"New Forms of Biofuel Fall Short" Wall Street Journal

http://www.foodandagpolicy.org/news/story/new-forms-biofuel-fall-short-wall-street-journal

"US Ethanol Subsidy is History (ADM, VLO, PEIX, GPRE, CZZ, RDS-A)"

http://247wallst.com/2011/12/30/us-ethanol-subsidy-is-history-adm-vlo-peix-gpre-czz-rds-a/

"Ethanol in Winter" Wall Street Journal

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204720204577126920356709682.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

"Cellulosic ethanol welfare: Worse than you thought" Washington Examiner

http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/cellulosic-ethanol-welfare-worse-you-thought/256561

Thanks Timonthy P. Carney for keeping the public informed via your articles and book.

Frustated by a lack of other media attention, I have written a screenplay about the havoc wreaked by ethanol scammers trying to bully small rural communities into permitting ethanol plants. It is inspired by fighting off two separate ethanol initiatives on the same spot. There is a pattern. The deep pockets (in our case Vinod Kholsa of bankrupt Range Fuels Ethanol Plant) blow into town, hookup with local get-rich-quick crooks and the trash mafia and then wrap ethanol in an American flag that will save the farmers. Months of zoning hearing in a tiny firehouse filled with farmers, rednecks, enviros, Mennonites, and K street lobbyist (Alexander Strategy Group in our case)---quite comical really. But what has not been funny is all the time, money, worry spent by the locals trying to protect their community. Also it has not been funny that the local newspapers have refused to write the whole story for fear of being anti-jobs. And it continues; now Pennsylvania Gov. Corbett is giving millions to Perdue to put a soy biofuels plant on the same spot. Perdue was involved in the failed, bankrupt Bionol Clearfield Ethanol Plant that was former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell’s “future of Pennsylvania’s energy.” Let ‘s just hope third time is not a charm

"The Cellulosic Ethanol Debacle" Wall Street Jouranl

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204012004577072470158115782.html

"Lawmakers call for repeal of ethanol subsidies" Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/2chambers/post/lawmakers-call-for-repeal-of-ethanol-subsidies/2011/12/12/gIQAVq6KqO_blog.html#weighIn

"Palm Oil-Based Biofuels Should Not Be Called Green, New Study Claims"

http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/palm-oil-based-biofuels-should-not-be-called-green-new-study-claims/482676#Scene_1

Vinod Kholsa's Range Fuels, another bankrupt abandoned ethanol plant --wasted tax$s on fake environmental fuel.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-02/range-fuels-cellulosic-ethanol-plant-fails-as-u-s-pulls-plug.html

Biofuels policy needs rethink says UN expert

http://news.yahoo.com/biofuel-policy-needs-rethink-says-un-expert-172524713.html;_ylc=X3oDMTNsZWd0bGJnBF9TAzEzNjk3MDUxBGFjdANtYWlsX2NiBGN0A2EEaW50bAN1cwRsYW5nA2VuLVVTBHBrZwMzZWJhMTE1Ny02NDk2LTNiYzctOGExNi0wN2YxYTc0ZTRiNTIEc2VjA21pdF9zaGFyZQRzbGsDbWFpbAR0ZX

Scarcity and degradation of land and water: growing threat to food security 28-11-2011

Biofuels part of problem.....
http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/95153/icode/

Washington Post "UN warns 25 pct of world land degraded but farm production must rise 70 pct to meet demand" BIOFUELS PART OF PROBLEM

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/un-warns-25-pct-of-world-farmland-degraded-but-production-must-rise-70-pct-to-meet-demand/2011/11/28/gIQAlI4e3N_story.html

"FAO’s director-general Jacques Diouf said increased competition over land for growing biofuels, coupled with climate change and poor farming practices, had left key food-producing systems at risk of being unable to meet human needs in 2050."

The Nation "UN aims to keep green efforts on pace with growth"

http://www.thenational.ae/lifestyle/personal-finance/eco-money-un-aims-to-keep-green-efforts-on-pace-with-growth

"The report, however, is suspicious of the use of biofuels made from corn, sugar cane, palm or rapeseed oil as renewable energy sources because of direct environmental and social impacts from land clearing and conversion."

