Speaking on behalf of the European Commission To The United States here at the Transition To A Bio Economy Conference was Laurent Javaudin. Laurent sent me a message about coming to the conference via my Twitter feed! I guess that makes him my Twitter buddy. His comments focused on the impact of EU mandates for renewable energy. To start with, …
Biofuels Blogging Again
Mary Thompson, Farm Foundation, took my photo yesterday as I was doing some concluding work for the day here at their Transition To A Bio Economy Conference: Global Trade & Policy Issues. That new Mac is getting a workout on the road and I’m loving it. I’ll be posting more interviews through the day today and will be live tweeting …
Ethanol May Change Meat Trading Patterns
Biofuels production in Canada will impact meat trading patterns according to research by Al Mussell, George Morris Centre, University of Guelph. He says that the increase in biofuels production will turn the country into an importer of grains instead of an exporter. Al was one of the speakers at the Transition To A Bio Economy Conference. He says that as …
Global Energy Policies Impact Poverty
A very interesting presentation at our Farm Foundation Global Trade and Policy Issues conference had to do with the impact on poverty. Tom Hertel, Purdue University, was our presenter. He says they conducted an international study of 16 developing countries and the impact of biofuels production on the poverty level. As he puts it, it’s a very complex issue. Most …
Food Issues & Energy Policies
Former Texas Congressman Charles Stenholm was the moderator for our second session here at the Farm Foundation Global Trade & Policy Issues conference. I don’t think you’ll find anyone more knowledgeable about the policy side of this discussion. He says that it’s clear to everyone that the price of our basic commodities which was extremely beneficial to our producers has …
Global Biofuels Analysis
Providing us with a “Technical Global Biofuels Analysis” here at the Farm Foundation Global Trade & Policy Issues conference was Thomas Alfstad, Brookhaven National Laboratory. Thomas was on the program to speak about a technical global biofuels analysis. He says that last year they completed a study on biofuels. They looked at the U.S. importing fuels to meet the RFS. …
2009 Global Energy Outlook
Michael Schaal is with the Energy Information Administration which is part of the U. S. Dept. of Energy. He spoke early on the program at the Farm Foundation conference about the global outlook for energy. He says they were actually looking at trends through 2030. He says that developing countries will be significantly increasing their fuel consumption which will increase …
Global Trade & Policy Issues and Biofuels
Wally Tyner is an energy economist with the Dept. of Agricultural Economics at Purdue University. He’s one of the first speakers on the Farm Foundation, Transition To A Bio Economy Conference: Global Trade and Policy Issues. I was able to speak with him before the program kicks off this afternoon here in Washington, DC. Wally says Farm Foundation decided to …
Get Some Solar On This Day
We’ve got Ag Day, Earth Day and now Solar Day. I hope we have a sunny one here in mid MO. Move over Earth Day. There’s a new environmentally friendly semi-holiday coming up, and it’s none other than Solar Day. This day doesn’t just thank the sun for shining, though. It’s meant to educate the public about the benefits of …
Three Lessons for Renewables Communicators
From “Darling to Devil” in the blink of an eye – that’s what happened to the biofuels industry in the past year or so – but better communications on the part of the industry could have helped with the damage control and could still help repair some of the damage done. What’s more, the damage done to biofuels could also …