Tag: usda

  • USDA Spends $9 Million More on Biomass Energy

    - U.S. For­est Ser­vice, April 9, 2015 Today, Agri­cul­ture Sec­re­tary Tom Vil­sack announced the award of over $9 mil­lion to expand and accel­er­ate wood ener­gy and oth­er wood prod­uct mar­kets. The fed­er­al funds will lever­age $22 mil­lion in invest­ments from part­ners, result­ing in a total invest­ment of $31 mil­lion in 23 states. “Work­ing with our part­ners,…

  • Southwest Airlines to Use Forest Biofuels

    - by Ter­ry Max­on, Decem­ber 31, 2014, Dal­las Morn­ing News South­west Air­lines announced Wednes­day that it plans to buy some bio­fu­els made from waste wood, for use in its San Fran­cis­co Bay air­ports begin­ning in two years. To use South­west­’s phras­ing, it is pur­chas­ing “low car­bon renew­able jet fuel, made using for­est residues that will help reduce the risk…

  • USDA Announces Release of Report Charting Path to Commercialization of Cellulosic Nanomaterials

    - by Lynn L. Berge­son, Novem­ber 26, 2014, JD Supra Busi­ness Advisor On Novem­ber 24, 2014, the U.S. Depart­ment of Agri­cul­ture (USDA) announced that the U.S. For­est Ser­vice (USFS) has released a report that details the path­way to com­mer­cial­iz­ing afford­able, renew­able, and biodegrad­able cel­lu­lose nano­ma­te­ri­als from trees.  The report, enti­tled Cel­lu­lose Nano­ma­te­ri­als — A Path Towards Com­mer­cial­iza­tion, is…

  • $91 Million Taxpayer Dollars to Fund Louisiana Biofuel Plant

    - Cole Avery, Octo­ber 3, 2014, The Times-Picayune Tom Vil­sack, the sec­re­tary of the U.S. Depart­ment of Agri­cul­ture, announced a $91 mil­lion loan guar­an­tee from the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment to help build a bio­mass fuel plant in Louisiana. Vil­sack trav­eled to Baton Rouge on Fri­day to make the announce­ment. He said the plant could have a “pro­found…

  • USDA Funds Genetic Engineering Research for Switchgrass Biofuels

    -  July 24, 2014, Farm­ers’ Advance Michi­gan State Uni­ver­si­ty (MSU) plant biol­o­gist C. Robin Buell has been award­ed $1 mil­lion from a joint U.S. Depart­ment of Ener­gy and U.S. Depart­ment of Agri­cul­ture (USDA) pro­gram to accel­er­ate genet­ic breed­ing pro­grams to improve plant feed­stock for the pro­duc­tion of bio­fu­els, bio-pow­er and bio-based products. Specif­i­cal­ly, the MSU Col­lege…

  • USDA Splurges Millions on Biomass Power Incinerators

    [More tax­pay­er mon­ey fund­ing pri­vate cor­po­ra­tions to log Nation­al Forests under the unsci­en­tif­ic guise of “wild­fire pre­ven­tion.” ‑Ed.] -  US Depart­ment of Agri­cul­ture, July 23, 2014, Office of Communications Agri­cul­ture Sec­re­tary Tom Vil­sack today announced that the U.S. Depart­ment of Agri­cul­ture (USDA) has select­ed 36 ener­gy facil­i­ties in 14 states to accept bio­mass deliv­er­ies sup­port­ed by…