EU report: Brussels biofuels policy hikes food prices by up to 50%

If biofuels received no EU policy support, the price of food stuffs such as vegetable oil would be 50% lower in Europe by 2020 than at present – and 15% lower elsewhere in the world – according to new research by the EU’s Joint Research Centre (JRC).

The “significantly lower” results are because global prices for vegetable oils – which are 60% palm and soy oil – are “strongly driven” by their use as food, says the paper by the JRC, the EU's official scientific and technical research laboratory.

When more soy and palm oil are used for biofuels production, less is available for food use and the resulting scarcity drives food price inflation.

“Given that more than half of the vegetable oils are used for biodiesel production in the base (business as usual scenario) in 2020, any decrease in biodiesel production strongly affects the vegetable oil market,” the JRC study says.

READ MORE:  http://www.euractiv.com/energy/eu-report-brussels-biofuels-poli-news-530293

Obama blaming Canada for Keystone delay is just more fence-sitting

At the latest, realistic decision point on whether the Keystone XL pipeline gets a United States permit slips toward the spring of 2014, the new excuse bandied about is that the delay is Canada’s fault because it has failed to deliver greenhouse gas regulations for the oil and gas industry.

It’s an excuse that needs to be exposed for what it is: a continuation of the U.S. administration’s leadership by avoidance on a grossly mishandled project.

Indications are that Canada will be well on its way to implementing regulations for oil producers by next spring that will be more stringent than anything Obama has been able to deliver in his own country. The regulations will put Canada’s oil and gas industry at a disadvantage versus U.S. oil producers and all other suppliers of oil to the United States, yet the odds are Obama will still sit on the fence because he will by then be facing mid-term elections in November 2014, when he will need the support of his insatiable green base.

READ MORE:  http://business.financialpost.com/2013/09/05/obama-blaming-canada-for-keystone-delay-is-just-more-fence-sitting/?__lsa=4599-44bb

Global warming? No, actually we're cooling, claim scientists

A cold Arctic summer has led to a record increase in the ice cap, leading experts to predict a period of global cooling. 

There has been a 60 per cent increase in the amount of ocean covered with ice compared to this time last year, the equivalent of almost a million square miles.

In a rebound from 2012's record low, an unbroken ice sheet more than half the size of Europe already stretches from the Canadian islands to Russia's northern shores, days before the annual re-freeze is even set to begin.

The Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific has remained blocked by pack-ice all year, forcing some ships to change their routes.

A leaked report to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) seen by the Mail on Sunday, has led some scientists to claim that the world is heading for a period of cooling that will not end until the middle of this century.

READ MORE:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/10294082/Global-warming-No-actually-were-cooling-claim-scientists.html

Atlantic hurricane season - a record-breaking dud?

(Reuters) - The 2013 Atlantic hurricane season, which forecasters had predicted would be more active than normal, has turned out to be something of a dud so far as an unusual calm hangs over the tropics. As the season heads into the historic peak for activity, it may even enter the record books as marking the quietest start to any Atlantic hurricane season in decades.

 

"It certainly looks like pretty much of a forecast bust," said Jeff Masters, a hurricane expert and director of meteorology at the Weather Underground (www.wunderground.com).

"Virtually all the (forecast) groups were calling for above-normal hurricanes and intensive hurricanes and we haven't even had a hurricane at all, with the season half over," he said.

With records going back to 1851, Dennis Feltgen, a spokesman for the U.S. National Hurricane Center, said there had been only 17 years when the first Atlantic hurricane formed after September 4.

READ MORE:  http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/07/us-weather-hurricanes-idUSBRE9860AY20130907

Big Ethanol Hopes You're a Dope

Nearly everything Growth Energy says is misleading, incomplete, or outright false.

