By Lauren M. Graham, Ph.D. On May 18, 2017, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced that the abstract submission deadline for its tenth annual Bioeconomy 2017: Domestic Resources for a Vibrant Future conference has been extended. Abstracts for the Bioeconomy 2017 Interactive Poster Session and Open Technical Session will be accepted until May 26, 2017. All posters are required to feature an interactive element, such as voting or polling, social media, games and challenges,...
May 25, 2017
EPA Releases RIN Generation Data For April
By Lauren M. Graham, Ph.D. On May 10, 2017, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released Renewable Identification Numbers (RIN) generation data for April 2017, reporting that nearly 1.5 billion RINs were generated during the month. Nearly 17.3 million D3 cellulosic biofuel RINs were generated in April, bringing the total for 2017 to 49.9 million, including 1.3 million D3 RINs generated for ethanol, 17.9 million generated for renewable liquefied...
May 24, 2017
ECHA Publishes REACH Guidance for Nanomaterials
The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) announced on May 24, 2017, publication of five documents that it intends to help registrants preparing dossiers that cover nanoforms ahead of the 2018 registration deadline under the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation. ECHA published two new guidance documents: Nano-specific appendix to Chapter R.6 of the Guidance on information requirements and chemical safety assessment...
In a May 11, 2017, letter from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Acting Assistant Administrator Wendy Cleland-Hamnett to the CEO of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) posted by Bloomberg’s BNA Daily Environment Report, Cleland-Hamnett states that it is appropriate to grant NASDA’s request to delay implementation of all revised provisions to the agricultural Worker Protection Standard (WPS) “until the necessary guidance and training have been...
On June 1, 2017, in concert with industry partners, SEMI will host an information-sharing webcast concerning the new regulatory requirements for nanoscale materials under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Jim Alwood, Program Manager in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Chemical Control Division, will provide a summary and answer questions about the new TSCA Section 8(a) record-keeping and reporting requirements for nanoscale materials. The final...
The U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Office of Advocacy (Advocacy) has announced that it will be hosting regional small business roundtables “to hear firsthand from small businesses facing regulatory burdens [on] … which federal agency regulations should be considered for reform or elimination,” and “which regulations are problematic for your business,” as a result of the recent Executive Orders 13771 and 13777 on regulatory reform. The first two roundtables in this series...
By Lynn L. Bergeson Researchers at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) and Sapphire Energy completed the first EPA-sanctioned outdoor field trial for GE algae, which was focused on understanding how GE algae perform in outdoor cultivation. The 50-day experiment studied algae (Acutodesmus dimorphus) that was GE with genes for enhanced fatty acid biosynthesis and recombinant green fluorescence protein (GFP) expression under real world conditions in parallel with non-GE...
By Lauren M. Graham, Ph.D. On May 1, 2017, the University of Maine (UMaine) began a continuous 100-hour demonstration of a biomass to bioproducts pilot plant at its Technology Research Center (TRC). The plant, which is the result of a partnership between UMaine and Biofine Technology, is capable of processing up to one ton of woody biomass per day into chemicals for the manufacturing of biofuels, biochemical, and advanced materials. UMaine will use the plant to scale up the...
By Lauren M. Graham, Ph.D. On May 12, 2017, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) published in the Federal Register its preliminary determinations regarding the antidumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) investigations of biodiesel imports from Argentina and Indonesia. ITC confirmed that there is a reasonable indication that an industry in the U.S. is materially injured by imports of biodiesel from Argentina and Indonesia, which are alleged to be sold in the U.S. at less...
By Kathleen M. Roberts On May 9, 2017, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), along with seven additional Democratic Senators, sent a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) requesting an investigation into the activities of Carl Icahn for potential insider trading, market manipulation, and other securities and commodities law violations in the renewable fuel credit market. ...