The Global Biofuels Alliance has officially launched. The
nonprofit organization will work to “give a voice to the producers, traders,
feedstock providers, and equipment manufacturers of the emerging biofuel
industry.” Made up of ten founding members from various energy sectors
including energy trading companies, start-up biodiesel companies and large
biodiesel production facilities, the alliance has already set its sights on the
hottest topic in the biodiesel industry. “The biodiesel tax credit is a key
agenda,” said Wade Randlett, a founding board member of the alliance and
cofounder of Enagra Holdings LLC, a holding company for renewable energy
projects worldwide. “Although it’s a bit broader than that. I think having some
form of longer term incentive for any kind of a renewable diesel, regardless of
the feedstock, the source or the technology is important.”

For Randlett and the other members of the alliance, including
Hero BX, a 45 MMgy plant from Pennsylvania, the understanding by those in
Washington on the subject of biodiesel is very narrow; especially the potential
role biodiesel could play in the nation’s future fuel supply. “We think there
should be a much broader conversation about the new technologies that are coming
online or are online right now,” Randlett said. “Whether it’s a traditional
feedstock or a broader biomass-based feedstock, we need to have the
conversation about the opportunity to displace imported crude petroleum oil.”

With a meeting scheduled in Washington during the week
the new Congress starts, Randlett said the organization already has plans to
talk with the right people at the right time. “We certainly are not forming
because we are in opposition to anybody’s stated agenda,” he said. “It’s really
about highlighting our first hand awareness that there is a lack of
understanding among elected officials and administration officials that we need
to make sure occurs over the next year or two.” One example of a
misunderstanding in Congress is one Randlett said happened two years ago when a
bunch of people were saying algae and jatropha are going to be the thing. “We
knew that there was just no way that was going to be economical any time soon
and so what they did was to create a false expectation that there was going to
be what I would call these magic crops that could sprout up in the desert and
solve our energy independence,” and Randlett said, “that was just never going
to be true.” Now, Randlett said, there are non-magical crops that have evolved
that we can use to create renewable fuel that are true, and more importantly,
that don’t provide false hope.

The Global Biofuels Alliance is currently seeking
members, especially those that want to be aggressive advocates in Washington,
Randlett said. “Whether or not we are twenty people or two hundred people,” he
said, “the point is to have this message get across to the people in Washington
from the people who intend to aggressive.”

To learn more about the new alliance, visit
www.globalbiofuels.org