Regardless of anything ... The bottom line is that ANOTHER holiday weekend is approaching and "they" have raised the prices on ALL OF US again.
Whether you even understand what contitutes the term, gouging, the fact remains that the cost of fuel is expensive. Whether you sign a petition or not, fuel prices, still and yet, have AGAIN been raised!

The process to extract it out of the earth has not changed, nor has "their" way of getting it to us, yet ...
"They" continue to get away with "their" continual seemingly unwarranted price increases.
Whether you call it gouging or not, it's pretty bad when The Democratic Party Govenors across this nation send a letter to Bush telling him that they are investigating. And, they did so YESTERDAY! Their letter requested that he work with Congress and get to the bottom of this. (see 5/22/07 Cellulosic Ethanol Rocks! blog to).

Link

You've got to buy it. At least try to save yourself a few dollars. Good luck and have a great holiday, everyone.

As a democrat and an American ...

SIGN ANY PETITION THAT YOU WANT.


I'm okay.
You're okay.


Ignorance can be bliss.


Every issue has merit.
Every issue has relevancy to it's audience that it appeals to.

Rodney King may have acted foolishly, yet he wasn't a total fool.

"Can't we all just get along?", he asked.

Which is sadly STILL such a good question.

Choose wisely how you spend your energy. Then, choose what battle(s) you wish to fight for today.

What you focus on, you attract.
The law of reason is ... PASSION. - Aristotle

Remember annie b.? You remember her, right? Well, she's on a bit of a blogging hiatus, however she emailed this to me this morning ...

Now, we can all STOP our whinning and utilize this tool of empowerment to doour very, very best to move our Congress.

Please use this. Please pass it aloong as well, alright?

Thank you to all!

Link

Enter your zip code. It will tell you which gas stations in your area have the lowest (and highest) gasoline prices.

Be sure to check this guide frequently, if not daily.

This will have to suffice until "the powers that be" get on board with promoting some type of alternative fuel.

Cellulosic Ethanol Rocks!

Link

Democratic Govenors of America, including my State of Michigan Govenor, Jennifer Granholm, are standing up for our nations drivers!

The govenors association sent a letter to President Bush TODAY that states that they are investigating: price gouging, alternative sources of energy, and rolling back oil and gas subsidies.

This leter calls on the President to work with Congress to lower gas prices.

Thank you Democratic Govenors!

Well, here we go ...
With another holdiay weekend edging closer gas prices have risen in Metro Detroit 30 cents a gallon TODAY!
Our current (average) price is $3.42 per gallon.
How are you fairing in your hometown area?

Just today while shopping at Meijer, upon checkout, when handed my receipt I was also handed another receipt-size piece of paper that happened to be their new "Meijer Gas Alert!" which states ...
"Get Cell Phone Text Message Alerts Before Meijer Gas Prices Increase/Visit Meijer.com/text for full details".
Crazy! But, real.
Real as in ... Really sadly, really true.

Here is the Top States/Expensive Gas Price report information at hand ...

Illinios - $3.48 per gallon
California - $3.45 per gallon
Washington - $3.44 per gallon
Nebraska - $3.43 per gallon
Michigan - $3.43 per gallon, also.

Bob Kenyon, spokesperson for Atlas Oil Company, the largest distributor in S.E. Michigan reported today to WXYZ-TV the ABC affliate in Detroit that "inventory is high due to refinery issues going on".
He also stated that our 8 county area "has to change, by law, over to a new form of gas that happens to be environmentally friendlier, meets EPA standard, and that all refiners and terminals are turning their tanks right now".
They claim that "bumps in the road" such as the switch to this so-called new type of fuel and the recent problem at the pipeline in Alaska are causing a trickle down effect.

Sound fishy or weird to you?

When gasoline prices rise to $5.00 a gallon, what exactly will you do?

Will you downsize from your gas guzzling mid-size car or SUV to a bare bones economy car?

Will you opt to riding a bicycle?

Will public transportation become one of your new best friends?

For the price of a "1/8 of a tank" of gas, would you invest in a new pair of top of the line walking shoes?

Will you purchase your dream Harley?

Or, will you finally invest in that pony that you always wanted as a kid?

