Earth Equity News

The Race Is on for Non-Food Biofuel. By Mark Clayton, CSM, June 4, 2008. "Driven by a growing political consensus to shift toward nonfood biofuels, the high price of oil, and gains in technology, a flood of public and private investment has poured into the development of cellulosic ethanol. 'Actual marketplace production of cellulosic ethanol is zero -- there's not a gallon being produced [commercially] right now,' says Thomas Foust [of] the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo. 'But with all these plants coming on line … by 2010 or 2011 we will start to see millions of gallons.' At least 30 cellulosic ethanol 'biorefineries' with solid sources of funding -- including 13 with federal funding -- are now active in the development pipeline... Not all... will ultimately be built. But a high proportion will be, given investor confidence, according to Dr. Foust. Cellulosic ethanol is on track - or perhaps even ahead of schedule - to produce up to 60 billion gallons by 2030, he says... 'We feel like things have accelerated much more quickly in the past six months than they have in the past five years,' says Brent Erickson... [of] the Biotechnology Industry Organization, a Washington trade group... Still, some environmentalists are hesitant about endorsing cellulosic technology without qualification, since there could be 'good cellulosic and bad cellulosic,' says Nathanael Greene [of] the Natural Resources Defense Council in New York. Basing government funding and tax incentives on the environmental performance of a technology -- supporting technologies that use the least water, land, and other resources while cutting more CO2 emissions -- is the key, he says."