Free Republic

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid helped steer billions of federal tax dollars to companies supporting a green energy group run by two of his former staff members and a current campaign operative.The Nevada Democrat pushed for millions of dollars in grants and billions more in federal loan guarantees for corporations that donated to the Clean Energy Project, a nonprofit founded by a pair of former staffers with close ties to both Reid and to a major Democratic PAC associated with the senator, Lachlan Markay of the Washington Free Beacon reported.One such company, California-based Fulcrum Bioenergy, received a hefty federal grant...

The head of the UN's climate change panel - Dr Rajendra Pachauri - is accused of making a fortune from his links with 'carbon trading' companies, Christopher Booker and Richard North write. No one in the world exercised more influence on the events leading up to the Copenhagen conference on global warming than Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and mastermind of its latest report in 2007. Although Dr Pachauri is often presented as a scientist (he was even once described by the BBC as “the world’s top climate scientist”), as a former...

ROME - Biofuels like ethanol can help reduce global warming and create jobs for the rural poor, but the benefits may be offset by serious environmental problems and increased food prices for the hungry, the U.N. said Tuesday in its first major report on bioenergy. In an agency-wide assessment, the U.N. raised alarms about the potential negative impact of biofuels, just days after a climate conference in Bangkok said the world had both the money and technology to prevent global warming blamed in part on greenhouse gas emissions. Biofuels, which are made from corn, palm oil, sugar cane and other...

January 13, 2000; Thursday 5:34 PM Eastern Time SECTION: Washington - general news LENGTH: 397 words HEADLINE: Clinton Wants Biofuel Production BYLINE: JENNIFER LOVEN DATELINE: WASHINGTON BODY: Aiming to replace fossil fuels with cleaner, renewable energy sources, President Clinton is proposing to more than double federal spending on efforts to turn corn husks, chicken droppings and other waste into power for cars and buildings, White House officials said Thursday. In his fiscal 2001 budget request to Congress next month, Clinton will ask for $439 million to fund research and grants to aid the production of ''bioenergy'' and other products such...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. LONDON (Reuters) - Egyptian scientists believe an oil commonly used in cosmetic products could be a viable alternative to diesel fuel to power cars and trucks. Researchers at Helwan University in Cairo and the United Arab Emirates University in Al-Ain have tested jojoba oil in engines and say that not only does it work as well as diesel, but the engines spew out fewer pollutants. "Engineers think the oil has potential as a motor fuel because it releases a lot of energy when it burns and is chemically stable at the...