Governors' Biofuels Coalition

Renewable power and transportation represent the two poles of America’s power mix, the former competing with gas and coal while the latter is yoked to oil. But as the partisan rancor of even-numbered years spikes to a presidential election-fueled high, builders of wind turbines and highways are in a surprisingly similar jam. Meanwhile, clean energy advocates have continued their push for quick action to renew a key break for the wind industry that gives developers a 2.2 cent tax credit for every kilowatt-hour of electricity they generate. Previous lapses in the production tax credit (PTC), which was first established in 1992, have caused deployment of wind turbines to virtually disappear, and industry backers say the economic pain would be even more acute this year because of significant growth in U.S.-based manufacturing of turbine components.

Diesel fumes cause cancer, the World Health Organization’s cancer agency declared Tuesday, a ruling it said could make exhaust as important a public health threat as secondhand smoke. The risk of getting cancer from diesel fumes is small, but since so many people breathe in the fumes in some way, the science panel said raising the status of diesel exhaust to carcinogen from “probable carcinogen” was an important shift.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack plans to announce Wednesday that North Carolina and New York each will receive about $4 million for farmers growing crops used to produce energy. The expansion is part of a federal push to produce more non-food energy crops, used to make liquid biofuels or electricity from renewable sources.

Economists commonly favor market-based methods of curbing greenhouse gas emissions, such as taxes and emissions trading schemes, but a new survey shows that the American public does not. Rather than putting a price on carbon, Americans tend to support regulatory programs on clean energy development, industrial emission controls and vehicle mileage standards, according to the spring 2012 National Survey of American Public Opinion on Climate Change (NSAPOCC).

A coalition of biofuels, environmental and agriculture groups that rarely come together on the same issue yesterday called on Congress to hold firm on policy incentivizing the production of advanced and cellulosic biofuels. In a letter to Senate and House leaders, the coalition of nine groups also urged Congress to reform energy tax incentives to level the playing field among traditional industries and renewable alternatives.

Ethanol futures snapped a two-day streak of losses after a government report showed increased demand and lower stockpiles.

As the ethanol boom in the United States stalls, businesses in the Farm Belt are feeling the sting after years of growth.

When the legendary soap opera “Dallas” returns to the airwaves tomorrow night, one character will be pushing the series’ fictional oil family toward renewable energy.

It’s been a bumpy road for Lisa Jackson through three and a half years as chief administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). But the 50-year-old chemical engineer doesn’t look fazed or fed up. A scientist-turned-insider who has learned that the levers of power don’t always budge without a fight, she shows a little steel in her eyes as she ticks off achievements and notes setbacks. But she also lets mischief color her laugh as she acknowledges what she calls the “toxic attitude of absolute certainty” that paralyzes progress on climate and other issues.

Two oil industry groups sued U.S. EPA yesterday over its requirements for cellulosic biofuel production. In the lawsuit filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers and Western States Petroleum Association say EPA should have waived the requirements because the United States produced no cellulosic biofuel last year.