The idea of prices spiking to $5.00 a gallon might seem far off and umimaginable now, but what will you do?

If you think about it ...
Amish transportation just might not look so crazy to us after all.

Over at Second Life, the number 1 "demand" is for ...
Barack Obama.

19,326 people in 1061 places are demanding that he make an appearance in their area.

Popular, that Obama. Even on the other side of reality.

BTW, there is no war going on there!

Another Dana Childs of Inside Greentech exclusive ...

Taking the virtual stage, to share the cellulosic state-of-the-art and answer questions from investors and others, were representatives from Celunol and BlueFire Ethanol. They maintained that cellulosicc ethanol is no less efficient than that made from corn. They stated that cellulosic ethanol is chemically identical to grain ethanol.
"Ethanol is ethanol. When burned in today's automotive engines, it does have 30% lower BTU content than gasoline. So if you put it in a low compression engine, you do get a mileage penality. But, if you put it in a higher compression engine, you get as much as 90% of the mileage of gasoline", noted John Howe, Celunol VP of public affairs.

The moderator, Dallas Kachan of Inside Greentech, shared results of a recent poll to date on Inside Greentech's web site.
Some 18% of respondents thought that cellulosic ethanol was already being generated in commercial quantities, while 8% seemed to think that cellulosic ethanol would never work.
Kachan said, "Add those two camps together, the 18% at the top and the 8% at the bottom, and to us at Inside Greentech, it suggests that 1 in 4 people in the cleantech industry have what we think are some pretty big misunderstandings where cellulosic fuels are currently at."

The experts in the session illustrated that cellulosic fuel technology is indeed real, but confirmed that they are not yet producing commercial quantities of fuel anywhere.

Why not?
They stated that the technology is still evolving. They also identified non-traditional project financing and venture capitalists (VC) barriers as road blocks.
Traditional project finance companies don't like risk, and VCs don't like these sorts of deals, because they don't sense returns in the multiples they're used to.

Finally, GOVERNMENT WAS IDENTIFIED AS A BARRIER, given the lack of focus of various government agencies to promote biomass technologies and renewable fuels in the face of competing interests for R&D (research and development) funds.

Both Celunol and BlueFire Ethanol said that they're in the process of moving from pilot plants into production.
Two pilot plants, one in Jennings, Louisana, and one in Osaka, Japan, are helping Celunol prove it's enzyme-based approach.
Celunol is in the process of constructing a demo plant at its Jennings facility, with a capacity of 1.4 million gallons/year. Feedstocks are to include sugarcane bagasse (sugarcane fiberous stalk residue) and specially-bred energy cane.

BlueFire's Arkenol process has spent the last four years in pilots. Soon to enter commercial production at a landfill site in Southern California, they are in partnership with waste giant, Waste Management.
Their intention is to convert municipal solid waste (garbage, or trash) into ethanol at their facility, for a capacity of approximately 18.6 million gallons per year.
Because of the $40 million grant that the U.S. Department of Energy appropriated to BlueFire, their plant is scheduled to be built in the second quarter next year, with another slated to be built the following year.

Many attendees had questions about cellulosic ethanols environmental impact.
Celunol's Howe and BlueFire CEO Arnold R. Klann defended their processes as sustainable.
Klann stated, "Most of the reagents we're using to break down cellulosic structure are for the most part benign or ubiquitous". They use sulfuric acid, probably the most widely used chemical behind water.
Klann added, "We reuse and recycle it as much as we can to be as efficient as possible", adding that the California Energy Commission - "the toughest licensing agency in the world" - found their company's process had no significant impact to the environment.
"Our waste water treatment facilities are essentially identical to standard waste water treatment facilities", said Howe.
"In terms of emissions, on balance, overall emissions will be much less toxic than what we would see with petroleum refining".

Because this webinair was conducted, some of the myths concerning cellulosic ethanol will hopefully now be dispelled.

An exclusive (dated May 8th), reported by Dana Childs of inside Greentech ...

Partly blaming high corn prices, prominant American ethanol maker VeraSun Energy (NYSE: VSE) dramatically missed in earnings.

