Drawing a sharp contrast with his Democratic rival, John McCain today assailed government subsidies for ethanol production and unveiled a set of proposals aimed at encouraging the development and mass adoption of electric vehicle technologies.
McCain would provide a $5,000 tax credit to consumers who buy zero-emissions vehicles and proportionately smaller tax... (Read more)
Reprinted with permission from VentureBeat. Story copyright 2008 VentureBeat Inc. All rights reserved.
Comments
SunOpta BioProcess is far ahead of the companies you list. Thermochemical processing needs some major cost reductions before it can compete with biochemical fermentation and other fuels. Even companies like Coskata who plan on using garbage as a feedstock are not truly "cellulosic." The bottom line is that the most bang for your buck comes from the pretreatment of biomass. Only from there can enzymatic hydrolysis reduce costs even further. SunOpta BioProcess has been designing and buidling plants arround the world for over 30 years. They built the first modern cellulosic butanol plant in France and have far, far more experience than the companies you list. SunOpta BioProcess even designed the premier DOE-funded pilot plant in York, Nebraska. Cellulosic ethanol, however, will become a significant share of the energy market because that is what creates the economies of scale for the emerging bioeconomy and offers real substitutes for petroleum-based products through the the biobased system know as the Sugar Platform Process. SunOpta BioProcess has the only industrially proven, continuous pretreatment platform that comes with written process guarantees. That's probably why BlackRock with $1.3+ trillion under asset management bought about 10% of the division in June of 2007.
-William James Dittl (GATO Group founder and BOD member)
www.gatogroup.org
Given that Lithium-Ion battery leader A123 has already secured $250 Million in funding, the $300 Million that McCain is proposing simply underscores how out of touch he is with the reality of both the need and the opportunity of advanced battery technology and electric cars to help rid ourselves of our oil addiction and the resulting rapid destruction of our planet. In turn Obama's support of advanced biofuels demonstrates his lack of undertanding that the world cannot produce enough biomass to fuel today's supersize-me pickup trucks and SUVs in any case. We need 100% electric vehicles powered by wind and solar. An important stepping stone to getting there near-term is plug-in hybrids such as the Chevy Volt. However, in new fuel economy standards for cars and trucks published April 22 2008 by the Bush Administration, they have designated new stringency rules for cars and trucks based on the assumption that gasoline prices are going to be $2.26 a gallon!? Don't know about you, but I'm paying $4.50 a gallon already!
Post new comment