ShareIn Washington, President Barack Obama today signed H.R. 4853, the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010.

Last night, the US House of Representatives voted by a 277 to 148 margin to approve the Obama tax deal, which extends the ethanol tax credit through 2011, and retroactively extends the biodiesel tax incentive and the renewable diesel incentive through 2011. The bill also renewed the 54-cent tariff on Brazilian ethanol through 2011.

Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis was invited to the signing ceremony for the Tax Relief Unemployment Extension Bill. At the ceremony, Buis presented the President with a letter on behalf of the American ethanol industry and its supporters, thanking him for delivering a common-sense ethanol tax policy.

In the letter, he wrote, “Every year, our addiction to foreign oil drains $1,000 for every man, woman and child out of our economy. That is money we should invest in Des Moines, not Abu Dhabi – Columbus, and not Caracas.  …by signing into law a one-year extension of the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit, your leadership has set the table for comprehensive, long-term energy policy, including reform of the American transportation fuels market, as proposed by Growth Energy’s Fueling Freedom proposal. Our plan to reform the market would encourage the installation of blender pumps and make every auto sold in the U.S. a Flex Fuel Vehicle, ultimately giving American consumers the power to choose their fuel at the pump, instead of having that choice made for them.”

Joy from US ethanol and biodiesel interests was tempered by a call by UNICA for Brazil to lodge a complaint with the World Trade Organization over the ethanol tariff.

At the same time, Senate Democrats abandoned a plan for a $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill that would have slashed funds for USDA loan guarantees and would have zeroed out funds for the Biomass Crop Assistance Program established under the 2008 Farm Bill. According to the Associated Press, “The 1,924-page bill collapsed of its own weight after an outcry from conservatives who complained it was stuffed with more than $8 billion in homestate pet projects known as earmarks.”

Reaction from industry included:

Mary Rosenthal, Executive Director, Algal Biomass Organization, said, “Congress’s decision to extend the incentives for the production and use of domestic renewable fuels is an essential step for the development of America’s biofuels industry. While long overdue, the extension of these important programs sends a strong signal of support for the importance of renewable, domestic fuels to our energy security, economy and environment.”

Joe Jobe, CEO, National Biodiesel Board, added, “Experience has shown that the biodiesel tax incentive is an effective tool to encourage the displacement of foreign petroleum with a superior, domestically produced Advanced Biofuel. Reinstatement of this proven incentive helps provide the policy framework needed to meet the nation’s renewable goals, and the NBB sincerely appreciates the bipartisan cooperation and support that made extension of this worthwhile incentive possible.

Randy Olson, Executive Director of the Iowa Biodiesel Board, added, “We are extremely pleased that the biodiesel tax credit extension has now been passed with strong bipartisan support in both the Senate and the House. Biodiesel has long been a bright spot in our state’s economy, supporting green jobs and generating economic activity on the farm and beyond. It’s also a vital component of our national energy security. Iowa’s biodiesel producers are looking forward to ramping back up to full-scale production of America’s first Advanced Biofuel and bringing jobs back to Iowa while helping our nation meet its commitment to Renewable Fuels.”

SOURCE: BIOFUELS DIGEST

JATROPHA CURCAS, ENERGY AND SOCIAL CULTIVATION

The Second Monographic International Conference on Jatropha Curcas, held during the past 14th and 15th of May in Madrid, fulfilled its objective of showing the current state of this important energy cultivation. Of the hand of Global Energy, the appointment gathered ten important experts at world level with more than 150 conference members interested in the production and commercialization possibilities of the Jatropha Curcas. The reports also highlighted the important social side of this cultivation.Â

Jatropha CurcasÂ

This bush, native from Central America but that at the present time has extended to several continents, is popularly known by the high content in oil of its seeds (approximately 40%) and for its special resistance, what allows it to adapt to almost any land and be used to combat the desert or to rehabilitate degraded lands. It is important to highlight that its seeds are toxic, for what its price is not influenced by the competition with the alimentary uses.Â

The different reports of the conference, enlarged this information, also showing, real experiences of cultivations and of its use as raw energetic material.Â