EU Opens Dumping, Anti-Subsidies Probes Into U.S. Bioethanol

Subsidized ethanol is justified as the homegrown fuel that will save us from dependence on foreign energy. Looks like some are making big profits with our tax dollars selling ethanol abroad.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-11-25/eu-opens-dumping-anti-subsidy-probes-into-u-s-bioethanol.html

Europe Launches U.S. Bioethanol anti-dumping probe

http://www.industryweek.com/articles/europe_launches_u-s-_bio-ethanol_anti-dumping_probe_26075.aspx?Page=1

Ethanol company agrees to fine for pollution violations

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/11/23/ethanol-company-fined-violations/

Corn Plus admits faking pollution data

http://www.startribune.com/business/134398903.html

Ethanol co-op pleads guilty to pollution charge

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9R6LK6G0.htm

Livestock farmers say ethanol eats too much corn

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2011/11/23/livestock_farmers_say_ethanol_eats_too_much_corn/

http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Livestock-farmers-say-ethanol-eats-too-much-corn-2283652.php

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/livestock-farmers-ethanol-eats-corn-15013218

EU Plans Probe of U.S.Bioethanol Imports,Threatening Taxes

Thought the big plan was for ethanol to provide homegrown- wrapped-in-the flag energy for the U.S. Sounds like the ethanol scammers are making big profits exporting subsidized- by-taxdollars ethanol.


http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-11-17/eu-plans-probe-of-u-s-bioethanol-imports-threatening-taxes.html

Rendell's "future of Pennsylvania energy" (bankrupt) ethanol plant wants to sell Susquehanna River water to the "fracking" industry.

Looks like former Pennsylvania Governor Rendell's buddies at the Bankrupt Bionol Clearfield Ethanol Plant want to sell Susquehanna River water to the frackers

http://gantdaily.com/2011/11/14/bionol-looks-to-sell-river-water-to-gas-industry/

http://www.theprogressnews.com/default.asp?read=28949

Oxfam "The US government mandate that a huge volume of ethanol be produced from corn is contributing to historically high corn prices and increased hunger for poor people."

Emerging policy responses to food price volatility

The US government mandate that a huge volume of ethanol be produced from corn is contributing to historically high corn prices and increased hunger for poor people.

http://politicsofpoverty.oxfamamerica.org/index.php/2011/10/21/emerging-policy-responses-to-food-price-volatility/

Ethanol killing jobs and raising food prices

http://www.delmarvanow.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20111020/OPINION01/110200358/Ripple-effect-corn-prices?odyssey=nav%7Chead

http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20111021/BUSINESS/110210310/Perdue-lay-off-24-employees-Salisbury?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CBusiness%7Cs

"Child starves because mother drives to gas station"

Dr,Pranab Das, chairman of the department of physics at Elon University, on ethanol....

http://www2.journalnow.com/news/2011/oct/21/wsopin02-pranab-das-guest-columnist-ethanol-is-tak-ar-1521421/

Environmental Working Group covers new report on environmentally destructive ethanol

National Academies: Ethanol Worsens Greenhouse Gases

http://www.ewg.org/release/government-finds-ethanol-worsens-greenhouse-gases

Mccain measure would stop aid for U.S. ethanol pumps

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/18/us-usa-ethanol-mccain-idUSTRE79H6T920111018

'Serious' Error Found in Carbon Savings for Biofuels

'Serious' Error Found in Carbon Savings for Biofuels

By JAMES KANTERat Green

 

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/14/serious-error-found-in-carbon-savings-for-biofuels/

Environmental Working Group urges Congressional Super Committee to cut “environmentally destructive - and very profitable-” corn ethanol subsidies

Environmental Working Group urges Congressional Super Committee to cut “environmentally destructive- and very profitable” corn ethanol subsidies.

See :  http://www.ewg.org/release/shortchanging-human-health-and-environment-won-t-trim-swollen-deficit

"It’s also clear that lavish government support for polluting industries like oil and corn ethanol and lax regulations take a toll on human health and the environment."

Someone has ask me to respond to NRDC's Luke Tonachel response to my response. I can't do it on his blog because he closed his comment section.

http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/ltonachel/new_study_clean_fuels_are_good.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+switchboard_all+%28Switchboard%3A+Blogs+from+NRDC%27s+Environmental+Experts%29

 

Mr. Tonachel writes, "non-food biomass is available in the region for fuel production" Of course, there is non-food biomass pretty much everywhere but no one has been able to turn it into commercially viable fuel in spite of years of investing lots of tax dollars into creating cellulosic ethanol. Several cellulosic plants have gone bankrupt, millions and millions of taxpayers dollars have been wasted, and still no cellulosic ethanol.

