US - ASA refutes EPA's proposed ILUC rules

In a news release, the American Soybean Association submitted its comments to the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit, Energy and Research regarding the impact of the indirect land use and renewable biomass provisions in the EPA’s RFS-2. There are numerous factors that ASA believes refute the possibility that significant international indirect land use change would result from the relatively small increase in US bio-diesel production called for under the RFS-2. These comments are available at: www.SoyGrowers.com/policy/indirect.pdf.

The EPA's conclusions that US corn and soy-based bio-fuel production is significantly less environmentally friendly than previously believed drew sharp criticism from Democratic and Republican lawmakers in a Tuesday hearing, Dow Jones Newswires reports.

The EPA's decision to include "indirect land use" when calculating how much ethanol and bio-diesel reduce green house gas emissions would effectively guarantee that soy-based fuels would not qualify for government production mandates, the US Department of Agriculture Chief Economist said. Soy-based bio-diesel "shows a very large decrease in green house gas emissions," he added, but when the EPA adds in the indirect land use calculation, "it doesn't meet the criteria." The renewable fuel standard calls for 500 million gallons of bio-diesel production in 2009 and 1 billion gallons by 2012. To be eligible for that mandate, soy-based bio-diesel would have to show a 50% reduction in green house gases from petroleum-based diesel. The EPA calculation, though, shows the reduction at only about 20%.

The House Agriculture Committee chairman said the Obama administration’s GHG proposals would “kill off the biofuels industry before it even gets started” and he will not support any climate change bills, making him the first committee chairman to voice opposition to climate change legislation, Reuters reports. He told Agriculture Department and EPA officials at a hearing on ethanol's impact on land use and greenhouse gases that it was “in bed with the oil industry”.

He and other Committee members also said the 2007 law and Renewable Fuel Standard is flawed because it wrongly excludes or limits "a majority of the country's woody biomass" and/or switchgrass from being counted as feedstock. A White House deputy advisor on climate change responded that the Obama Administration “is committed to renewable fuels” and only this week has requested data from scientists on how to calculate whether biofuels increase or reduce GHGs, as part of a draft rule aimed at making corn ethanol production more efficient and to increase production of advanced biofuels.

Two recent studies suggest 9 million acres (22 million ha) of additional land will be needed if US ethanol output expands by 13.25 billion gallons (51 billion liters), according to the USDA chief economist, which is less than half the new-crop area projected in a 2008 analysis. He also says there is “little question that increased biofuel production will have effects on land use in the US and the rest of the world” while the question was over the magnitude.

Inside EPA Weekly adds that the Agriculture Committee Chairman was joined by numerous other Democrats and Republicans on the committee in opposing aspects of EPA's RFS proposal.

HydroGenetics, has announced that on May 4th 2009 Buffalo Bio-diesel Inc, a wholly owned subsidiary of HydroGenetics, entered into a delivery contract of 1,000,000 lbs of high quality recycled bio-diesel feedstock with one of the largest bio-diesel producers in the North East. BBD completed the first contract of 750,000 lbs of high quality recycled bio-diesel feedstock in April, Market Wire reports. The contract requires BBD to deliver 1MM lbs of high quality recycled bio-diesel feedstock per month in May. It will gross BBD in excess of $220,000.

California regulators have approved new rules that ban storing certain types of bio-diesel in underground fuel tanks in order to avoid the risk of water pollution, San Jose Mercury News reports. By a 3-1 vote, the State Water Resources Control Board said that gas stations, fleet yards and others who bio-diesel distributors can only store bio-diesel blends of up to 20 percent in underground tanks, even if the tanks are double-walled. (07 May 2009)

EU – Poland and Germany create bio-energy research group

After a meeting between the Polish Minister for Agriculture and German Agricultural Minister, the German and Polish governments have agreed an alliance for cooperation on the development of bio-energy feedstocks, Biofuels International reports. The move establishes Bio-GEPOIT, a task force group that will be coordinated by the Polish Research Institute of Construction, Mechanics and Electricity, and the German Biomass Research Centre in Leipzig.

Both ministers agreed that the importance of food security takes preference over energy production, but added that bio-energy could contribute to energy security and the improvement of farm incomes.

In France, PSA Peugeot Citroën group want the government to study the introduction of B10, which would be the diesel equivalent of the new gasoline fuel SP95-E10 introduced in April, which contains 10% ethanol of agricultural origin, Autonews reports. "The CO2 emissions control would be strengthened, given the share of diesel vehicles in circulation," says PSA in a statement. "This will achieve the ambitious goals of bio-fuel incorporation that France set for 2010," the statement says.

