MADISON, WI – July 29, 2008 – Wisconsin Power and Light Company (WPL), a subsidiary of Alliant Energy Corporation (NYSE: LNT), has announced the five Wisconsin companies chosen to help establish a biomass supply chain for its proposed expansion of the Nelson Dewey Generating Station, in Cassville, Wisconsin.

The companies, selected through an application and interview process are Premier Cooperative, Mt. Horeb; Midwest Forest Products / InDeck Energy Services, Inc, Hayward; Bioenergy Products LLC, Lancaster; Futurewood, Hayward; Marth Wood Shaving Supply Inc., Marathon.

The organizations are being asked to submit plans to supply biofuels, derived from the region’s forests and farm fields, to the Nelson Dewey Generating Station. The businesses are expected to provide enough biomass to account for 20 percent of the power output at the new facility. The plant would be the first of its kind in the United States to combine wood and grasses with coal to provide for cleaner emissions and reduced carbon dioxide production.

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Michigan State University scientists have identified a protein required for photosynthesis that could ultimately lead to plants designed for biofuel production.

Professor Christoph Benning and other MSU researchers discovered the protein that is necessary for development of chloroplasts — the machinery of photosynthesis, which uses light and energy to convert carbon dioxide into carbohydrates for plant food and oxygen.

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In this segment, Ira Flatow talks with ethanol biofuel advocate David Blume about common misconceptions about the use of ethanol for fuel, and about Blume’s vision for decentralized, community supported ethanol production in the US. Could a neighborhood ethanol distillery be in your future?

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EAST LANSING - If everything goes according to plan, the genetically modified rutabagas growing in a greenhouse across the street from Christoph Benning’s Michigan State University laboratory could have a consistency something like avocados. Squishy. Oily. Just a little more purple.

Benning and his fellow researchers have inserted a gene called wrinkled1 into the rutabagas that regulates the conversion of carbohydrates into oil.

The hope is that the gene will make the rutabagas produce oil rather than starch inside their bulbous roots, turning these cold-resistant root vegetables into a viable biofuel crop for Michigan. It will be at least six months before Benning, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, knows for sure.

Plant oils are among the best potential sources of biofuel. They’re rich in energy, easy to extract and convert.

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EAST LANSING, Mich. — Scientists at Michigan State University have identified a new protein necessary for chloroplast development. The discovery could ultimately lead to plant varieties tailored specifically for biofuel production.

Chloroplasts, which are specialized compartments in plant cells, convert sunlight, carbon dioxide and water into sugars and oxygen (”fuel” for the plant) during photosynthesis. The newly discovered protein, trigalactosyldiacylglycerol 4, or TGD4, offers insight into how the process works.

“Nobody knew how this mechanism worked before we described this protein,” said Christoph Benning, MSU professor of biochemistry and molecular biology. “This protein directly affects photosynthesis and how plants create biomass (stems, leaves and stalks) and oils.”

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WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency rejected on Thursday a request to cut the quota for the use of ethanol in cars, concluding, for the time being, that the goal of reducing the nation’s reliance on oil trumps any effect on food prices from making fuel from corn.

The E.P.A. administrator, Stephen L. Johnson, said that the mandate was “strengthening our nation’s energy security and supporting American farming communities,” and that it was not causing “severe harm to the economy or the environment.”

The effect of the decision on fuel and food markets is hard to determine. Recently, high energy prices have led to even more ethanol production than the quota required. On the other hand, rising corn prices made some ethanol operations unprofitable, especially as oil prices started to fall.

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This is the first new federal environmental education funding program authorized in 18 years. Endorsed by over 220 colleges and universities, higher education associations, NGOs and corporations, this grant program will provide the catalyst for colleges and universities to develop and implement more programs and practices around the principles of sustainability. The bill also directs the Department of Education to convene a national summit of higher education sustainability experts, federal agency staff, and business leaders to identify best practices and opportunities for collaboration in sustainability. (more…)

Q. We keep hearing about alternative fuels. What will be the most likely fuel to replace gasoline?

A. Today, ethanol is a fuel additive used to replace or decrease the need for fossil fuels in trucks, automobiles and other engines. Most of this ethanol comes from the sugars within corn kernels, but the search for other sources of sugar is under way.

“The likely candidate? Ethanol made from sugars in cellulose, or ‘grassoline,’ as one of my fellow researchers likes to call it,” said Tim Donohue, a professor of bacteriology at UW-Madison and the director of the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center.

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With the recent announcement that Schreiber Foods will be letting go of 135 workers, coupled with the closing of several area paper facilities lately, the Wisconsin Rapids community is hoping for good news regarding the feasibility of a possible ethanol plant in the city. Project organizers are expected to release information in a few weeks on whether NewPage will convert their former paper mill into an ethanol production factory.

As Wisconsin Ag Connection reported in March, a developer has come forward with intentions to partner with the papermaker on the project. Ron Kuehn, a developer for Third Coast Biofuels, has been investigating the possibility of building a plant in the area for the past two years. He initially held conversations with Stora Enso, which once owned the same property several years ago, to collaborate on a similar project.

In January, the Department of Energy announced that they would be willing to offer the Ohio-based NewPage Company about $30 million to build a cellulosic ethanol facility in Rapids. The money was part of $114 million that will be made available to build small-scale biorefineries at four locations throughout the country.

If the idea goes forward, the plant would produce about 370 barrels of biofuel per day out of wood chips and mill residue.

Read the article on Wisconsin Ag Connection here.

Switchgrass grown on marginal farm acreage could be an efficient renewable fuel source while also protecting wildlife habitat and water quality, according to “Growing Wisconsin Energy,” a study by Agrecol Corp.

Switchgrass is a perennial grass native to Wisconsin.

The study produced by the Madison-based seed company with a grant from the state Department of Agriculture found that converting native grasses into renewable fuel could be a profitable enterprise for farmers and a relatively inexpensive fuel source for businesses and schools.

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