 

Luke Tonachel continues "You only have to search NRDC’s blogs for “ethanol” to see that we share your concern about corn ethanol" Again, of course, I know that NRDC shares my concern about corn ethanol. I have been advocating against corn ethanol for a long time. But I also know that NRDC has been advocating for celluloslic ethanol for a long time since, at least 2004 or earlier, correct? (http://www.e2.org/ext/doc/SecuringAmerica.pdf%20)It  It is now 2011, there is no celluslosic ethanol, and meanwhile, a lot of corn ethanol has been used and wrecked havoc on the environment and food security. So maybe putting in place another mandate for a non-existent clean fuel  and advocating (as you have) 

that "biofuel manufacturing facilities need to be built" is not a good idea. How many more abandoned industrial sites (often on what was once farmland) do we need?

END OF ETHANOL CHARADE... Karen Hosler at The Baltimore Sun

 Karen Hosler at Baltimore Sun

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2011-08-29/news/bs-ed-ethanol-20110829_1_ethanol-subsidies-corn-based-ethanol-corn-production

Philadelphia Inquirer/Andrew Maykuth "Who'll be left holding the bag in PA ethanol plants demise?"

The ethanol mess Governor Rendell left behind......

"The state agreed to support the $270 million project with $27 million in grants and loans and by issuing $67 million in tax-free bonds."

http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20110828_Who_ll_be_left_holding_the_bag_in_Pa__ethanol_plant_s_demise_.html?viewAll=y

So much corruption surrounding ethanol! Former PA Gov. Rendell was a biofuels cheerleader even though he had been warned that ethanol has serious environmental problems— inefficiency, land use issues, waterway pollution, food security/inflation, etc.  He continued to called this particular plant “the future of energy in Pennsylvania” while he was being provided multiple reports on the problems with ethanol and petitions signed by taxpayers to stop ethanol in Pennsylvania.

So Pennsylvania’s first ethanol plant, only a few years old and supported by millions of dollars taxpayer of money, is now an abandoned industrial site. Will it become another “brownfield” that will have to be cleaned up with more taxpayer dollars?

Meanwhile, The World Bank, Oxfam, U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, and others have been implicating corn ethanol as a factor in the rising cost of food, and famine.

Response to Luke Tonachel's NRDC Blog on Clean Fuel Standards http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/ltonachel/new_study_clean_fuels_are_good.html

Theoretically, the Clean Fuel Standards sounds great but “advanced biofuels” do not exist.  So it is likely that the standard will be largely met with corn ethanol with all its serious environmental problems— inefficiency, land use issues, waterway pollution, food security/inflation, etc. 

The World Bank, Oxfam, U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, and others have been implicating corn ethanol as a factor in the rising cost of food, and famine.

http://e360.yale.edu/digest/rising_food_costs_compounding_east_african_famine_world_bank_says/3085/

http://www.oxfam.org/en/grow/food-price-volatility-map

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/04/25/the_new_geopolitics_of_food

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=ethanol-domestic-fuel-supply-or-environmental-boondoggle&page=3

Your comment that ”biofuel manufacturing facilities need to be built” should be examined in light of Pennsylvania’s biofuels history.  Former PA Gov. Rendell was a biofuels cheerleader.

http://www.cglg-australia.org/news_files/News%20Release%20-%20PA%20-%20Clearfield%20Ethanol%20plant%20to%20be%20one%20of%20nations%20largest%20-%20March%2013%202008.pdf

Pennsylvania  1st ethanol plant, Bionol/Clearfield, only a few years old and supported by $17.4 million of taxpayer money , is now an abandoned industrial site. http://www.theprogressnews.com/default.asp?read=27593

And it continues…. PA Gov. Corbett is giving $8.75 million for a biofuels plant to two organizations, Perdue and LCSWMA(Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority), both, recently involved in failed biofuels initiatives (Perdue a plant and LCSWMA two proposed plants).

 "A major unsecured creditor is Perdue Grain & Oilseed, an affiliate of chicken company Perdue Farms Inc. that is owed approximately $9.4 million. Last October, Perdue Grain said in a statement that it struck a deal to supply Bionol Clearfield with 40 million bushels of corn and to sell the grains that are a byproduct of the company's ethanol production."(Wall Street Journal Dow Jones Financial Information Services7/21/11)

LCSWMA wasted lots of citizen/taxpayer time and money trying to put two ethanol plants on farmland on the banks of the Susquehanna River.