It's stock has been sent tumbling, down as low as 14.5%, and shock waves are being felt throughout the corn ethanol sector.

The company posted a net loss of $312,000.00 for the quarter, mostly due to increased corn costs, and startup expenses related to their Charles City facility, and expenses associated with the implementation Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.
The U.S. Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002 [known as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, also called SOX] is legislation designed to restore confidence in corporate financial reporting by enacting strict standards on information integrity and accessiblity.
Motivated by harsh penalties for SOX violations, businesses often turn to the IT world for help in quickly achieving and maintaining SOX compliance.

VeraSun, which closed up 16 cents on May 7th at $19.61, but had been expected to report a profit of 11 cents per share. During the same period in 2006, they posted profits of $2.7 million, or 4 cents per share on $111 million in revenue.

They paid $4.05 per bushel of corn in the recent quarter, on average, compared with $1.87 a bushel in last year's first quarter, their company officials said.
"Corn costs were up for the quarter due in part ot market-to-market adjustment for corn hedged for future periods", stated Donald L. Endres, Chairman and CEO of VeraSun. "Excluding the Market-to-market adjustment, our corn costs were at a lower end of our guidance levels", he also claimed.

Although VeraSun noted that they are being more for their ethanol given rising gas prices, todays's numbers raise questions about whether ethanol can now still be made cost-effectively.
Industry observers began forecasting profitability problems in the corn ethanol industry given rising corn prices as far back as last November.
Some analyst were calling May 7th a tipping point for the industry. John Roy of W.R. Hambrect & Company wrote a note to his clients stating that "the bloom was off ethanol", and downgraded VeraSun to "sell", with a price target of $11.00. Roy told Inside Greentech that he believed VeraSun's current valuation to be high given the likely movements of corn, natural gas, and ethanol in 2007 and 2008, making the commodity pricing environment continue to look difficult.
Corn prices weren't the sole reason for VeraSun's missing numbers. During their first quarter they incurred expenses related to building up their sales, logistics and customer service capabilities, and marketing of their ethanol. They also started up the their plant in Charles City ahead of schedule.
Still, the news shook up ethanol investors.
And, of course the cost of shares went down, and not only at VeraSun, but with all of the publicly held corn-based ethanol companies.

VeraSun also announced its plans to sell $450 million in notes to finance a portion of the costs of construction and startup of a 110 million gallon a year ethanol production facility near Reynolds, Indiana, to purchase and install corn extraction equipment at its three operating plants and for other general corporate purposes.
They are one of the largest producers of ethanol in the U.S. based on production capacity according to the U.S. Renewable Fuels Association. Producing 670 million gallons a year, they bill themselves as the number two maker of ethanol in the U.S., behind ADM.
Poet, another corn-based ethanol maker (formerly known as Broin Companies) now claim the distinction of being the second largest ethanol producer in the U.S., as "one of only two ethanol companies with an annual production capacity over one billion gallons", according to one of their recent press releases.

Hm mm ...
Comments?

IRVINE,CA -- (MARKETWIRE) -- 04/25/07 -- BlueFire Ethanol (PINKSHEETS: BFRE) Cheif Executive Officer Arnold R. Klann will speak Monday, April 30th at 8:00am Pacific time in a webinar on "What's Real and What's Not in Cellulosic Biofuels", presented by Inside Greentech. Other participants will include John Howe, Vice President Public Affairs of Celunol.

"Inside Greentech is a daily trade publication dedicated to the education of investors, industry leaders, analysts and entrepreneurs in the cleantech space," stated Arnold R. Klann. "It gives BlueFire Ethanol fuels yet another venue to expand the awareness of our conversion technology, it's history and it's third party proven resullts."

Join BlueFire online April 30th at 8:00am Pacific time for a FREE Inside Greentech live web seminar examining the current state of the art in cellulosic biofuel technologies.
To register online please click on the following link:
Link

In order to receive regular updates on BlueFire Ethanol please click on the following link:
Link

The Presidential candidates will be taking and answering questions.
If you would like to ask any candidate a question, go to www.MSNBC.com to do so.

Don't forget to tune in and watch!

