One of the items to be tackled by Democrats next year in the US Congress is to get the money from Oil companies and use it to fund Renewable Energy Projects as well as Energy Conservation. This will most likely be done by removing tax breaks issued to oil companies as well as investigating royalty payments being made by Oil companies to the country. The present Administration also seems to be behind the Democrats move to repeal some of the tax breaks (but not the ones related to inventory).

Shades of the failed Proposition 87 I say. I hope they get more success out of this venture, the difference being that this is more of a political movement than that of a people movement.

Original Article here

With the 2006 Philippine Biofuels Act yet to be passed, San Carlos Bioenergy has secured already the Php 1.78 Billion funding required to setup an ethanol distillery with integrated co-generation power-plant. The funding came from a consortium of Banks led by the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), Land Bank of the Philippines, Banco de Oro Universal, China Bank, and Equitable PCI.

DBP and Land Bank are both government banks. They are tasked to provide loans for biofuels producers, blenders and transporters in the Philippines as mandated in the the 2006 Philippine Biofuels Act.
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Bio-Energy NL is planning to set up a 300 Million Liter/yr biodiesel refinery in Northern Luzon which will have coconuts as it’s feedstock. The company has gotten initial funding from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC)for the 6 month feasibility study. If the feasibility study comes out positive, JBIC will also fund the $300 million required to setup the refinery and the 500,000 ha coconut farm.
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Lohachara and Suparibhanga Island, found in the Sundarbans delta have been swallowed up by the sea due to the increasing sea levels caused by global warming. What started three decades ago had ended with the islands being totally submerged in the latter part of 2006.
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