So it looks like Gov.Corbett is continuing Gov. Rendell’s pattern of supporting “green jobs” that are not really “green.” And maybe the Clean Fuel Standards would work if biofuels, especially corn ethanol, were not considered clean fuels

Yale Environment 360(Yale Forestry&EnviroStudies Publication) reports Ethanol and Rising Food Prices contributing to Horn of Africa Crisis

e360 digest

16 Aug 2011: Rising Food Costs Compounding
East African Famine, World Bank Says

The volatility of global food prices has contributed to the growing humanitarian tragedy in the Horn of Africa and will continue to keep the world’s poorest populations on the edge of starvation, according to a new report by the World Bank. While the emergency was triggered by prolonged drought conditions, near-record prices for staple crops such as maize, sugar, and wheat have compounded the situation, the Food Price Watch report says. According to the report, global food prices overall are nearing the record levels of 2008 and remain 33 percent higher than last summer, with the price of maize 84 percent higher, and wheat prices up 62 percent. “Persistently high food prices and low food stocks indicate that we’re still in the danger zone, with the most vulnerable people the least able to cope,” World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick said in a statement. About 29,000 children under the age of five have died in Somalia in the last three months, and 600,000 more children across the region remain at risk. Contributing to the rising prices, the report warns, is the extensive use of agricultural lands for biofuel production, specifically the U.S.’s corn ethanol sector.

http://e360.yale.edu/digest/rising_food_costs_compounding_east_african_famine_world_bank_says/3085/

Oxfam "Short-sighted biofuels strategies play a part too—taking food off of people's plates and putting it into car tanks."

Oxfam International has an interactive map of the global food crisis. Biofuels are listed as a cause of food price increases. See quote from Oxfam website below.....

"What causes food price spikes?

Failed crops—often caused by our changing climate—hit food prices hard. So does the rising cost of oil—used to grow, fertilize and transport food.

Short-sighted biofuels strategies play a part too—taking food off of people's plates and putting it into car tanks. "

http://www.oxfam.org/en/grow/food-price-volatility-map

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/03/the-global-food-crisis-mapped/

Scientific American: Intoxicated on Independence: Is Domestically Produced Ethanol Worth the Cost?

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=ethanol-domestic-fuel-supply-or-environmental-boondoggle&page=3

"The CBO estimated that ethanol contributes as much as 15 percent to the recent rises in food costs. And that's not just the case in the U.S. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization noted in a 2008 report during the last food crisis that the increase in demand for sugar and corn for biofuels was "one of the leading factors behind the increase in their prices in world markets which, in turn, has led to higher food prices." In fact, the International Food Policy Research Institute has called biofuel subsidies in rich countries the equivalent of a tax on food"

"And then there are the environmental impacts, both direct and indirect. For example, fertilizer runoff from Midwestern corn fields promote algal blooms in the Gulf of Mexico that, in turn, create vast oxygen-deprived "dead zones". "

Ed Rendell's "future of Pennsylvania energy" Clearfield Ethanol Plant in bankruptcy and shut down.

Former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell's Press Release "The Future of Energy is Here   Clearfield Ethanol Plant to Be One of the Nation's Largest"

http://www.cglg-australia.org/news_files/News%20Release%20-%20PA%20-%20Clearfield%20Ethanol%20plant%20to%20be%20one%20of%20nations%20largest%20-%20March%2013%202008.pdf

News report of Clearfield Ethanol Plant in bankruptcy and shut down. http://www.theprogressnews.com/default.asp?read=27593

Govenor Ed Rendell wrote his fax number on my "Stop Ethanol" sign at a Kerry rally in Lancaster Pennsylvania and said "Fax me something. " So for several years I faxed Ed Rendell reports and articles warning of the dangers of ethanol, as well as petitions against an ethanol plant in Lancaster County, PA. The only response I ever got was phone calls and emails from the Governor's office staff asking me to stop sending faxes. Here is one:

"Your fax to the Governor's Office on ethanol have been received several times.  If you have additional information, please mail to

Governor's Office, 225 Main Capitol, Harrisburg, PA  17120   in order to avoid tying up the Governor's fax line. 