In the Grimm Brother's fairy tale, Rumpelstiltskin spins straw into gold.
Thanks to advances in biotechnology, researchers can now transform straw, and other plant wastes, into "green" gold - cellulosic ethanol.
While chemically identical to ethanol produced from corn or soybeans, cellulose ethanol exhibits a net energy content three times higher than corn ethanol and emits a low net level of greenhouse gases.
Recent technological developments are not only improving yields but also driving down production cost, bringing us nearer to the day when cellulosic ethanol could replace expensive, imported "black gold" with a sustainable, domestically produced biofuel.
Cellulosic ethanol has the potential to substantially reduce our consumption of gasoline.
"It is at least as likely as hydrogen to be an energy carrier of choice for a sustainable transportation sector", say the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Union of Concerned Scientists in a joint statement.
Major companies and research organizations are also realizing the potential. Shell Oil has predicted "the global market for biofuels such as cellulosic ethanol will grow to exceed $10 billion by 2012." A recent study funded by the Energy Foundation and the National Commission on Energy Policy, entitled "Growing Energy: How Biofuels Can Help End America's Oil Dependence", concluded "biofuels coupled with vehicle efficiency and smart growth could replace the oil dependency of our transportation sector by two-thirds by 2050 in a sustainable way."

I have been invited to join this group by my friend, Carlo. Over the last weekend, I sent her an email and a portion of that email follows.

Being an automotive professional with over 35 years experience, I welcome biofuels but not everybody has the ability to purchase them. But, everyone can purchase synthetic lubricants and fuels.
Read on ...

I have to admit to you that I am conflicted. I have been involved in the automotive market my entire life and love cars. I collect them, race them, work on them, work for a living with them. When I saw your group about ethanol, I think that for motorsports to survive, a switch in fuels is mandated. But, that doesn't go far enough. Biofuels, for some, just are not accessible ... but, synthetics are.
Today there is a complete line of synthetic lubricants. From power steering fluid, brake fluid, transmission fluids and oils, to engine oils. Although they cost more, you get longer life from them.
Here is something else, synthetic oils do not gel like natural oils do.
Let me give you an example.
It's winter, and -10 degrees. You go and start up your car and for 3 to 10 seconds, because of the thickening of the engine oil in the pan, you have no lubrication in the engine; called, dry start up. Very damaging on today's high-tech engines.
Here's the pay off.
The synthetic lubricants are not hazardous waste. A spill is not damaging, or toxic.

Just some "food for thought".

Five Oregon state senators and three House state representatives have introduced legislation to provide up to $2 million in grant and loan funds for feasibility studies for cellulosic ethanol demonstration facilities. Entitled SB 949, the Bill had it's first hearing this past Tuesday, April 3rd, before the Senate Environment and Narural Resources Committee.
One of the big problems associated with the building of cellulosic ethanol demonstration is risk and the lack or availability of either public or private capital to fund feasibility studies. This funding Bill will would help to address the "valley of death" walk account encountered by entrepreneurs trying to get proposed facilities underway.
The five Senators of the Environment and Natural Resources Committee are:
Chairman Brad Avakian (sen.bradavakian@senate.or.us),
Jason Atkinson (sen.jasonatkinson@senate.or.us),
Alan Bates
(sen.alanbates@senate.or.us),
Roger Beyer
(sen.rogerbeyer@senate.or.us),
and Floyd Prozanski(sen.floydprozanski@senate.or.us).

Steven and I would like to encourage indidviduals to either testify at the hearing OR SEND EMAILS OR LETTERS TO SUPPORT THE PROPOSED LEGISLATION.

The same committee will also heard House Bill 2210 which creates income tax credit for production or collection of biomass (biomass means any plant derived organic matter available on a renewable basis, including dedicated energy crops and trees, agricultural food and feed crops, agricultural crop wastes and residues, wood wastes and residues, aquatic plants, animal wastes, municiple wastes, and other waste material) used to produce biofuel and establishes renewable fuel use standards on Thursday, April 5th.
The bill successfully passed the House with broad bipartisan support.



Show some muscle!
Let's show that we've got "juice"!
Let's not forget why we're here and what we stand for.
Get behind the State of Oregon and their cellulosic ethanol Bills.
WRITE an email!
WRITE a letter!
Stand strong for the expansion of cellulosic ethanol production!