The opening of the conference was in charge of professor Reinhard Henning. The current founder and CEO of Baganí, German consultant specialized in the realization of studies of viability on the Jatropha, began to work with it in 1987 inside a program of the government from Mali for the development of plantations of this bush. Of this collaboration the successful “System Jatropha” was born, a program that looked for the production of oil from the plant as a way of facilitating the rural development of the areas where it was planted.Â

The economic impact that has the cultivation of Jatropha Curcas in the local communities also centered the report of the president of Getco, James V. Fanning. The company Getco expects very positive impacts in the areas where Jatropha is cultivated. Thus, during the congress, it presented two of the projects in wich he works, one in Colombia and another in Peru. In both he considers enough to use only 5% of the arable land to create, after ten years of production, oil for the value of more than 146 million dollars and 18.000 work positions in the Colombian case and oil for the value of more than 258 million dollars using 32.000 people in the Peruvian project. James V. Fanning demonstrated, in his report, his clear bet on the profitability of the cultivation of Jatropha Curcas.Â

Jatropha Curcas for the electricity productionÂ

Another of the outstanding presenters of this international conference was the energy cultivations investigator of the FACT Foundation, Ywe Jan Franken. This dutch foundation has as mission the production and commercialization of biofuels for the local development and it has active projects in Mali, Mozambique and Honduras. In these areas the cultivation of Jatropha Curcas is very positive since its oil is used for the electricity production and biogas. The investigator points out that they also use the peel and the cake of the plant, triplicated this way, the energy production. At the present time, the FACT Foundation carries out, in cooperation with the Technical University of Eindhoven, a study that is focused in the biogas use as blended fuel with conventional diesel and pure vegetable oil. This project is obtaining promising results at the present time.Â

Another option, is the use that contributed to the congress James Scruby, president of Viridesco. This English company is specialized in the elaboration of pure oil for the substitution of the conventional diesel. Viridesco centers its projects, as that of Mozambique that presented in the conference, in the energy creation for local use. This African country offers the lands and the appropriate manpower for the plantation in big extensions of Jatropha Curcas. The obtained oil is used directly as fuel in diesel motors type Elsbett with excellent results.Â

Positive examples in Colombia and MexicoÂ

Three of the speakers arrived from the other side of the Atlantic to tell to all the present their experiences in plantations of Jatropha Curcas. The first one was Jorge Bendeck, executive president of the Federación Nacional de Biocombustibles of Colombia. The plans of this country are to substitute all the imports of diesel for biodiesel of own production in 2020. In his conclusions on the studies made in the plantation of Jatropha he highlighted the high social value of this cultivation, since its manual gathering favors the little qualified manpower placement.Â

Who also shared this opinion were the mexican Rubén Lazos and Eduardo García, responsible for an important project of plantation of Jatropha Curcas in one of the most degraded areas in Mexico, the state of Michoacán. The work, that has lasted already five years, offers to the local farmers a profitable alternative in excluded areas, since the oil obtained is treated in a pilot plant located in the same state and that has an annual capacity production of nine thousand tons of biodiesel. In the Mexican case, the Jatropha will energize the activity in poor areas and will put a stop the desert in areas of marginal cultivations.Â

The Hindu betÂ

India, the country of the world where the energy demand grows most quickly, had an important representation in this Second Monographic International Conference on Jatropha Curcas organized by Global Energy. The new Hindu business sector was represented by Bhaskar Chalasani, managing director and CEO of Naturol, the first company that manufactures biodiesel in India. While the investigating sector of the country had as representatives to the speakers Dilip K. Kulkarni and K.K Meher, both investigators of the Agharkar Research Institute. The doctor Kulkarni presented us the results of a deep study on the variety “Nana” of the Jatropha Curcas, endemic variety of the India.

On the other hand K.K. Meher closed this conference with an interesting report focused in the biometanization of the cake of Jatropha. During the presentation he explained the important bet that India is beginning for the substitution of fossil fuels by biocarburants and other renewable energy sources and the possibilities of the cultivation of Jatropha inside these plans. As other speakers, doctor Meher, highlighted the social character of this cultivation, since the cake of Jatropha is being used at the present time for the biogas obtaining that provides electricity to many families of the India.