Pecologix Political Ecology Blotter

CLEAN GREEN SCAMBiofuel producers and oil refiners were roiled last October when the federal government charged Rodney Hailey, the owner of Clean Green Fuel, with carrying out a $9 million scam involving the distribution of 32 million fake credits, or renewable identification numbers.Oil companies are required to purchase RIN credits from producers of renewable fuel [...]

In Washington, The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved the first applications for registration of e hanol for use in making gasoline that contains up to 15 percent ethanol – known as E15.To enable widespread use of E15, the Obama Administration has set a goal to help fueling station owners install 10,000 blender pumps over the [...]

Following a 2007 Supreme Court ruling, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today proposed the first Clean Air Act standard for carbon pollution from new power plants. EPA’s proposed standard reflects the ongoing trend in the power sector to build cleaner plants that take advantage of American-made technologies, including new, clean-burning, efficient natural gas generation, [...]

Synthetic biology needs more oversight, and the government needs to put in place regulations specific for this field. That is the bottom line for 111 environmental, watchdog, and other organizations that released a report today with specific recommendations for managing new biological techniques for building and remaking organisms for research and commercial uses ranging from [...]

In Washington, the EPA withdrew the direct final rule to allow camelina, energy cane, napiergrass, and giant reed to meet the RFS2.EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said: “EPA published a direct final rule on January 5, 2012 (77 FR 700) to amend the Renewable Fuel Standard program regulations. The amendments would have expanded Table 1 of [...]

Genetic tests now exist for some 2500 diseases, from cystic fibrosis to APOE, which raises the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. NIH created the Genetic Testing Registry for physicians, patients, and researchers after experts suggested that such a database could improve transparency about genetic tests. Run by NIH’s National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), the database [...]

KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 28, 2012): Palm oil biofuel has failed to meet greenhouse gas saving standards to qualify for the US renewable fuels programme, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said, dealing another blow for southeast Asian producers in search of new markets.The EPA said in a regulatory filing on late Friday that palm oil converted [...]