B&C® Biobased and Sustainable Chemicals Blog

Competing proposals are working their way through the House and Senate to amend the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the nation's primary law for managing chemicals in commerce, including biobased and renewable chemicals. In an article published in the July 23, 2015, Bloomberg BNA Daily Environment Report, former senior U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials Charles Auer and James V. Aidala, and attorney Lynn L. Bergeson, Of Counsel to the Biobased and Renewable Products...

On July 21, 2015, the Senate Finance Committee voted to pass a $96 billion package of tax extenders. The tax credits in the package include Individual Tax Extenders, Business Tax Extenders, and $16.4 billion in Energy Tax Extenders. The wind production tax credit, a $1.01 per-gallon production credit for second generation biofuels, energy efficiency credits, and a renewable electricity production credit that includes biomass and municipal solid waste, were all included in the tax credit...

The 12th Annual World Congress On Industrial Biotechnology was held by the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) on July 19-22, 2015, in Montréal. Lynn L. Bergeson offered opening remarks at the Women in Industrial Biotechnology Reception, sponsored by BRAG, and spoke on the importance of continuing to fight for gender equality for women working in science and other fields. Ms. Bergeson also opened the Renewable Chemicals and Biobased Materials track, in which Richard E. Engler, Ph.D....

On July 22, 2015, EPA announced a proposed rule for the Partial Exemption of Certain Chemical Substances from Reporting Additional Chemical Data. If enacted, this rule will exempt the following six biobased chemicals from reporting additional information under the Chemical Data Reporting (CDR) rule: Fatty acids, C14-18 and C16-18 unsaturated, methyl esters (Chemical Abstracts Service Registry Number (CASRN) 67762-26-9); Fatty acids, C16-18 and C-18 unsaturated, methyl esters (CASRN 67762-38-3);...

The July 20, 2015, Federal Register includes a notice for direct final action to amend the electronic reporting regulations for Section 5 under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) action goes into effect on January 19, 2016, unless adverse comments are received by August 19, 2015. The rule requires the use of new electronic premanufacture notice (e-PMN) software that is reportedly easier to use. The rule also adds the requirement that...

As reported in last week's update, the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy put out a call for nominations for candidates to join the Biomass Research and Development (R&D) Technical Advisory Committee. The Committee meets quarterly, typically for two days, and advises DOE and USDA on the Biomass R&D Initiative. The Committee is looking specifically for engineers or scientists from non-federal government or academia; an individual...

On July 16, 2015, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that USDA is accepting applications for loan guarantees up to $250 million through the Biorefinery, Renewable Chemical, and Biobased Product Manufacturing Assistance Program, formerly known as the Biorefinery Assistance Program. The funding is divided into rounds one and two with applications due on October 1, 2015, and April 1, 2016, respectively. In addition to opening funding, USDA has improved the...

On July 15, 2015, DOE posted a solicitation notice for candidates for the Biomass Research and Development Technical Advisory Committee. According to the notice, DOE is specifically looking for candidates with experience in biobased industrial/commercial products, non-federal government engineers or scientists, academia with expertise in biofuel and biobased products, and experts in crop or soil science. Candidates with other experience can also be nominated. Nominations should be submitted by...

On July 9, 2015, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $18 million in funding for six projects to develop bioproducts and biofuels from algae. The funding is intended to reduce the cost of algae-based biofuels to less than $5 per gasoline gallon equivalent (gge) by 2019 to help reach DOE's target of $3 per gge for advanced algal biofuels by 2030. The projects that were selected for the funding are run by Producing Algae and Co-Products for Energy (PACE), Marine Algae...

EPA is inviting public comment on its analysis of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the production and transport of cottonseed oil feedstock used in the production of biofuels. The Federal Register notice also provides an overview as to how EPA may apply its analysis in future determinations, as to whether biofuels from cottonseed oil will meet the criteria for renewable fuel under the Renewable Fuel Standard program. EPA notes that, based on its current analysis, it anticipates that biofuels...

On July 13, 2015, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the winners of the 20th Annual Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards (PGCCA) and honored them at a ceremony at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. The PGCCAs were created in partnership with the American Chemical Society Green Chemistry Institute® and other members of the chemical community to promote the environmental and economic benefits of green chemistry. The six different categories for...

On July 9, 2015, the DOE announced a public workshop to collect information about challenges that occur during coproduction of biobased chemicals, products, and biofuels. The Bioproducts to Enable Biofuels Workshop was organized by the Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) and will cover the following topics: Identifying and evaluating economic drivers for producing bioproducts.   Identifying and prioritizing targets for bioproducts produced from biofuel waste streams, coproduced with...

On June 30, 2015, 46 U.S. Senators sent a letter to the EPA, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and USDA stating that "[f]ederal policies across all departments and agencies must remove any uncertainties and contradictions through a clear, unambiguous message that forest bioenergy is part of the nation's energy future." Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) and Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) headed the letter and pointed to the recognized carbon neutrality of forest biomass as a renewable...

With little fanfare or advanced notice to the general public, on July 2, 2015, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the U.S. Trade Representative, and the Council on Environmental Quality issued a memorandum directing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to update the Coordinated Framework for the Regulation of Biotechnology....

ACS Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference, July 14-16, 2015, North Bethesda, Maryland The longest running green chemistry conference in the United States, American Chemical Society Green Chemistry & Engineering (GC&E) Conference invites scientists, decision-makers, students, and advocates to come together, compare findings, and discuss the science of the future. BRAG is a proud sponsor. Richard E. Engler, Ph.D., will present a session on July 16, 2015, regarding how the Toxic...

On June 25, 2015, the 2015 New York State Energy Plan was released, outlining a 40 percent reduction in emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) from 1990 to 2030 and an 80 percent reduction by 2050. The aggressive plan would achieve the reduction in GHG emissions through changes to power, transportation, buildings, and industry with the goal of at least half of the state's electricity coming from renewable sources, including biomass, wind, and solar, by 2030. Energy consumption in buildings will...

On June 24, 2015, the Master Limited Partnership Parity Act (S. 1656) was reintroduced in the House and the Senate. The legislation would provide investors in renewable energy projects with tax breaks that are currently available to investors in fossil fuel-based energy projects. A master limited partnership is taxed as a partnership, but ownership interests are traded like corporate stock, thus avoiding the double taxation that can occur with traditional corporate structures when both profits...

With the 20th Annual Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards (PGCCA) ceremony drawing near, the Biobased and Renewable Products Advocacy Group's (BRAG®) Biobased News and Policy Report decided to go back and revisit some early winners to see what has become of the award-winning product or technology. We will be running a new story each week as we approach this year's awards ceremony, occurring July 13, 2015, at 4:00 p.m. (EDT), at the National Academies of Sciences in...

On June 17, 2015, the Australian government made a bipartisan agreement to tax Australian-produced biodiesel and ethanol. Cleaner fuel grants for renewable and biobased diesel fuels will end by July 1, 2015, as will the Ethanol production grant. An excise rate on biodiesel will be phased in starting in 2015-2016 at zero percent, and will increase annually, eventually reaching 50 percent of the diesel excise rate in 2030-2031. The Biofuels Association of Australia approved of the agreement,...

On June 18, 2015, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $55 million in funding for projects to accelerate biomass development and develop generator technologies under the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). The funding will be divided between two of ARPA-E's programs, GENerators for Small Electrical and Thermal Systems (GENSETS) and Transportation Energy Resources from Renewable Agriculture (TERRA). GENSETS will receive $25 million to support 12 projects to improve...