Thank you. "

I would always respond that the Governot told me to fax him something about ethanol and that is what I do. I fax the Governor information on ethanol so he understands the problems.

I suspect the taxpayers of Pennsylvania wish someone would have read all those ethanol faxes and we would have saved at least that $17.4 million  wasted on the Clearfield ethanol plant, and who knows how much to clean up the plant once it becomes another brown field.

Enchanting Ethanol

Enchanting Ethanol is all about a community finding out that green is not always green. Veronica and Nick buy a dilapidated cottage in an enchanting Chesapeake Bay community. They imagine spending their weekends hanging on the beach with their two little kids, watching wildlife and drinking beer. But their dream is interrupted when a phony green investor, in cahoots with the local trash mafia, sees the community as an easy target for an ethanol plant.

The phony environmentalists envision collecting green government subsidies when the local bumpkins greet the ethanol plant with open arms, but they are surprised. In a comedic series of town hall meetings, the proud local stewards of the environmentally fragile Chesapeake Bay area are tough and resourceful. This is not some preachy documentary. This is kid-centered adventure that features Veronica and Nick’s young family. Things become dangerous when their boy, enthralled with a bottle picturing a one-eyed man he believes to be a pirate, takes a beer bottle that contains stolen cellulose-eating beetles. The gun-totting trash mafia who own the stolen beetles, they hope to use to produce ethanol, hunt down the family while they are hiking. As the family runs the tension builds each time the bottle which is in the boys backpack is bumped, for if the beetles escape all the Bay woodlands and marshes could be eaten by the bugs. The quirky locals rescue the family and, to protect the Chesapeake Bay, expose the ethanol scam.

Cellulosic Ethanol and Unicorns

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303406104576445752787189310.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

As ethanol's ravages grow, phony 'reform' emerges

http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/2011/07/ethanols-ravages-grow-phony-reform-emerges

Rep Seth Grove attempting to make an ethanol free Pennsylvania

http://blogs.philadelphiaweekly.com/phillynow/2011/07/14/could-our-long-statewide-ethanol-nightmare-soon-be-over/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=could-our-long-statewide-ethanol-nightmare-soon-be-over

http://www.yorkdispatch.com/news/ci_18476248

Washington Post No need for "compromise" in trimming ethanol subsidies

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/no-need-for-compromise-in-trimming-ethanol-subsidies/2011/07/01/gHQAkEbkzH_story.html

Climate of Denial by Al Gore (What about ethanol, Mr. Gore?)

Climate of Denial by Al Gore
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/climate-of-denial-20110622?page=1

Mr. Gore, you have damaged the credibility of environmentalists everywhere by, as you recently admitted, supporting corn ethanol for political gains. As a vocal spokesperson for the environment, people believed you. Hardcore environmentalist and those touched by an ethanol plant fiasco “got it” but the environmental “light” crowd took a long time to understand that ethanol is a really bad idea. Because of wrapping ethanol in an environmental flag, even NPR was reluctant report the whole ethanol story.  You have engaged in the same special interest deals for which you are reprimanding others. How sad and shameful!

The New Geopolitics of Food by Lester Brown

Great Article
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/04/25/the_new_geopolitics_of_food

LA TIMES reports the ethanol subsidy elimination is attached to another bill

LA TIMES reports the ethanol subsidy elimination  is attached to another bill, so I guest we shouldn't get too excited yet........
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-senate-ethanol-20110617,0,6305383.story

YAY!!!! Senate votes to repeal ethanol subsidy..........

http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/ngreene/this_afternoon_the_us_senate.html#_logout

http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/16/sanity-alert-senate-votes-to-end-billions-in-ethanol-subsidies/

http://online.wsj.com/community/groups/question-day-229/topics/should-federal-government-repeal-6

Senate Fails to End Ethanol Tax Credits

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/senate-vote-to-repeal-ethanol-tax-credit-fails-but-some-in-gop-break-ranks/2011/06/14/AGydKEVH_story.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/15/us/politics/15senate.html

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/06/14/MN211JTLHJ.DTL

It is unbelievable! I wonder if the problem is that there are not enough people interested in the ethanol issue to get this legislation passed. Hardcore environmentalist and those touched by an ethanol plant fiasco “get it” but the environmental “light” crowd took a long time to understand that ethanol is a really bad idea. Meanwhile…….the greedy, dangerous ethanol investors jumped on reaping the subsidies. When will it end?

