E15 ethanol approved in US for year 2007 and newer cars and light trucks: A clear message!

On Octorber 13, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced to waiver a limitation on selling fuel that contains more than 10 percent ethanol for model year 2007 and newer cars and light trucks.  Although the initial impact of the ruling is likely to be minimal and it will take several more steps for federal, state and industry towards commercialization of E15 gasoline blends, no doubt, it sent out a clear massage under the current cool-down atmosphere for biofuels and renewable energy:

1. Clean and renewable is the direction of future energy supported by US government
2. The new rule creates additional demand on fuel ethanol that will open up more market
3. An incentive to create green job opportunities and drive green economy

To avoid the impact on food prices in the future, the advanced biofuel, i.e cellulosic ethanol is still the ultimate solution.

What are cooling down the biofuels?

Not long ago, biofuels became a hot topic, formed a wave, and would replace fossil fuels as an alternative energy, which attracted too much attention from scientists, politicians, policy makers, investors, and common people. And eventually
Congress passed the Renewable Fuels Standard in 2007, which by 2022 would require 16 billion gallons of these fuels every year.

However, only a few years, U.S. EPA will drastically cut the amount of cellulosic biofuels that oil companies are required to blend into their fuel stocks under its Renewable Fuels Standard.

What causes biofuels cooling down? It looks like the money holds it back. But government and private investors already poured tons of money into the areas in the past. Where and when do they get paid off?

Actually the cooling down of biofuels demonstrates the loss of confidence and patience. Recently people always want to get payback as short as possible for their investment. However, biofuels production is a sunrising industry and still in its infancy although many "experts" claimed their technology advanced and can blabla....In reality, real professionals know the truth.

When biofuels became hot, almost overnight, thousands of people stood out to be biofuel experts. Some of them are truly biofuel professionals. Unfortunately, quite a lot of them are not! Those who are not experts but have capability to impact people mis-leaded the direction of the money invested. Just looking at the some projects that have been supported, they are really out of date and not practical even with some common sense. But they were funded. Meanwhile, some game-players started raising money for their start-up companies. As a result, those technologies are still in the lab or published on paper because of not practical, the money has been used. To be worse, an impression has been given to people: Biofuels are not successful! Bankers are therefore holding the money. The development is losing momentum to move forward. From this point of view, fake experts are really killing biofuels!

It is true that biofuels are the right direction for future energy no matter people admit it or not now. But it will take time to have the viable technology to be developed. It needs more people's patience and more consistent support. Hopefully, the correct voice can be heard by money managers, consultants, financial planners, speculators, and environmentalists and their continuous support are sustainable. If so, it will be fortunate for biofuels and of course for our grandchildren.

Some good news about potentially expanding ethanol use.

EPA Makes Progress Toward Approval of E15

ACE Urges Agency to Approve E15 and Higher for All Passenger Vehicles

NACD president warns of further regulations

NACD president warns of further regulations. The changes occurring in Washington, D.C., now are sure to impact chemical distribution and transportation.