Government conservation money in Iowa should be targeted to farms in areas that pollute the Mississippi River basin and cause a dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, an environmental group says.
A group of America's ethanol producers dedicated to furthering the nation's economy through cleaner, "greener" energy has called upon the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to raise the limit on ethanol blended in gasoline.
President-elect Obama’s support for biofuels faces a few early tests, including a decision on whether to provide more aid to the corn ethanol industry, which critics say already gets too big a piece of the money pie.
A California environmental agency this week will consider a controversial new way to evaluate the carbon footprint of biofuels. At stake for the ethanol industry is continued unencumbered access to the state that uses the most motor fuel in the country, and the prospect that other states could follow California’s lead.
A frayed regulatory framework and dependence on voluntary action has done little to mitigate the damage from agricultural activities in the six states in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
The Environmental Working Group recently analyzed the House climate bill and noted that the legislation allows farmers to earn credits under the cap-and-trade regime for practices such as low or no-till farming even if they've been going on since 2001.
A new analysis from the Environmental Working Group estimates that the House bill could allow the equivalent of more than 67 large coal-fired power plants to avoid any new controls on greenhouse gas emissions without requiring landowners to create any new carbon sequestration projects.
An environmental group is mounting a fresh assault on the climate change legislation that squeaked through the House and faces an uncertain future in the Senate, raising the prospect that the delicate coalition of support around it could fray.
While agriculture and forestry are poised to be leaders in sustainable climate solutions, to realize this opportunity America needs policies built on sound science. Science supports the inclusion of indirect land-use change in the assessment of biofuels.
An environmental group said Wednesday that the Obama administration's proposed 2010 fiscal-year budget would cause South Dakota to "lose" about $5.3 million in funding for a popular conservation program.
National Public Radio: Capitol News Connection, Elizabeth Wynne Johnson
Today the energy and climate change bill goes to mark-up in the ag committee. Where almost every member has at least one ethanol plant back in the home district.
President Obama’s proposed 2010 fiscal year budget continues the long string of broken promises that have left conservation programs billions short over the past two farm bills. Without proper conservation funding, few resources are available to mitigate the environmental damage caused by modern commodity crop agriculture.
The ethanol industry is pushing the Environmental Protection Agency to increase from 10 percent to 15 percent the amount of ethanol that is blended into gasoline, saying it will boost demand, create jobs and foster development of cellulosic fuels.
The Mississippi River Basin supports a vast array of economic, commercial, and recreational activities. But runoff from farm fields pollutes lakes and streams in the 10 states that border the Mississippi River. Farm sediment, fertilizer runoff and livestock waste are the source of over 70 percent of the pollution exacerbating the Dead Zone in the Mississippi River-Gulf of Mexico.
