Pecologix Political Ecology Blotter

In Washington, the 112th Congress adjourned without renewing the $0.45 VEETC tax credit for blenders of corn ethanol and the $0.54 per gallon tariff on imported ethanol. “With Congress in recess, there are no opportunities for further attempts to prolong the tax credit or the tariff, so we can confidently say these support mechanisms will [...]

Here is a good example of what political ecology is all about! The following is an article from the prestigious Wall Street Journal. The ultimate authority on matters economic, right? Well in this article the WSJ tells us that our government has once again failed us in the realm of renewable energies. This time their [...]

In Washington, the U.S. Energy Information Administration says the U.S. has reached the ceiling of 14.2 billion gallons of annual ethanol production capacity, and the ethanol boom is essentially finished. There are more than 200 operational ethanol plants in the U.S. producing 14.2 billion to 14.7 billion gallons per year.Currently, the only major ethanol plant [...]

In total, the project received more than $160 million in investor financing, plus $162.25 million in government commitments. On the government tab, a $76 million DOE grant in 2007, the aforementioned loan guarantee, and a $6.25 state grant. Overall, the DOE released $43.6 million of the project funds, before suspending payments earlier this year and [...]

Viewing the economy as simply a circulation of money that can be manipulated to increase spending and therefore consume our way out of the current economic situation, is courting disaster by deluding the public that the solution lies in simple adjustments to the current monetary system. Similarly, emphasizing that energy is the problem and that [...]

Government, as both a customer and a catalyst for alternative jet fuels, gets it, when it comes to the problem of jet fuel from oil seeds. There’s a shortage of affordable feedstock.It’s the same problem that has plagued biodiesel for several years. What was once an affordable fuel that had a grassroots movement behind it, [...]

In Washington, D.C., the latest government figures show that U.S. biodiesel production has already set a new record for 2011. The National Biodiesel Board (NBB) reports that the industry has produced more than 802 million gallons of biodiesel, more than doubling 2010 production of about 315 million gallons, breaking the previous record of about 690 [...]