biomass or other commercial uses to post a $1 million surety bond with the Oregon Invasive Species Council. The money would pay for costly eradication efforts, should the crop escape from the field.

- by John Cox, April 6, 2015, Bakersfield Californian

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"449","attributes":{"alt":"kern biomass california","class":"media-image","style":"width: 300px; height: 236px; margin: 3px 10px; float: left;","title":"Photo: Felix Adamo/Californian"}}]]Local farmers are adding their support to legislation that would divert revenue from California’s cap-and-trade program to biomass plants that generate power by burning agricultural and urban green waste.

Last month the Kern County Farm Bureau co-hosted a meeting in Delano to raise awareness of Assembly Bill 590 and help an industry the group called “very important” to local growers, in that biomass plants take trimmings and old trees that would otherwise be more expensive for farmers to dispose of.

AB 590, co-authored by Assemblymen Rudy Salas, D-Bakersfield, and Brian Dahle, R-Bieber, is making its way through the state capitol at a time when California’s biomass industry says it is having a hard time competing with cheaper sources of electrical power, including solar panels and natural gas.

- by Jon Collins, March 31, 2015, Minnesota Public Radio

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"446","attributes":{"alt":"alfalfa grass biofuels","class":"media-image","style":"width: 333px; height: 221px; margin: 3px 10px; float: left;"}}]]A bill to create a $5 million tax credit to advance the development of the biofuel industry in Minnesota is gaining traction at the state Legislature.

Newer technologies allow the use of plants like native prairie grasses or alfalfa for conversion ethanol.

The so-called advanced biofuel tax credit was initially opposed by environmentalists because the most common ingredient, corn, can be very polluting.

"It's a summer annual that is in the summer actively soaking up water and fertilizers, but in the spring or in the fall the land is basically bare, and that's when we get the heavy pollution," said Steve Morse, executive director of the Minnesota Environmental Partnership.

But environmentalists were won over by a compromise that requires that any new biofuel plants with state support include at least 50 percent perennials like alfalfa in the biofuel feedstock within five years. Morse said perennials lead to less runoff and pollution than corn production.

- by Brian Dowling, March 25, 2015, Hartford Courant

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Leidos Inc. is selling its Plainfield wood-fired power plant to Greenleaf Power, a Sacramento company that is buying biomass plants across North America.

Greenleaf Power announced Wednesday it has agreed to buy the 37.5-megawatt power plant in a deal it expects to close later this year.

The company bought four California biomass plants in 2010 and 2011 and a Canadian plant in 2013. In a statement, Greenleaf President Hugh Smith said, "Plainfield solidifies Greenleaf Power's presence throughout North America as the leading owner-operator of biomass power facilities."

- by Biomass Thermal Energy Council, March 23, 2015, Biomass Magazine

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"444","attributes":{"alt":"wood pellet biomass heating","class":"media-image","style":"width: 255px; height: 190px; margin: 3px 10px; float: left;"}}]][Biomass industry groups overjoyed with the President’s most recent support for biomass energy. –Josh] 

The Biomass Thermal Energy Council  and the Pellet Fuels Institute (PFI) commend President Obama’s commitment to expanding the use of renewable thermal energy with the issuance of Executive Order “Planning for Federal Sustainability in the Next Decade.”

The Executive Order calls for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions across federal operations by at least 40 percent through 2025 through a broad host of measures, including building energy conservation, energy procurement inclusive of renewable thermal technology, and fleet management.

- by Erin Voegele, March 19, 2015, Ethanol Producer Magazine

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"434","attributes":{"alt":"burning money","class":"media-image","style":"width: 333px; height: 153px; margin: 3px 10px; float: left;"}}]]On March 12, the U.S. Energy Information Administration published a report on direct federal financial interventions and subsidies in energy for fiscal year (FY) 2103. The report, which responds to a request from Reps. Fred Upton, R-Mich., chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and Ed Whitfield, R-Ky., chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy and Power, is an update of two earlier EIA reports covering FY 2007 and FY 2010.

Overall, the report finds the total value of direct financial interventions and subsidies in the energy markets decreased by nearly 25 percent between FY 2010 and FY 2013, declining from $38 billion to $29.3 billion. In FY 2010, $11.69 billion in subsidies were electricity related, with $10.7 billion in subsidies for fuels used outside the electricity sector and $15.57 billion in subsidies for conservation, end uses, and the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program. In FY 2013, the breakdown included $16.11 billion in electricity-related subsidies, with $5.21 billion in subsidies for fuels used outside the electricity sector and $7.94 billion in subsidies for conservation, end uses, and LIHEAP.