A flagship Biden administration initiative to evaluate the impact of “climate-smart” practices and promote conservation-based agriculture is starving for money.
Funding for the $3.1 billion Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program was frozen shortly after the Trump administration took office, and project participants tell Agri-Pulse they can’t hold out much longer.
Worldwide airlines have talked about reducing emissions 50% by 2050 and carbon neutral growth by 2020. Delta says they’re going to start spending $100 million a year to be carbon neutral starting in March.
USA BioEnergy (USABE), Scottsdale, Arizona, has closed on the acquisition of more than 1,600 acres of land in East Texas for its new $2.8 billion advanced biorefinery, designed to convert wood waste into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). The SAF facility has already secured a 20-year offtake agreement with Southwest Airlines, under which Southwest may purchase up to 680 million gallons of unblended SAF.
Over the past four years, researchers have worked to create a fully recyclable, biologically-based plastic that can have widespread applications. They succeeded and published their findings on July 27.
At-a-glance
Since the mid-1990s, BGS has been researching how carbon dioxide (CO2) can be stored in rocks under the ground. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is one way Britain and the world can maintain industrial production and economic growth while reducing emissions.
Renewable gasoline (also called green or drop-in gasoline) is a fuel produced from biomass sources through a variety of biological, thermal, and chemical processes. The fuel is chemically identical to petroleum gasoline and meets the same ASTM D4814 specification. Renewable gasoline can be used in existing engines and infrastructure. Renewable gasoline is not a commercially used fuel in the U.S. at this time, as there is an emphasis on electrification of the light-duty market.
Biodiesel is a renewable, biodegradable fuel manufactured domestically from vegetable oils, animal fats, or recycled restaurant grease. Biodiesel meets both the biomass-based diesel and overall advanced biofuel requirement of the Renewable Fuel Standard. Renewable diesel is distinct from biodiesel.
It’s not every day you get to witness the birth of a new American industry, but that’s exactly what’s happening right now at the U.S. Gulf Coast.
That’s where ExxonMobil is assembling the world’s first large-scale system for carbon capture and storage (CCS) – a network of pipelines and storage sites that stretches across Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.
The release of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases (GHGs) due to human activity is increasing global average surface air temperatures, disrupting weather patterns, and acidifying the ocean (1). Left unchecked, the continued growth of GHG emissions could cause global average temperatures to increase by another 4°C or more by 2100 and by 1.5 to 2 times as much in many midcontinent and far northern locations (1). Although our understanding of the impacts of climate change is increasingly and disturbingly clear, there is still debate about the proper course for U.S. policy—a debate that is very much on display during the current presidential transition. But putting near-term politics aside, the mounting economic and scientific evidence leave me confident that trends toward a clean-energy economy that have emerged during my presidency will continue and that the economic opportunity for our country to harness that trend will only grow. This Policy Forum will focus on the four reasons I believe the trend toward clean energy is irreversible.
