Free Republic

Avocados have never been more prolific: on toast, with eggs, in sandwiches, on salads, and, of course, guacamole. In the past few years the avocado has been crowned the king of fruit. In addition to our ruinous ecological impact overall, it seems we’re also wasting a large portion of the fruit (26% according to studies): the skin and the pit. The pit of the avocado doesn’t provide any nutrition, but scientists have discovered that it could be the perfect fuel. The Universities of Córdoba and Almería recently conducted a study on the pit, which has historically been difficult to recycle....

Ever since the 1973 oil embargo, U.S. energy policy has sought to replace petroleum-based transportation fuels with alternatives. One prominent option is using biofuels, such as ethanol, in place of gasoline and biodiesel instead of ordinary diesel. Transportation generates one-fourth of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, so addressing this sector's impact is crucial for climate protection. Many scientists view biofuels as inherently carbon-neutral: They assume the carbon dioxide (CO2) plants absorb from the air as they grow completely offsets, or "neutralizes," the CO2 emitted when fuels made from plants burn. Many years of computer modeling based on this assumption, including work...

Is it possible the environmentalists have been praying at the wrong altar? Is it possible that corn – as a fuel - is a worse pollutant than (gasp!) oil?  Well, yes, apparently: Despite their purported advantages, biofuels — created from crops such as corn or soybeans — cause more emissions of climate change-causing carbon dioxide than gasoline, according to the study from U-M Energy Institute research professor John DeCicco. The multi-billion-dollar U.S. biofuels industry — promoted and expanded for more than a decade by the federal government — [ed. read “subsidies”] may be built on a false assumption, according to...

Today’s “No Shit Sherlock” award goes to the New York Times‘s environment pages for their belated discovery that renewable energy is a lame duck. Is the global effort to combat climate change, painstakingly agreed to in Paris seven months ago, already going off the rails? Germany, Europe’s champion for renewable energy, seems to be having second thoughts about its ambitious push to ramp up its use of renewable fuels for power generation. Hoping to slow the burst of new renewable energy on its grid, the country eliminated an open-ended subsidy for solar and wind power and put a ceiling on...

Cars run on fuel. Politicians run on votes, and they'll do almost anything to get them. That includes supporting mandates that force us to use ethanol, a fuel made from corn that Iowa farmers grow. They support ethanol because Iowa is the first state to vote on presidential candidates. Candidates want to look strong at the start of the race, so every four years they become enthusiastic ethanol supporters. Even those who claim they believe in markets pander to Iowa's special interests. Donald Trump, who doesn't seem to have a consistent political philosophy aside from bashing critics and foreigners, now...

The US navy on Wednesday launched its first carrier strike group powered partly by biofuel a mix made from beef fat, calling it a milestone toward easing the military's reliance on foreign oil. The maritime branch touted the warships as the centrepiece of its "Great Green Fleet" part of a navy-wide initiative that aims to draw 50% of its power from alternative energy in four years.

President Obama’s most recent green energy fixation—algae—may suffer from the accusations of cronyism that have plagued his broader effort to promote non-fossil fuel energy sources through massive federal subsidies. Solazyme, a San Francisco-based firm that specializes in the plant matter, has received more than $25 million in federal grants and contracts as part of Obama administration’s controversial stimulus package, and is poised to receive millions more as part of the president’s recent efforts to promote green biofuels such as algae. The firm employs a former member of the Obama-Biden transition team who, according to one online bio, “played a key...

The U.S. Navy will formally deploy its so-called “Great Green Fleet” on Wednesday, sending warships to sea on biofuels even though oil prices have dropped 70 percent since congressional Republicans first criticized the high cost of alternative fuels.

Clearly human driven climate change and anthropogenic global warming can not be defeated through political action alone. A challenge this monumental will call for more strident measures. With that in mind, the Obama administration has apparently decided to bring in the big guns… literally. The Pentagon has been ordered to “address climate change.” (Free Beacon) A new directive issued by Pentagon leaders mandates that the agency work to "assess and manage risks associated with the impacts of climate change," according to a copy of the Jan. 14 directive issued by Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work.As the Obama administration...

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad would like to see Ted Cruz defeated, he said on Tuesday. The Iowa governor, whose powerful network of supporters is a prized political commodity, was speaking to reporters at the Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit. Branstad's son Eric is leading efforts to portray the Texas senator as hostile to ethanol, a narrative Cruz has been trying to stifle in recent weeks. Asked if he'd like the Texas senator to lose, Governor Branstad said, "Yes." "I think it would be very damaging to our state," he continued, according to Iowa's Channel 13 news. "I believe it would be...

