All Knowledge & Insights By Date

By Lauren M. Graham, Ph.D. The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) announced the availability of presentations from its Advanced Development and Optimization (ADO) Workshop.  As previously reported in the Biobased and Renewable Products Advocacy Group (BRAG­®) blog post DOE Advanced Development And Optimization Workshop, the workshop took place at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) on December 12-13, 2017. ...

By Lauren M. Graham, Ph.D. On January 23, 2018, DOE announced that researchers at PNNL have developed a catalyst capable of converting ethanol directly into butadiene.  Butadiene is the building block for nearly every major synthetic plastic or rubber in the U.S, including tires, fuel hoses, and children’s toys.  The project, which is sponsored by BETO, aimed to generate butadiene from renewable sources by developing a new catalyst that can convert ethanol into...

By Kathleen M. Roberts On January 26, 2018, the International Trade Administration (ITA) published in the Federal Register a notice of an open meeting of the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Advisory Committee (REEEAC).  The meeting will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on May 10, 2018, in Washington, D.C and will be the seventh and final in-person meeting of the current charter.  The meeting will include REEEAC subcommittee working sessions, a discussion on...

By Lauren M. Graham, Ph.D. On January 25, 2018, the World Trade Organization (WTO) issued a ruling on anti-dumping (AD) measures on biodiesel from Indonesia, following Indonesia’s request for consultations with the European Union (EU) in June 2014.  The ruling is the latest in a series of legal challenges to EU AD duties on biodiesel imports from Indonesia and Argentina that were established in 2013. Similar to the WTO ruling for Argentina, the panel ruled in favor of several...

By Lauren M. Graham, Ph.D. On January 22, 2018, the National Biodiesel Board (NBB) announced that a new study on lifecycle energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission effects of biodiesel updates and reaffirms the benefits of using the renewable fuel.  The report was published jointly by ANL, Purdue University, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).  Researchers gathered data on the energy and emissions from farming soybeans, the feedstock for approximately half of U.S....

Neste, “Neste Ranked The 2nd Most Sustainable Company In The World” Chemical & Engineering News, “Genomatica, Aquafil Partner For Biobased Nylon” University of Nebraska, “Husker Researchers Explore Economic Potential For Sweet Sorghum Ethanol In Western Nebraska” Stanford, “Newly Discovered Cellulose Could Have Applications From Energy To Medicine”

On February 1, 2018, Christopher R. Bryant, Senior Regulatory Consultant at Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. (B&C®), was quoted by Bloomberg BNA Daily Environment Report regarding an infrastructure plan proposed by President Donald Trump during his State of the Union address. “There are a lot of regulatory hurdles just to do some basic stuff,” said Chris Bryant, a senior regulatory consultant at Bergeson & Campbell, a Washington, D.C., law firm specializing in chemical...

On January 31, 2018, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the release of its 2018 Annual Report on Risk Evaluations.  Pursuant to Section 26(n)(2) of the amended Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), EPA is directed to publish an annual plan at the beginning of each calendar year identifying the chemical substances that will undergo risk evaluations during that year. The plan is to include both risk evaluations that will be initiated and that will be completed, the...

TSCA/FIFRA/TRI Recording Available From “Chemical Regulation In 2018: A Sneak Preview Of Things To Come” Webinar: A recording is now available of “Chemical Regulation in 2018: A Sneak Preview of Things to Come,” the first webinar in the Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. (B&C®)/ Bloomberg Environment 2018 Chemical Policy Summit Series. This focused discussion featured Nancy B. Beck, Ph.D., D.A.B.T., Deputy Assistant Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA)...

The American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH®) Threshold Limit Values for Chemical Substances (TLV®-CS) Committee has included carbon nanotubes on its 2018 list of chemical substances and other issues under study.  Being placed on the under study list indicates that the TLV®-CS Committee has selected carbon nanotubes for development of a threshold limit value (TLV®).  ACGIH® describes TLVs® as health-based values representing the...