Energy

In a farmdoc daily article last week, we showed that biodiesel production profits in the U.S. had moved into the black in recent months, seemingly defying the typical pattern of losses in years following the expiration of the biodiesel tax credit. Given the anomalous movement in biodiesel production profits one wonders whether something similar has been happening to ethanol production. The U.S. ethanol production industry is coming off a good year in 2016. Net profits averaged $0.12 per gallon, about $0.05 higher than in 2015. [node:read-more:link]

The U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) on Monday approved a resolution supporting a 100% renewable energy goal by 2035, and launched the Ready for 100 campaign to support the utilization of more clean power. The group of more than 250 U.S. [node:read-more:link]

Southern Co. is "immediately suspending start-up and operations activities" on the gasifier units of its Kemper County power plant, the company said in a release Wednesday.The 582 MW plant was designed to convert locally-mined coal into a synthetic gas and capture over half of its carbon emissions. [node:read-more:link]

A North Dakota regulatory board has accused a security firm hired by the company that built the Dakota Access Pipeline of operating in the state without a license.In a complaint dated June 12, attorneys for the North Dakota Private Investigative and Security Board said the agency denied an application to James Patrick Reese, the founder of North Carolina-based TigerSwan, to become a licensed private security provider earlier this year. [node:read-more:link]

Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval is fresh off a legislative session in which he signed nine bills aimed at supporting the clean energy sector. In Florida, Gov. Rick Scott recently signed a tax exemption that solar installers say is essential to jump-starting the residential and commercial market in the Sunshine State. And in Iowa, where wind now accounts for 36 percent of the state's electricity generation, newly installed Gov. [node:read-more:link]

Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval is fresh off a legislative session in which he signed nine bills aimed at supporting the clean energy sector. In Florida, Gov. Rick Scott recently signed a tax exemption that solar installers say is essential to jump-starting the residential and commercial market in the Sunshine State. And in Iowa, where wind now accounts for 36 percent of the state's electricity generation, newly installed Gov. Kim Reynolds recently finished an energy plan that calls for growing the wind, biofuels and solar industries."For years, our fields have fed the world. [node:read-more:link]

Scientists are engaged in an increasingly bitter and personal feud over how much of the United States' power it can get from renewable sources, with a large group of scientists taking aim at a popular recent paper that claimed the country could move beyond fossil fuels entirely by 2055. In 2015, Stanford professor Mark Jacobson and his colleagues argued that between 2050 and 2055, the U.S. [node:read-more:link]

Oil giants ExxonMobil, Shell, BP and Total are among a group of large corporations supporting a plan to tax carbon dioxide emissions in order to address climate change. [node:read-more:link]

A recent discovery could lead to a new, more sustainable way to make ethanol without corn or other crops. This promising technology has three basic components: water, carbon dioxide and electricity delivered through a copper catalyst.To compare electrocatalytic performance, the researchers placed the three large electrodes in water, exposed them to carbon dioxide gas and applied a potential to generate an electric current.The results were clear. [node:read-more:link]

Advocates say recent regulatory changes in Michigan could spur more solar energy development from independent producers and ensure existing renewable energy generators are paid fair prices from utilities for their power. On May 31, the Michigan Public Service Commission approved changes to the way avoided costs are determined under the federal Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA) of 1978. Avoided costs are those that utilities pay independent power producers for their electricity that the utility would have otherwise had to pay itself. [node:read-more:link]