  

POLICY ANALYSIS                                   

Growth Energy recently unveiled a national ad campaign to tell “the truth about ethanol” and the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), the federal mandate that requires oil refiners to blend ethanol into gasoline. But as an Institute for Energy Research (IER) fact check reveals, the ethanol lobby has a curious definition of “truth,” as many of their claims are incomplete, misleading, or outright false. IER’s findings include: Growth Energy claims that “ethanol reduces the price of gasoline,” but the opposite is true. Ethanol contains about 33 percent less energy than gasoline, which means ethanol reduces fuel economy. A year ago, regular gasoline cost about 70 cents less than E85 on a miles-per gallon basis, according to AAA. Even with a record harvest driving down corn prices, E85 still costs about 20 cents more than conventional gasoline. Ethanol is not nearly as “good for the environment” as Growth Energy claims. A study in Science finds that corn-based ethanol nearly doubles greenhouse gas emissions over the next three decades and continues to increase emissions for the next 167 years. A Stanford engineer finds that burning some ethanol adds 22 percent more hydrocarbons to the atmosphere than burning conventional gasoline. Growth Energy argues that higher ethanol blends won’t damage automobiles, but this is false. One study finds that 5 million cars could experience engine damage or failure from E15 use. AAA has called for a suspension of E15 sales, citing potential for consumer confusion and voided warranties. Moreover, boating groups oppose gasoline blended with more than 10 percent ethanol because ethanol damages boats and other small engines. The shale revolution, not ethanol as Growth Energy claims, is the driving force behind America’s declining oil imports. U.S. liquid fuels production rose 39 percent from 2005 to 2012, according to EIA. Biofuels accounted for 32 percent of the increase, while petroleum contributed about 68 percent. Growth Energy falsely asserts that “the ethanol industry does not receive federal subsidies.” Though it expired at the end of 2011, the ethanol tax credit was worth $6.5 billion in FY 2011 and $3.6 billion for the three months it was available in FY 2012. That’s more than twice as much as oil and natural gas subsidies were worth over 91 years. In addition, the RFS enriches the ethanol industry with an even more generous handout: guaranteed market share. The RFS hurts Americans by requiring fuels that contain exorbitant amounts of a product that damages engines, reduces fuel economy, and increases greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile, the federal government has replaced the ethanol tax credit with an even more attractive subsidy for the ethanol industry: repeat customers and guaranteed demand. It is time for Congress to repeal this harmful federal mandate. To read the full analysis, click here. ###

 

Gold miners near Chicken cry foul over 'heavy-handed' EPA raids

When agents with the Alaska Environmental Crimes Task Force surged out of the wilderness around the remote community of Chicken wearing body armor and jackets emblazoned with POLICE in big, bold letters, local placer miners didn’t quite know what to think.

Did it really take eight armed men and a squad-size display of paramilitary force to check for dirty water? Some of the miners, who run small businesses, say they felt intimidated.

Others wonder if the actions of the agents put everyone at risk. When your family business involves collecting gold far from nowhere, unusual behavior can be taken as a sign someone might be trying to stage a robbery. How is a remote placer miner to know the people in the jackets saying POLICE really are police?

READ MORE:  http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/20130903/gold-miners-near-chicken-cry-foul-over-heavy-handed-epa-raids

And now it's global COOLING! Record return of Arctic ice cap as it grows by 60% in a year

• Almost a million more square miles of ocean covered with ice than in 2012
• BBC reported in 2007 global warming would leave Arctic ice-free in summer by 2013
• Publication of UN climate change report suggesting global warming caused by humans pushed back to later this month

A chilly Arctic summer has left nearly a million more square miles of ocean covered with ice than at the same time last year – an increase of 60 per cent.

The rebound from 2012’s record low comes six years after the BBC reported that global warming would leave the Arctic ice-free in summer by 2013.

Instead, days before the annual autumn re-freeze is due to begin, an unbroken ice sheet more than half the size of Europe already stretches from the Canadian islands to Russia’s northern shores.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2415191/Global-cooling-Arctic-ice-caps-grows-60-global-warming-predictions.html#ixzz2emrlI8lx