News stories

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A snapshot of news on bioenergy.

  • This page lists select news stories from the popular press and other sources contributed by wiki participants, listed in reverse chronological order. News stories are also organized by country and by topic.
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Recent News

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May 2008

  • Report: Biofuels majority of non-OPEC oil growth, 13 May 2008 by the Houston Chronicle: "Biofuels will account for 63 percent of oil supply growth from non-OPEC countries this year, taking global production of crop-based fuel to more than 1.5 million barrels a day, the International Energy Agency said today."[1]
  • Myanmar biofuel drive deepens food shortage , 13 May 2008 by AFP: "Myanmar is struggling to feed its people in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis -- in part because the regime has been forcing some farmers to stop growing rice in a plan to produce biofuel instead."
    • In 2005 the military government's leader Than Shwe ordered a national drive to plant jatropha, a poisonous nut he hoped would be the cornerstone of a state industry that would capitalise on growing world demand for biofuels.
  • Sweet sorghum promoted as "smart" biofuel, 12 May 2008 by Reuters: Sweet sorghum a "corn-like plant that can grow as high as an elephant's eye on some of Earth's driest farmland shows promise as a "smart" biofuel that won't cut into world food supplies, an agriculture expert said on Monday."
    • "Unlike corn-based ethanol, which uses one and a half times as much energy in its production as it offers as an end product, sweet sorghum produces eight units of fuel for every unit of fuel used to make it in developing countries."
  • It's not food, it's not fuel, it's China, 8 May 2008 by Biofuels Digest: "A change in Chinese meat consumption habits since 1995 is diverting up to eight billion bushels of grain per year to livestock feed and could empty global grain stocks by September 2010, according to a new study."
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April 2008

  • Biofuel Rule Will Do More Harm Than Good, Oxfam Says, 15 April 2008 by Bloomberg: "U.K. fuels for cars and trucks must contain biofuels starting today, a move that may do more harm than good to the environment and drive food prices higher, charities including Oxfam and Greenpeace said."
    • "'The sorts of problems that biofuels are causing are irreversible,' Robert Bailey, policy adviser to the development charity Oxfam, said in a telephone interview. 'If rainforest gets chopped down, it's gone forever. If somebody loses access to food, they become malnourished, their physical and mental development is impaired and they may die.'"
    • "According to Oxford-based Oxfam, the U.K. policy will cost taxpayers 500 million pounds ($1 billion) a year, and may lead to 60 million people being forced from their land to make way for biofuel plantations. About 30 percent of recent food price inflation can be attributed to biofuel production, the group said, citing the International Food Policy Research Institute."[2]
  • The World Food Crisis, 10 April 2008, editorial by the New York Times: "Last year, the food import bill of developing countries rose by 25 percent as food prices rose to levels not seen in a generation....The increases are already sparking unrest from Haiti to Egypt....The rise in food prices is partly because of uncontrollable forces — including rising energy costs and the growth of the middle class in China and India....But the rich world is exacerbating these effects by supporting the production of biofuels."
    • "The International Monetary Fund estimates that corn ethanol production in the United States accounted for at least half the rise in world corn demand in each of the past three years."
    • "At best, corn ethanol delivers only a small reduction in greenhouse gases compared with gasoline. And it could make things far worse if it leads to more farming in forests and grasslands. Rising food prices provide an urgent argument to nix ethanol’s supports."[4]
  • 'Splash and dash' hits UK biofuels firm, 9 April 2008 by the Guardian: "The enormous damage being done by "splash and dash" imports of American biodiesel were highlighted today when one of the UK's leading operators, D1 Oils, said it was closing down all its refining operations in Britain after running up a £46m loss annual loss."
    • "Splash and dash is where biodiesel is carried to the US by ship - sometimes from Europe - purely to add a drop of ordinary diesel and take advantage of public money" for refining.[5]
  • Water for Fuel, by the WBCSD. "As demand for biofuels increases, industry will face additional questions: How can the water be equitably shared? Is biofuel a practical energy solution? What are the options? These questions and others at the water and energy nexus will be the focus of a new WBCSD water and energy workstream of the Council’s Water Project."
  • German minister stops biofuel blending plans, 4 April 2008, by Reuters: "German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said on Friday he had stopped government plans to raise compulsory bioethanol blending levels in fossil gasoline."
    • "Politicians and industry groups had criticized the plans to raise the level to 10 percent for some gasoline grades from five percent, fearing the increase would damage older cars."
    • "German biofuels industry association VDB welcomed the decision. It had argued that the bioethanol used for blending in Germany was imported largely from third world countries where deforestation may have taken place to expand farmland."
    • "Germany had viewed biofuels blending as a way of achieving reductions in greenhouse gases without imposing restrictions suggested by the European Union which could hit its high performance car industry".[7]
  • Food prices to rise for years, biofuel firms say, 3 April 2008, by Reuters: "Staple food prices will rise for some years, but should eventually fall to historical averages as harvests increase, biofuel company executives said on Thursday."
    • Victor Deike of Novus Europe said that second-generation biofuels -- (those made from non-food crops such as jatropha, miscanthus or reed canary grass) "should take the heat out of food prices as many did not compete with food for land."
    • "Jean-Marc Jossart, secretary-general of the Belgium-based European Biomass Association (AEBIOM), said opinion was divided over whether second-generation biofuels could take the pressure off food prices....[since] crops such as miscanthus could also reduce the availability of land that could be used for food."[8]
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March 2008

