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    Spanish company Ferry Group is to invest €42/US$55.2 million in a project for the production of biomass fuel pellets in Bulgaria. The 3-year project consists of establishing plantations of paulownia trees near the city of Tran. Paulownia is a fast-growing tree used for the commercial production of fuel pellets. Dnevnik - Feb. 20, 2007.

    Hungary's BHD Hõerõmû Zrt. is to build a 35 billion Forint (€138/US$182 million) commercial biomass-fired power plant with a maximum output of 49.9 MW in Szerencs (northeast Hungary). Portfolio.hu - Feb. 20, 2007.

    Tonight at 9pm, BBC Two will be showing a program on geo-engineering techniques to 'save' the planet from global warming. Five of the world's top scientists propose five radical scientific inventions which could stop climate change dead in its tracks. The ideas include: a giant sunshade in space to filter out the sun's rays and help cool us down; forests of artificial trees that would breath in carbon dioxide and stop the green house effect and a fleet futuristic yachts that will shoot salt water into the clouds thickening them and cooling the planet. BBC News - Feb. 19, 2007.

    Archer Daniels Midland, the largest U.S. ethanol producer, is planning to open a biodiesel plant in Indonesia with Wilmar International Ltd. this year and a wholly owned biodiesel plant in Brazil before July, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. The Brazil plant is expected to be the nation's largest, the paper said. Worldwide, the company projects a fourfold rise in biodiesel production over the next five years. ADM was not immediately available to comment. Reuters - Feb. 16, 2007.

    Finnish engineering firm Pöyry Oyj has been awarded contracts by San Carlos Bioenergy Inc. to provide services for the first bioethanol plant in the Philippines. The aggregate contract value is EUR 10 million. The plant is to be build in the Province of San Carlos on the north-eastern tip of Negros Island. The plant is expected to deliver 120,000 liters/day of bioethanol and 4 MW of excess power to the grid. Kauppalehti Online - Feb. 15, 2007.

    In order to reduce fuel costs, a Mukono-based flower farm which exports to Europe, is building its own biodiesel plant, based on using Jatropha curcas seeds. It estimates the fuel will cut production costs by up to 20%. New Vision (Kampala, Uganda) - Feb. 12, 2007.

    The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has decided to use 10% biodiesel in its fleet of public buses. The world's largest city is served by the Toei Bus System, which is used by some 570,000 people daily. Digital World Tokyo - Feb. 12, 2007.

    Fearing lack of electricity supply in South Africa and a price tag on CO2, WSP Group SA is investing in a biomass power plant that will replace coal in the Letaba Citrus juicing plant which is located in Tzaneen. Mining Weekly - Feb. 8, 2007.

    In what it calls an important addition to its global R&D capabilities, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) is to build a new bioenergy research center in Hamburg, Germany. World Grain - Feb. 5, 2007.

    EthaBlog's Henrique Oliveira interviews leading Brazilian biofuels consultant Marcelo Coelho who offers insights into the (foreign) investment dynamics in the sector, the history of Brazilian ethanol and the relationship between oil price trends and biofuels. EthaBlog - Feb. 2, 2007.

    The government of Taiwan has announced its renewable energy target: 12% of all energy should come from renewables by 2020. The plan is expected to revitalise Taiwan's agricultural sector and to boost its nascent biomass industry. China Post - Feb. 2, 2007.

    Production at Cantarell, the world's second biggest oil field, declined by 500,000 barrels or 25% last year. This virtual collapse is unfolding much faster than projections from Mexico's state-run oil giant Petroleos Mexicanos. Wall Street Journal - Jan. 30, 2007.

    Dubai-based and AIM listed Teejori Ltd. has entered into an agreement to invest €6 million to acquire a 16.7% interest in Bekon, which developed two proprietary technologies enabling dry-fermentation of biomass. Both technologies allow it to design, establish and operate biogas plants in a highly efficient way. Dry-Fermentation offers significant advantages to the existing widely used wet fermentation process of converting biomass to biogas. Ame Info - Jan. 22, 2007.

    Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited is to build a biofuel production plant in the tribal belt of Banswara, Rajasthan, India. The petroleum company has acquired 20,000 hectares of low value land in the district, which it plans to commit to growing jatropha and other biofuel crops. The company's chairman said HPCL was also looking for similar wasteland in the state of Chhattisgarh. Zee News - Jan. 15, 2007.