What is with Grover anyway? In 2004 Mike Mihalke (partner in Alexander Strategy Group and former press secretary for presidential candidate Rick Santorum) approached our rag-tag environmental group in a dark alley—not kidding, a dark alley--- and offered “help” fighting off an ethanol plant financially backed by Vinod Khosla’s Cilion. Although the names changed frequently when pressed, the clients Mihalke was working for included Americans For Tax Reform.  Are Grover and ATR changing their opinion on ethanol?

A Warming Planet Struggles to Feed Itself..... New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/05/science/earth/05harvest.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp

"Other factors contributed to demand, including a policy of converting much of the American corn crop into ethanol."

Newt Gingrich took money from the ethanol lobby......

Newt Gingrich took money from the ethanol lobby ----- Washington Post, National Review, Huffington Post, etc. So much corruption surrounding ethanol! Gore supported ethanol when he was running for president and recently admitted his folly. B.Clinton who had money invested in an ethanol plant in Brazil that engaged in slave labor, recently rejected ethanol. Bush put the high levels of ethanol mandate in place. It goes on and on.

The sad thing is it looks like this problem is going to continue with the new trend in reporting on ethanol. Finally, most news outlets are reporting that corn ethanol has problems— inefficiency, land use issues, waterway pollution, food security/inflation, etc. The new narrative is that cellulosic ethanol is the real answer and corn ethanol has been sucking up all the subsidies. If we just give cellulosic “the capital” we will have cheap “homegrown” energy for all.

Cellulosic ethanol has received subsidies and has been unsuccessful.  Look at Vinod khosla’s Range Fuels and Cello Energy. Range Fuels has gotten about 162 million in tax-payer dollars and about the same in private funding, but has not produced the cellulosic ethanol it promised.  WSJ reported that the Range Fuels CEO says that no one has figured out how to produce commercially viable portions of cellulosic ethanol. And Cello Energy is bankrupt. (See WSJ 2/10/11 The Range Fuels Fiasco)

Enchanting Ethanol

Enchanting Ethanol 

Enchanting Ethanol is all about a community finding out that green is not always green. Veronica and Nick buy a dilapidated cottage in an enchanting Chesapeake Bay community. They imagine spending their weekends hanging on the beach with their two little kids, watching wildlife and drinking beer. But their dream is interrupted when a phony green investor, in cahoots with the local trash mafia, sees the community as an easy target for an ethanol plant.

The phony environmentalists envision collecting green government subsidies when the local bumpkins greet the ethanol plant with open arms, but they are surprised. In a comedic series of town hall meetings, the proud local stewards of the environmentally fragile Chesapeake Bay area are tough and resourceful. This is not some preachy documentary. This is kid-centered adventure that features Veronica and Nick’s young family. Things become dangerous when their boy, enthralled with a bottle picturing a one-eyed man he believes to be a pirate, takes a beer bottle that contains stolen cellulose-eating beetles. The gun-totting trash mafia who own the stolen beetles, they hope to use to produce ethanol, hunt down the family while they are hiking. As the family runs the tension builds each time the bottle which is in the boys backpack is bumped, for if the beetles escape all the Bay woodlands and marshes could be eaten by the bugs. The quirky locals rescue the family and, to protect the Chesapeake Bay, expose the ethanol scam.

"EU Biofuel Targets Encourage Unethical Practices Worldwide, Study Says"

"EU Biofuel Targets Encourage Unethical Practices Worldwide, Study Says"
http://e360.yale.edu/digest/eu_biofuel_targets_encourage_unethical_practices_worldwide_study_says/2896/

Not the first time we have heard of ethical issues related to biofuels production. Besides “displacement of indigenous peoples in the developing world, higher prices for food crops, and forest loss" slave labor has been found. It was reported in 2008  (by AP and others) that an ethanol company in which Bill Clinton, Ron Burkle, and Vinod Khosla were invested in was investigated for slave labor by Brazil's Labor Ministry. Appalling conditions were found.

Talking to NPR about how a Greener Biofuels Tax Credit can take us beyond corn ethanol | Sasha Lyutse's Blog | Switchboard, from NRDC

Talking to NPR about how a Greener Biofuels Tax Credit can take us beyond corn ethanol Sasha Lyutse's Blog Switchboard, from NRDC

I am trying to be open-minded about this article but I have a few issues, the first issue being NPR’s reporting on ethanol. I have beaten my head against the wall for years trying to get NPR to report on the problems with ethanol. I really feel NPR has been suffering from a sheep-like mind set that, because it sounds green, it must be green.