Hawaii's last sugar plantation is getting out of the sugar-growing business. Alexander & Baldwin Inc. said Wednesday that it will phase out sugar by the end of this year. Its 36,000 acre-Maui plantation will be divided into smaller farms to grow biofuels and food crops. The land will also provide irrigated pasture to local cattle ranchers. ...

SIOUX CENTER - During a bus tour stop in Sioux Center, Iowa last night, Senator Ted Cruz expressed support for the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) through 2022. Responding to a question from an ethanol investor from Iowa about whether he would allow the landmark energy program to continue through its current expiration in 2022, Sen. Cruz responded by expressing support for the RFS through 2022. Senator Cruz also expressed passionate support for breaking through the so-called "blendwall." That "blendwall" makes it illegal for ethanol to expand its market penetration, and I intend to eliminate the EPA blendwall to get rid...

If you grow it, they will grovel. Something about the cornfields of Iowa makes otherwise sensible conservatives suddenly adopt liberal agriculture policies. In fact, our preferred candidate for President, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, supports a crop insurance provision that was tacked onto the recently approved transportation reauthorization bill. At least he's honest about it. Sen. Ted Cruz flip-flopped on the issue live on the Senate floor. As the Senate clerk was calling the roll on the crop insurance amendment, Cruz voted against it. But after Kansas's Pat Roberts bent his ear, Cruz switched his vote, supporting an additional $3...

On November 30, as the Paris international climate conference was getting underway, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a long-overdue update of Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) requirements. Originally established in 2005 and then greatly expanded by the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007, the RFS mandates increasing use of ethanol, biodiesel and other biofuels in America's cars and trucks. Two things were notable. For the first time, EPA set the overall mandate at levels significantly lower than targets Congress called for in 2007. Second, raising the hackles of the biofuel lobby, the Obama administration omitted the RFS...

US investment in biofuels are to be expanded under proposals advanced by the US EPA. Under the proposed rule announced Friday, the amount of ethanol in the gasoline supply would increase in coming years, just not as much as set out under federal law. That approach drew criticism from ethanol and farm groups that have pushed to keep high volumes of ethanol in gasoline. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton has called for a robust renewable fuels standard while campaigning in Iowa, host of the leadoff presidential caucuses next year. … In a bid to ethanol producers, the administration also...

<p>INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Millions of tax payer dollars stolen and now the company responsible will have to pay for their actions. Investigators say three brothers who ran E-biofuels LLC, out of Muncie, are behind the scheme and it was one of the largest fraud busts in Indiana history.</p>

A new study found that government biofuel policies rely on reductions in food consumption to generate greenhouse gas savings. Shrinking the amount of food that people and livestock eat decreases the amount of carbon dioxide that they breathe out or excrete as waste. The reduction in food available for consumption, rather than any inherent fuel efficiency, drives the decline in carbon dioxide emissions in government models, the researchers found."Without reduced food consumption, each of the models would estimate that biofuels generate more emissions than gasoline,"

Valero Energy Corp. has restarted production at a corn ethanol plant in Indiana that was shuttered more than two years ago by its previous owner. San Antonio-based Valero bought the plant in March from Illinois-based Aventine Renewable Energy Holdings Inc. for $34 million, boosting the number of its ethanol plants to 11. Valero has been preparing the plant for a restart since its purchase. Because the plant has been shuttered for almost two years, “it took a lot of preparation and maintenance,” Valero spokesman Bill Day said, but the company didn’t have to add any new equipment. During the time...

Well, who woulda’ thunk it? The Environmental Protection Agency finally decided to acknowledge the incompatibility of the Renewable Fuel Standard with both America’s declining gasoline consumption and the environmental degradation caused by the production of corn ethanol, thereby obliterating the entirely government-imposed “market” for biofuels — and what do you suppose happens? Via The Hill: Almost eight in 10 biodiesel producers in the United States have cut back production this year due to uncertainty over federal policies that encourage making the fuels, the National Biodiesel Board (NBB) said.The report released Wednesday was based on a survey the NBB conducted. In...

The Obama administration is significantly reducing the amount of cellulosic biofuels refiners will have to prove they blended into gasoline last year, acknowledging that the market lagged far behind government projections.The EPA on Tuesday said it was basing its 2013 standard on the 810,185 ethanol-equivalent gallons produced with nonfood plants last year. …