THANK YOU Cellulosic Ethanol group member, Steven McGrath!
"Good looking out!", Steve.
GREAT JOB!!!!!!

Can somebody, anybody, tell me ...

What candidate (Democrat or otherwise) running the 2008 race to the Presidency actively supports and acknowledges within their platform, their stance in regard to an alternative fuel source for our country?
Also, what candidate has shown active concern for the proposed Bills that are going before the Congress, that will grant the U.S. Department of Energy to pay $385 million in grant monies to biorefineries that support the production of Cellulosic Ethanol?

How many of you know the number of filling stations in your area that are selling E85 ethanol (corn-based) fuel at their pumps?

You may have read what was mentioned on the CER! homepage, regarding information that a cellulosic ethanol biorefinery called BlueFire Ethanol received up to $40 million from the U.S. Department of Energy.
What we didn't tell you was this ...
The DOE made an investment with five other companies, as well. The total of their investment? Up to $385 million. It's a jump from the $160 million announced a year ago. These plants will produce more than 130 million gallons of ethanol from the non-food part of crops, such as wood chips, corn stalksm and switchgrass, according to the DOE.
"These biorefineries play a critical role in helping bring cellulosic ethanol to market and teaching us how we can produce it in a more cost-effective manner", said DOE Secretary Samuel Bodman. "Ultimately, success in producing inexpensive cellulosic ethanol could be a key to eliminating our nation's addiction to oil", he also stated.
Ya think? (Wink-wink)
Bodman reported that up to $80 million went to Iogen Biorefinery Partner (for a plant in Idaho), up to 80 million to Broin Companies (for a plant in Iowa), up to $76 million to Range Fuels (for a plant in Georgia), up to $76 million to Abengoa Biorefinery Biomass (for a plant in Kansas), up to $33 million to ALICO (for a plant in Florida), and we've already mentioned the amount given (above) to BlueFire Ethanol for their plant in California.
These companies said that the DOE grants given to them show that the DOE recognizes the cellulosic ethanol's importance in reducing global warming and growing energy security.
Jeff Passmore, executive vice president at Iogen Biorefinery Partners said, "When you consider the $385 million directed toward cellulose ethanol is 40 percent of the total cost of those six projects, that's a lot of money. It's a big sum, and a great first step."
The U.S. Departmant of Energy estimates that starch-based ethanol will top out at 12 billion gallons a year unless the industry taps into food crops. That falls short of the 35 billion gallon goal, meaning the country will need to turn to other sources, anmely cellulosic ethanol to reach it's goal, say analysts.
Rick Kment, a biofuels analyst at research firm DTN said, "There's a very wide gap. There's no one in the ethanol industry that forsees grain being a majority part of that in the first place".
CER! hopes that EVERYBODY outside of the ethanol industry (like those in the arena of politics) gets on the same page of understanding and knowing that.
Kment also said, "To get the numbers that we need, we're going to really need to focus on cellulosic ethanol as being a large part of ethanol production."
Of course, none of the companies have the money yet, according to Passmore. Winning the grant is the first step; then companies must negotiate for the actual amounts they will get, pass those proposals through Congress, and seek additional financing for the rest of the money needed to build the plants.

If we didn't know, we now know why it is important to fire off a quick email to our state senators in support of Bills that they are working to get passed (see yesterday's blog submission).

Lastly, Range Fuels CEO Mitch Mandich has expressed that with all that it takes to actually get the grant money, the grants are especially important to the capital-intensive biofuels industry, adding that his company expects to break ground in the next few months.
"I see this as a pretty aggressive step on the part of the DOE to really help launch new technologies", he said.

***** Our Cellulosic Ethanol Rocks! partner, Steven McGrath of Portland, Oregon, asked (in yesterday's blog submission) that we lend our support by writing an email, or faxing a letter to his states senator's working to pass their Bills.
PLEASE HELP THEM!
When we help them, we're helping everybody.

To find out, check out the group ...

Cellulosic Ethanol Rocks!

Blog, and let us know where you stand on the subject.