This is not a new issue for many of us out here in the trenches that have been protecting our communities from ethanol refineries. Here in Pennsylvania, a handful of us (and a very good environmental lawyer paid for by one family in our group) have kept two separate ethanol initiatives from building two different ethanol plants on farmland on the banks of the Susquehanna River (which flows directly to the Chesapeake Bay). Frankly, it has been exhausting and cost the family that paid for the attorney lots of money.  This scenario has been repeated all over the country but nothing from NPR, about us environmentalists who were have protecting our homes, farms and waterways.

We even had what seemed like juicy news details to entice NPR. The Alexander Strategy Group (actually a partner and former press secretary for former US representative and possible presidential candidate Rick Santorum) contacted our environmental activism group in a dark alley. Not kidding-- they approached me in a dark alley outside a tiny rural firehouse and offered to “help” us. They said some of their clients were supportive of our efforts to stop a corn ethanol plant from being built.  They continued to contact members of our group via a “Media and Issue Advocacy” firm working for the Alexander Strategy Group. Whenever I asked who their clients were the names changed. Sometimes it was the “Small Business Survival Committee”, or the “Association of Consumers and Taxpayers” or “Americans For Tax Reform.”

Secondly, I can’t see pouring more money into “next generation biofuels”. We have tried that unsuccessfully already.  Have you looked into Vinod khosla’s Range Fuels and Cello Energy? Range Fuels has gotten about 162 million in tax payer dollars and about the same in private funding and has not produced the cellulosic ethanol it promised.  WSJ reported that the Range Fuels CEO says no one has figured out how to produce commercially viable portions of cellulosic ethanol . And Cello Energy is bankrupt. (See WSJ 2/10/11 The Range Fuels Fiasco)

Finally, NRDC’s Greener Biofuels Tax Credit may seem good on paper but based on my farming neighborhood, checking those Conservation Scores seems impossible. We still are working on farmers not letting cows stand right in the streams that flow to the Susquehanna and on to the Chesapeake.

"Rush to Use Crops as Fuel Raises Food Prices and Hunger Fears" New York Times

Great Article in the New York Times today.

"Rush to Use Crops as Fuel Raises Food Prices and Hunger Fears"

http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2011/04/07/science/earth/07cassava.html

As the world’s attention is drawn to environmental/energy issues and children’s school curricula focuses on environmental/energy issues, the market is ready for a four-quadrant environmental feature film.

Hoping to balance their inside-the beltway weekdays with weekends of chillaxing at a funky old Chesapeake Bay cottage, a hip young family becomes entangled with a band of greedy, dangerous ethanol investors.

Kid merchandising opportunities too!

Lester Brown, Earth Policy Institute in Forbes "Why World Food Prices Will Keep On Climbing"

Lester Brown, Earth Policy Institute says.........

http://blogs.forbes.com/afontevecchia/2011/03/09/why-world-food-prices-will-keep-climbing/

"Coalition of 90 groups urges Congress to end corn ethanol subsidies"

http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/slyutse/today_a_whopping_87_organizati.html

Bill Clinton on ethanol and food riots.......

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703408604576164710522796884.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

 

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9LJCPU01.htm

 

http://www.openmarket.org/2011/02/25/bill-clinton-enters-the-food-vs-fuel-debate-regarding-corn-ethanol/

 

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-02-24/news/ct-edit-ethanol-20110224_1_ethanol-policy-food-prices-dan-basse

 

Environmental Films Can Be Fun........

Environmental films don’t have to only be “Debbie Downer” environmental documentaries. Environmental activism is time consuming and stressful but it is also fun. Anyone who has ever been involved in a big environmental battle knows how crazy and downright silly things can become when strategizing against opponents who are much more powerful in terms of money and political connections. Friendships are formed among people who may never have connected any other way, lives are transformed, and democracy happens. It can be a joyful process.

Repeating Pattern

There is a repeating pattern where busy law abiding citizens have had to become environmental activists to protect their homes and neighborhoods. Potential industrial polluters often follow the same script. They arrive in a rural and/or economically depressed area, throw around a little cash, make back room deals with naïve/hypo-educated municipal officials, promise jobs and wrap their environmental-devastating industries in an American flag with a mantra like “saving the country from dependence on foreign oil.”