    The Zimbabwean national police begins planting jatropha for a pilot project that must result in a daily production of 1000 liters of biodiesel. The Herald (Harare), Via AllAfrica - Jan. 12, 2007.

    In order to meet its Kyoto obligations and to cut dependence on oil, Japan has started importing biofuels from Brazil and elsewhere. And even though the country has limited local bioenergy potential, its Agriculture Ministry will begin a search for natural resources, including farm products and their residues, that can be used to make biofuels in Japan. To this end, studies will be conducted at 900 locations nationwide over a three-year period. The Japan Times - Jan. 12, 2007.

    Chrysler's chief economist Van Jolissaint has launched an arrogant attack on "quasi-hysterical Europeans" and their attitudes to global warming, calling the Stern Review 'dubious'. The remarks illustrate the yawning gap between opinions on climate change among Europeans and Americans, but they also strengthen the view that announcements by US car makers and legislators about the development of green vehicles are nothing more than window dressing. Today, the EU announced its comprehensive energy policy for the 21st century, with climate change at the center of it. BBC News - Jan. 10, 2007.

    The new Canadian government is investing $840,000 into BioMatera Inc. a biotech company that develops industrial biopolymers (such as PHA) that have wide-scale applications in the plastics, farmaceutical and cosmetics industries. Plant-based biopolymers such as PHA are biodegradable and renewable. Government of Canada - Jan. 9, 2007.


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Friday, June 16, 2006

Philippines fails to pass Biofuels Act -- Caltex-Chevron blamed

Quicknote: biofuels policies
A disappointed Rep. Juan Miguel Zubiri has lashed out at the Senate for putting politics ahead of the public clamor for cheap, plant-based fuel, which includes the production of ethanol from sugarcane. "If the Senate only had passed the proposed Biofuels Act, we could have celebrated June 12 this year as the day that we started our journey towards energy independence," Zubiri said yesterday.

"Unfortunately, the public clamor for cheap alternative fuel took a backseat in the Senate. Instead of stepping on the gas and passing the bill before they adjourned last week, they ran out of gas in the homestretch," he said. Zubiri said that Caltex-Chevron had lobbied against his proposal in the Senate, wherein a group of senators have adopted the firm's position that the use of biofuels should not be mandatory, but merely voluntary.


He said the principal author of the Senate bill embodying Caltex's position is Liberal Party Senator Manuel Roxas II.

"I have it from very reliable sources that Caltex-Chevron had been lobbying against the mandatory blending of biofuels. Its executives had been meeting with a group of senators in a bid to block the House-approved bill. So far the lobby appeared to have succeeded because the Senate did not act on the measure," Zubiri said.

"My sources informed me that Caltex-Chevron had sought to buy more time, and had lobbied for the non-approval of the House version of the Biofuels Act. Caltex's position is to make the blending of biofuels voluntary, and this has been carried in the Senate version of the bill authored by Sen. Mar Roxas," Zubiri said.

Zubiri, however, was all praises for the bill's champions in the Senate - Edgardo Angara, Richard Gordon, Sergio Osmeña III and Miriam Defensor-Santiago - but added, "Unfortunately others did not share their enthusiasm, as if treating the rise of oil prices as something that can't be mitigated."

Despite the Senate's failure "to deliver" the biofuels measure, Zubiri expressed hope that the Upper Chamber can hit the ground running when Congress resumes session on the fourth Monday of July.

"Many have said that with their penchant for bellyaching, senators had, in fact, produced enough gas to solve the energy crunch. I, however, don't believe in this unkind assessment," he said.

"I know that the Senate will finally pass this critical measure. With oil getting expensive, it can't afford to sit on a measure that promises relief to our motorists. Otherwise, it will leave the public very frustrated and fuel the clamor for its abolition," Zubiri said.

Passed in the House on Nov. 9, 2005, the biofuels bill promotes the development and consumption of plant-based fuel, such as bioethanol from sugar cane and biodiesel from coconut.

In the case of bioethanol, the bill seeks the mandatory blending of all gasoline locally sold with 10 percent bioethanol, whose production the bill seeks to jumpstart by providing tax breaks to those who will manufacture it.

By substituting 10 percent of the country's imported oil with indigenous fuel, the country can save P35 billion a year from its oil import bill, Zubiri said.*

The Visayan Daily Star.

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