The Biofuel Boom

(Newser) - In Pennsylvania, the New Republic 's Dayo Olopade finds an effort to unite working-class union types with the liberal elite that could long outlive Barack Obama's heyday: the search for green-collar jobs. Stelworkers have long viewed environmentalists skeptically, but both groups have a stake in finding a "new industrial policy based on the twin causes of sustainability and job creation." More »

(Newser) - Soaring food prices are putting pressure on Congress to withdraw some of the billions in  farm subsidies and ethanol incentives that have been considered politically untouchable for decades, the Los Angeles Times reports . With average farm income more than $89,000 this year—30% above the national average—the White House wants to cut off payments to farmers who earn $500,000 or more. Farm lobbyists are trying to double that. More »

(Newser) - The “McCain-Clinton” gas-tax vacation is an abomination of energy policy, Thomas Friedman declares in the New York Times . “This is money laundering: We borrow money from China and ship it to Saudi Arabia and take a little cut for ourselves as it goes through our gas tanks.” Worse than just despicable pandering, it would encourage gas consumption and drive the renewables market overseas. More »

(Newser) - When Congress passed its latest energy bill four months ago, the provision to boost ethanol requirements was exceedingly popular. But now, critics are lambasting that measure, and the ethanol movement in general, for linking skyrocketing food and oil prices. “We used to have a grain economy and a fuel economy,” one analyst tells the Washington Post . “Now they're beginning to fuse.” More »

(Newser) - Backyard brew may soon ease the pain at the gas pump if two entrepreneurs pushing a home ethanol system have their way, reports the New York Times. E-Fuel Corporation's device is roughly the size of a stackable washer-dryer and will sell for about $10,000 . Using sugar or feedstock and a specially designed yeast, it creates ethanol for as little as a dollar a gallon, which produces one-eighth the carbon of gasoline. More »

(Newser) - Food scientists are plotting a new "green revolution" to solve a growing food crisis, LiveScience reports. Facing what a World Food Program official called a “silent tsunami” of world hunger, researchers are working on a sequel to the first "green revolution" of the mid-20th century, whose innovations included the fertilizers, pesticides and better irrigation that helped increase crop yields. More »