More environmental films will only help the future uninitiated environmental activists by providing a model for success and the will to not be overcome by the often daunting task of battling against deep-pocketed powerful polluters and corrupt and/or clueless politicians.

"How Biofuels Contribute to the Food Crisis" and other news reports

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/10/AR2011021006323.html

 

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2048885,00.html

http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/2011/02/sanity-slowly-returning-global-warming-policy

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703396604576088010481315914.html

 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704364004576132453701004530.html?mod=googlenews_wsj#articleTabs%3Darticle

http://blogs.forbes.com/christianwolan/2011/02/03/is-ethanol-to-blame-for-egypts-unrest/

 

http://www.openmarket.org/2011/02/02/ethanol-and-the-egyptian-riots/

 

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/political_commentary/commentary_by_lawrence_kudlow/bernanke_and_ethanol_sink_egypt

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/07/opinion/07krugman.html

 

Enchanting Ethanol 

Enchanting Ethanol is all about a community finding out that green is not always green. Veronica and Nick buy a dilapidated cottage in an enchanting Chesapeake Bay community. They imagine spending their weekends hanging on the beach with their two little kids, watching wildlife and drinking beer. But their dream is interrupted when a phony green investor, in cahoots with the local trash mafia, sees the community as an easy target for an ethanol plant.

The phony environmentalists envision collecting green government subsidies when the local bumpkins greet the ethanol plant with open arms, but they are surprised. In a comedic series of town hall meetings, the proud local stewards of the environmentally fragile Chesapeake Bay area are tough and resourceful. This is not some preachy documentary. This is kid-centered adventure that features Veronica and Nick’s young family. Things become dangerous when their boy, enthralled with a bottle picturing a one-eyed man he believes to be a pirate, takes a beer bottle that contains stolen cellulose-eating beetles. The gun-totting trash mafia who own the stolen beetles, they hope to use to produce ethanol, hunt down the family while they are hiking. As the family runs the tension builds each time the bottle which is in the boys backpack is bumped, for if the beetles escape all the Bay woodlands and marshes could be eaten by the bugs. The quirky locals rescue the family and, to protect the Chesapeake Bay, expose the ethanol scam.

Casino Jack

What a great movie!! Some of Abramoff and Delay’s buds from the Alexander Strategy Group, actually a partner and former press secretary for former US Rep Rick Santorum, contacted our environmental activism group in a dark alley. Not kidding-- he approached me in a dark alley outside a tiny rural firehouse and offered to “help” us. He said some of his clients were supportive of our efforts to stop a corn ethanol plant from being built.  They continued to contact members of our group via a “Media and Issue Advocacy” firm working for ASG. Whenever I asked who their clients were the names changed. Sometimes it was the “Small Business Survival Committee”, or the “Association of Consumers and Taxpayers” or “Americans For Tax Reform.”   The whole thing seemed kind of shady and we never accepted their offers of assistance.

Enchanting Ethanol 

Enchanting Ethanol is all about a community finding out that green is not always green. Veronica and Nick buy a dilapidated cottage in an enchanting Chesapeake Bay community. They imagine spending their weekends hanging on the beach with their two little kids, watching wildlife and drinking beer. But their dream is interrupted when a phony green investor, in cahoots with the local trash mafia, sees the community as an easy target for an ethanol plant.

The phony environmentalists envision collecting green government subsidies when the local bumpkins greet the ethanol plant with open arms, but they are surprised. In a comedic series of town hall meetings, the proud local stewards of the environmentally fragile Chesapeake Bay area are tough and resourceful. This is not some preachy documentary. This is kid-centered adventure that features Veronica and Nick’s young family. Things become dangerous when their boy, enthralled with a bottle picturing a one-eyed man he believes to be a pirate, takes a beer bottle that contains stolen cellulose-eating beetles. The gun-totting trash mafia who own the stolen beetles, they hope to use to produce ethanol, hunt down the family while they are hiking. As the family runs the tension builds each time the bottle which is in the boys backpack is bumped, for if the beetles escape all the Bay woodlands and marshes could be eaten by the bugs. The quirky locals rescue the family and, to protect the Chesapeake Bay, expose the ethanol scam.