Royal Dutch Shell’s CEO criticized electric cars as impractical and said his company plans to focus its clean energy efforts on bio-fuels and developing carbon capture and storage, AP/the New York Times report. “My milkman used to drive around in electric cars a long time ago, what’s new? I want Shell to be really big in one renewable, and that will be bio-fuel,” he said. He declined to say how much money Shell would invest in bio-fuels or carbon capture and storage in the coming year but said the company is hoping to increase gradually the mix of fuels it will supply with a special emphasis on advanced bio-fuels from sources such as algae. Shell is also a big player in Brazil's sugarcane ethanol industry.

The former UK government Chief Scientific Advisor writes in his latest quarterly bulletin published by UBS Investment Bank that second generation biofuels will make a significant contribution to the battle to find a sustainable solution for transport fuels and could come into play in 5-10 years. In ‘Biofuels: the route to a low carbon future?’ he says second generation biofuels could be a much more fuel efficient option than first-generation food-based fuels. His findings come after working with research teams from Oxford and Cambridge Universities, which are developing a system for producing petrol or kerosene from by-products of food crops and general waste.

The Financial Times reports that Defra (the UK Farm Ministry) is warning that a pesticide ban voted in by the EU Parliament would seriously damage agricultural output. The UK Environment Secretary told a British Parliamentary committee that the regulations could cause agricultural yields in the UK to decline by up to 30% for no recognisable benefit to human health.

The European Parliament has approved the use of 5 billion Euros ($6.7 billion) of unspent EU budget funds to boost green energy and Internet links across the EU, Green Momentum reports.

The endorsement means the EU can now start spending the money, which comes from unused EU farm subsidies, on a list of projects already approved by EU leaders at their March summit. The spending is meant to create jobs and stimulate economic growth across the 27-nation bloc. (8 May 2009)

Green Energy

2009 International Conference on Oil Palm And The Environment

Sainsbury's double sales of basics fish fingers

07/05/2009 (International Supermarket News) - Sainsbury's only uses certified palm oil in it's frozen fish range. This industry leading commitment to sustainable palm oil is credited with helping to more than double sales of basics fish fingers over the past 12 months. Certified sustainable palm oil was introduced to basics fish fingers last May when Sainsbury's was the first food company to purchase the oil on a large scale.

Following this move, almost 14m basics fish fingers have been sold, meaning the UK is now consuming sustainable palm oil in large volumes for the first time.

Fiona Wheatley, Sainsbury's sustainability manager, said: "We are firmly committed to the use of certified sustainable palm oil and are currently looking for new products in which we can use it. Sales of basics fish fingers have risen sharply and one of the reasons for this is that customers respond favourably to the sustainability of the product."

The supermarket was the first major company to purchase RSPO certified palm oil when it became available for the first time last year and is currently the only retailer to have purchased it at scale.

In addition to being the only retailer to buy the oil in large volumes, Sainsbury's is also the only retailer to set a target date by which to switch to 100 per cent certified sustainable palm oil, aiming to reach this goal by 2014.

Fiona added: "We need to support the workers, farmers, families and communities that rely on palm oil while making sure that tropical forests are protected for everyone's future benefit.

"In order to achieve this, we are dependent not only on widespread take up of certification at plantation level, but also adoption of certified sustainable palm oil sourcing by the companies that trade and process palm oil."

To ensure that customers know that the products they are buying contain certified palm oil, Sainsbury's has created a ‘made with sustainable palm oil' icon that is displayed on front of packs. This is supported with a text box that explains that the palm oil used in the product does not contribute to illegal deforestation, and is sourced with consideration to the environmental, social and economic aspects of palm production.

Sainsbury's is also committed to changing labelling on all products so that they name palm oil (and other vegetable oils) specifically, and no longer use the generic description 'vegetable oil'. This will be completed by July, although as some of the products have a long shelf life it may take some time to sell through the products with the ‘old-style' labelling.

Sainsbury's support of sustainable palm oil is such that the company's CEO, Justin King is a member of the Prince's Rainforest Project (PRP) steering group. The project was set up by HRH The Prince of Wales and seeks to 'make rainforests worth more alive than dead'. The PRP team works with Governments, businesses and non-profit organisations to find solutions to deforestation.