Biofuels producer KiOR recently received Part 79 registration for its Renewable Gasoline Blendstock 5 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The registration, required by manufacturers of motor vehicle fuels by the EPA, must be completed prior to the sale of the product. According to KiOR President and CEO Fred Cannon, KiOR’s action represents the [...]
Federal Agencies Implement Hundreds Of Renewable Energy Initiatives
Governmentwide, 23 agencies and their 130 sub-agencies reviewed by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) implemented nearly 700 renewable energy initiatives in fiscal year 2010. The Departments of Defense (DOD), Agriculture (USDA), Energy (DOE), and the Interior were collectively responsible for almost 60% of all initiatives. The initiatives supported a range of renewable energy sources, [...]
ALSC Announces Approved Agency For Wood Pellet Certification
The American Lumber Standard Committee (ALSC) recently announced that Pacific Lumber Inspection Bureau will serve as a third-party auditing agency of the Pellet Fuels Institute’s (PFI) densified wood pellet monitoring and labeling program, as administered by the ALSC. According to the PFI, at least 27 companies representing 41 pellet manufacturing mills have pledged to support [...]
EPA Rule Jeopardizes Renewable Energy Projects, Jobs, Goals
A newly released economic impact study finds that the Environmental Protection Agency’s “Prevention of Significant Deterioration and Title V Greenhouse Gas Tailoring Rule” jeopardizes over 130 renewable energy projects, between 11,000 and 26,000 green jobs, and $18 billion in capital investment across the country. The risk of reduced capacity also could prevent as many as [...]
EPA Seeks Boiler MACT Extension
In a motion filed December 7 in the federal District Court for the District of Columbia, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) asked for an extension in the current court-ordered schedule for issuing its Maximum Achievable Control Technology rule for industrial boilers (Boiler MACT), which proposes to reduce potentially harmful air emissions from large and [...]
EPA Releasing E15 Decision Late Summer
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will decide by late summer whether to allow higher levels of ethanol to be blended into standard transportation gasoline, the head of the agency recently reported. The EPA is considering an industry request for a waiver from federal rules to allow gasoline to contain up to 15% ethanol. EPA administrator [...]
Georgia Power to Delay Plant Mitchell Conversion
With the uncertainty of how future EPA regulations might affect industrial boiler emissions, Georgia Power has decided to delay the biomass conversion of coal-fueled Plant Mitchell in Albany, Ga., until the EPA rules are better defined in April 2010. The anticipated industrial boiler Maximum Achievable Control Technology rule, or “IB MACT,” would regulate emissions of hazardous [...]
EPA: More Time On E10 Request
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency may not meet a December 1 deadline to decide whether to approve an industry request to boost the amount of ethanol that can be blended into gasoline, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said on November 9. The pro-ethanol trade group Growth Energy and 54 ethanol manufacturers petitioned the EPA last March [...]
Ag. Sec. Vilsack Supports 15% Ethanol
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said he is pushing the Environmental Protection Agency to raise the amount of ethanol allowed in gasoline as the deadline for a decision nears. Science indicates that a higher “blend wall” is safe for automobile engines, Vilsack said recently in an interview at a conference on global hunger in Des [...]
LCSFA Urges EPA to Promote Cleanest Renewables Compatible with Infrastructure
Advanced biofuel producers announced the formation of the Low Carbon Synthetic Fuels Assn. (LCSFA), with members including TRI, Rentech Inc., Velocys, CHOREN, Flambeau River Biofuels/Johnson Timber, AP Fuels and World GTL. The LCSFA was formed to address existing legislative and regulatory inequities that have slowed or even hindered the development of advanced biofuels. Specifically, the [...]