  • Land Once Preserved Now Being Farmed, 31 March 2008 by US News: The U.S. Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), which "has been paying farmers to set aside less-than-ideal land for conservation" has had positive benefits for soil, wildlife habitats and soil carbon storage.
    • "But as prices for crops have soared, a growing number of farmers have opted to put conservation land back into production. The trend is expected to accelerate—to the grave concern of many observers who caution that years of steady environmental progress could be halted, or even reversed, as buffers and habitats are converted into farmland."[10]
  • The Clean Energy Scam, 27 March 2008, cover story of Time magazine: Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon "is being accelerated by an unlikely source: biofuels. An explosion in demand for farm-grown fuels has raised global crop prices to record highs, which is spurring a dramatic expansion of Brazilian agriculture, which is invading the Amazon at an increasingly alarming rate."
    • "Worldwide investment in biofuels rose from $5 billion in 1995 to $38 billion in 2005 and is expected to top $100 billion by 2010, thanks to investors like Richard Branson and George Soros, GE and BP, Ford and Shell, Cargill and the Carlyle Group."
    • "But several new studies show the biofuel boom is doing exactly the opposite of what its proponents intended: it's dramatically accelerating global warming, imperiling the planet in the name of saving it. Corn ethanol, always environmentally suspect, turns out to be environmentally disastrous. Even cellulosic ethanol made from switchgrass, which has been promoted by eco-activists and eco-investors as well as by President Bush as the fuel of the future, looks less green than oil-derived gasoline."
  • Biogasoline idea refined by Dutch Shell, U.S. firm, 26 March by the Houston Chronicle: "Shell is partnering with Virent Energy Systems, a Wisconsin 'bioscience firm,' to develop what it calls biogasoline." This advanced biofuel could be made from non-food crops and used directly in conventional vehicle engines. The fuel would have a higher energy content than ethanol, and existing "oil industry infrastructure can be used to transport and store it."
    • "To make the fuel, Shell and Virent will use catalysts to convert plant sugars into hydrocarbon molecules like those produced at a petroleum refinery. By contrast, ethanol is made through a fermentation and distillation process that converts starch found in crops like corn into sugar and then to ethanol."
    • According to the article, "the companies were vague on details, declining to disclose the costs of producing the fuel or when it may be available to consumers."[11]
  • Ethanol company Ethanex to file for bankruptcy, 25 March 2008, by Columbus Telegram: Kansas-based Ethanex Energy Inc., "a 2-year-old ethanol company, said it is planning to file for bankruptcy after being unable to gain interim financing."
    • "The company had originally planned to build three ethanol plants, each capable of producing 110 million gallons of the annually....But the declining price for ethanol forced the company to change its build-first strategy last fall."[12]
  • Biofuel boom threatens food supplies: Nestle, 23 March 2008, by AFP: "Growing use of crops such as wheat and corn to make biofuels is putting world food supplies in peril, the head of Nestle, the world's biggest food and beverage company, warned Sunday."
    • "'If as predicted we look to use biofuels to satisfy 20 percent of the growing demand for oil products, there will be nothing left to eat,' chairman and chief executive Peter Brabeck-Letmathe said."
    • "'To grant enormous subsidies for biofuel production is morally unacceptable and irresponsible,' he told the Swiss newspaper NZZ am Sonntag."
    • The article notes that "Diplomats from countries pursuing such fuels, such as Brazil and Colombia, disagreed with his forecast."
  • UK Renewable Fuels Agency (RFA) launches call for evidence for biofuels review, 20 March 2008, press release: "RFA announced a call for evidence on the indirect impacts of biofuels".
    • "The RFA has made it clear that this is not a consultation on policy. The key areas on which evidence is being sought are;
      • What are the key drivers of land use change and food insecurity and to what extent will increasing demand for biofuels affect these to 2020? What evidence is available of impacts upon areas of high conservation value and/or carbon stocks?
      • How are GHG-savings of different biofuels affected by displaced agricultural activity and resulting land-use change? How may this be affected in the future by the introduction of advanced technologies, use of marginal land and other improvements in production?
      • What are the relationships between demand for biofuel feedstock, commodity prices, land conversion and food insecurity? How might these be affected in the future by yield improvements and other factors?
      • What economic benefits arise from production of biofuels or feedstock in the South?
    • Evidence must be submitted to 'evidence' at 'renewablefuelsagency.org' by the 14th of April."[14]
  • Pollution Is Called a Byproduct of a ‘Clean’ Fuel 11 March 2008, from the New York Times: "Alabama's first biodiesel plant, a refinery that intended to turn soybean oil into earth-friendly fuel" has allegedly released oil and grease waste discharges into the Black Warrior River. The waste discharged by the Alabama Biodiesel Corporation "which can be hazardous to birds and fish, have many people scratching their heads over the seeming incongruity of pollution from an industry that sells products with the promise of blue skies and clear streams."
    • The article notes incidents of glycerin and other pollution discharges from bioenergy facilities, including in Iowa and Missouri.
    • "Don Scott, an engineer for the National Biodiesel Board, acknowledges that some producers have had problems complying with environmental rules but says those violations have been infrequent in an industry that nearly doubled in size in one year, to 160 plants in the United States at the end of 2007 from 90 plants at the end of 2006."
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