renewable energy

A trade group for solar power says installation of solar panels is surging in southern Minnesota, especially in utility-scale projects, reports The Associated Press. In one instance, a farmer decided to lease a rocky eight-acre field for installation of solar panels with a total capacity of 1 megawatt of electricity and an annual rental payment that is "a lot more" than it was generating as a cattle pasture.

As costs have dropped, solar panels are becoming a common sight, including in rural America, where farmers are using solar to offset their costs in a variety of ways, says Civil Eats. When farmers move beyond generating electricity for farmstead use into acres of solar panels, it creates a tussle between clean energy and preservation of open spaces for forests and farms, according to a news site in Connecticut, where solar has the upper hand.

The avowed watchdog group Public Citizen says in letters to the U.S Senate and House that businessman Carl Icahn, a special adviser to the White House, may have violated federal lobbying laws when he tried to change the Renewable Fuels Standard, reports DTN. Icahn says the group is inciting a "witch hunt" against him.

The U.S. Energy Department says it won’t provide President-elect Trump’s Energy Department transition team with a list of department employees involved with climate science or the society memberships of lab workers, says Reuters.

President-elect Donald Trump's lineup for agency heads is comprised of people who have deeply opposed the policies of President Obama on social programs, public lands, the environment, labor issues, and veterans affairs, says The New York Times.

If Donald Trump pushes ahead with his promises to dismantle President Obama’s climate-change policies, he’ll face tough fights from environmental groups. But Trump has a few tactics he can use to outmaneuver the opposition, reports The New York Times.

The Agriculture Department said it will award $102 million in loan guarantees and $71 million in grants for 1,114 small rural businesses and agricultural producers to install renewable energy systems or improve energy efficiency in their operations.

The $1 a gallon biodiesel tax credit would be revived along with other incentives for renewable energy in a Senate Finance Committee package of tax "extenders." The committee is scheduled to discuss, and probably vote on, the package on Tuesday.

The USDA announced $280 million is available in loans and grants through its Renewable Energy Assistance Program (REAP) for farmers and rural business owners to buy and install renewable energy systems, or to improve the energy efficiency of...

Representatives passed, 378-46, and sent to the Senate a retroactive revival of five dozen tax breaks that expired on Jan 1, including a handful that apply to the agriculture sector.

A UN-backed panel of experts, the International Panel on Climate Change, says climate change "is projected to undermine food security" from mid-century and beyond.

The government could set the ethanol mandate above the so-called blend wall and have little impact on retail fuel prices, says a paper by two Iowa State University economists. The fuel industry could meet the mandate by lowering price for E85, fuel made with 85 percent ethanol, and selling more of the biofuel. "We find that compliance with ethanol mandates that are feasible to meet with current infrastructure would have small, if any, effects on the retail price of E10," says the paper by Sebastian Pouliot and Bruce Babcock of the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development.

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy says the recent upturn in gasoline consumption will be reflected in the ethanol mandate for this year, which should be announced in coming weeks. "You will see the rule coming out with changed numbers as a result," she told the National Farmers Union fly-in. EPA proposed a relaxation of the so-called Renewable Fuels Standard on grounds that U.S. fuel consumption was lower than expected, so it was becoming impossible for oil companies to meet the targets set by law for ethanol use.

The Agriculture and Energy departments awarded a total of $12.6 in research grants to 10 projects, from Virginia to California, to improve to improve plant feedstocks for the production of biofuels, biopower, and biobased products. The work is part of developing non-food sources of biomass.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization says greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, forestry and fisheries "have nearly doubled over the past 50 years and could increase an additional 30% by 2050," says Feedstuffs.

Michigan Republican Dave Camp, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said he will retire at the end of this term.