Wednesday Edition

09.25.08

GLOBAL

Development of alternative energy should create more than 20 million jobs around the world in coming decades as governments adopt policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to a U.N. report released on Wednesday.

NORTH AMERICA

The US Senate on Tuesday approved an energy tax extenders package by a 93 to 2 vote which includes a one-year extension of the $1.00 per gallon biodiesel tax credit. The energy package will go back to the House for approval on Wednesday. The White House issued a statement saying it supported "prompt passage" of the energy tax package.

A paper published by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics said that it is likely that a permanent shift has occurred in price levels for soybeans beginning in December 2006, Biodiesel Magazine reports. According to the paper, soybean prices are establishing a new higher average, attributable to tight global inventories, growing demand, and escalating production costs.

The Governor of Tennessee says that there are now 22 retail locations offering E85 and 28 retail locations offering B20 statewide. Many of the pumps were funded through the BioTENN Green Island Corridor grant program.

Florida-based Renew Energy Resources and The Doe Fund announced they will form a partnership called Legacy Oil to produce biodiesel from waste grease in New York City.

Syracuse University and the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry are teaming up to create a biodiesel based green-energy cooperative that will be funded with $20,000 from Syracuse. Using equipment now on campus, ESF will produce 50 to 100 gallons of biodiesel per week that is used in the two schools vehicles.

An owner of a North Fort Myers, FL farm is working with the University of Florida on cultivating jatropha for biofuel for LeeTran buses operating in Southwest Florida.

Inspired by the 1981 film “Cannonball Run,” two biofuel enthusiasts from Atlanta, GA will begin a continuous 36-hour drive from New York to Los Angeles fueled by 15 five-gallon containers of biodiesel stored in the back of the car.

SOUTH AMERICA

Argentina is currently experiencing the worst drought in 20 years, stalling the country's farm economy just as the government needs agricultural export income to protect its budget surplus. The drought conditions have already killed thousands of cattle and withered crops, and falling output could increase feedstock prices.

EUROPE

Irish biofuels company AER and the National University of Ireland in Galway says they have made a breakthrough in converting algae into biofuel, and plans to commercialize the technology for the world market in the near future.

ASIA / PACIFIC

Gushan Environmental Energy Limited announced it has resumed operations at its Beijing plant. Gushan temporarily suspended operations on August 1 due to heightened enforcement of traffic control measures adopted by the Beijing municipal government during the Summer Olympics.

The governor of Hainan, China says the province will build a new energy industry capable of producing 100,000 mt of ethanol and 60,000 mt of biodiesel per year. Jatropha has been researched as a possible feedstock.

In response to an agreement to increase biofuel blending to 20% by 2017, the president of the Biodiesel Association of India said that without a detailed policy framework, commercial biofuel production will remain years away, Reuters reports.

The Indonesian trade ministry said it has cut the palm oil export tax for October to 7.5% (from 10% in September) and lowered its base export prices for palm oil to $736/mt for October (from $902/mt a month earlier), Reuters reports.

Indonesia is likely to implement a 2.5% biodiesel blend mandate in the industrial and transport sectors in October, Dow Jones reports. Indonesian officials had previously said the plan would be implemented in September. No reason was given for the delay.

In Thailand, local gas prices are at a four-month low and diesel is at a six-month low. The president and chief executive of oil company PTT said pump prices of petrol and gasohol have fallen by $0.36 a litre and diesel by $0.42 since mid-July.

AUSTRALIA

In Australia, New South Wales is backing off its plan to introduce Australia's first biodiesel mandate and to boost the ethanol mandate from 2% to 5% by 2010. Queensland is looking to boost research to expand the use of algae, cellulose plant wastes and other environmentally friendly sources of biofuel production.

AFRICA

Royal Dutch Shell is in talks about establishing a biofuel project with the Nigeria National Petroleum Corp., Dow Jones reports. NNPC has conducted a feasibility study and the next step would be a MOU with Shell. Shell is considering using cassava as feedstock, which grows in abundance in the Delta region.

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