More Biofuels News
-Congress:
The Senate and the House of Representatives are conferencing their versions of the 2007 Farm Bills, which include a variety of provisions encouraging biofuel production and research. This includes an additional tax credit for cellulosic fuel production and the creation of a program that will buy surplus sugar for ethanol production. The bill also authorizes a biofuels life-cycle emissions study as well as several other studies.
The Senate and the House of Representatives are taking up concurrent resolutions (S. Con. Res. 3 and H. Con. Res. 25) that set a goal to meet 25 percent of America's energy demands with renewable energy by 2025.
On July 27, 2007, the House passed The Farm, Nutrition, and Bioenergy
Act of 2007 (H.R.
2419). The legislation highly invests in biofuels programs, including
biorefinery loan guarantees, bioenergy internship grants, woody-biomass
energy research and demonstrations, and an ethanol pipeline feasibility
study.
The Biofuels Research and Development Enhancement Act (H.R.
2773) has been incorporated into the Energy Independence Day Initiative,
the energy package being negotiated by in the House.
The Senate passed its energy package, the Renewable Fuels, Consumer Protection,
and Energy Efficiency Act of 2007, (H.R.
6) in late June. The bill calls for 36 billion gallons of renewable
fuel by 2022, 21 billion gallons must be met with "advanced"
biofuels such as cellulosic ethanol.
-National:
The President signed the 2007 energy bill into law before the beginning of the new year. The law encourages biofuel production and sets a new Renewable Fuels Standard that increases national biofuel use to 36 billion gallons by 2022.
DOE said that it will invest $33.8 million in enzyme development projects as a step toward commercializing cellulosic ethanol.
DOE announced three university-national lab-industry partnerships chosen to establish
the DOE's Bioenergy Research Centers by 2009. The centers are each to
be funded at $25 million annually for five years and will conduct high-risk,
basic research in cellulosic ethanol and other biofuel production to accelerate
large-scale, cost-effective biofuel production.
Updated February 8, 2008
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