The US is ordering refiners to boost the use of biofuels such as corn-based ethanol, as the Biden administration tries to strike a balance between competing political and economic pressures while gasoline prices soar.
U.S. industrial biotech company Geomatica won the prestigious 2020 Green Chemistry Challenge Award given by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its Brontide® natural butylene glycol. Honoring groundbreaking scientific solutions to real-world environmental problems, the win for Brontide natural butylene glycol marks the third EPA award held by Genomatica and makes them one of only four companies to win the award three times in the program’s 25-year history.
According to Thomson Reuters, “corn farmers, ethanol producers, refinery representatives, energy traders and state and local officials from the Midwest all blasted away at the Trump administration’s proposed biofuels plan for next year during a public hearing on Wednesday hosted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).”
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency granted oil major Chevron Corp a 2017 hardship waiver from U.S. biofuel laws for its Utah refinery earlier this year, according to a source familiar with the company’s operations. This is what the International press agency Reuters makes known.
Last Thursday’s decision to pull out of the Paris Climate Agreement was short-sighted and contrary to the best interests of this country, not to mention disappointing and embarrassing.
It fails to respect the science on climate change. It abandons the best opportunity we have to protect the health and well-being of American families and our children’s future. It runs contrary to the advice of hundreds of business leaders and investors who want the U.S. to lean into climate action — not run away and bury our heads in the sand. And it neglects the wishes of nearly 70 percent of the American public who want strong actions to curb climate change.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) has approved the pathway for isobutanol produced at Gevo’s Luverne, MNplant to be an advanced biofuel under the Renewable Fuel Standard Program (“RFS”). This is the first time that the EPA has approved a pathway for an advanced biofuel that uses starch from feed corn to produce an alcohol. With a partial substitution of fossil based energy sources that are currently used at Luverne with green energy sources, such as biogas, it should be possible for Gevo, which a leading renewable technology, chemical products, and next generation biofuels company, to achieve the 50% or greater greenhouse gas emissions (“GHG”) reduction needed to claim the advanced D5 Renewable Identification Number (“RIN”) according to the pathway approval.
IL BIOECONOMISTA 