Democrats look to switch $5bn into biofuels (The Big Biofuels Blog)

Democrats look set to switch $5bn into biofuels from traditional oil exploration and refining, according to Steven Mufson in today's Washington Post.

According to Steven's piece

Democrats in the House of Representatives have their eyes on repealing tax cuts granted to the oil industry in 2004. This would generate nearly $5 billion, Democratic lawmakers said, quoting estimates by the Joint Committee on Taxation. The royalty payments would yield between $9 billion and $11 billion, Hoyer said.

Democratic leaders said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would introduce the energy package on Jan. 18, toward the end of the "100 hours" of legislative initiatives

In 2005 global investment in clean energy was, by Michael Lieberich's estimate $48.9bn which includes venture capital/private equity, public markets, corporate R&D, government R&D, asset finance and small scale projects. If you add in M&A deals the total is around $66.2bn.

So the amount of money that is going to hit the industry will increase by around 10%.

Quoting from the Washington Post

Renewable energy lobbyists said that would set off a feeding frenzy among boosters of hydropower, nuclear, biofuel, geothermal and solar energy.

That looks a little tame to me. The biofuels sector is close to overheating. To quote again from a post from the 2006 European Biofuels Forum in Warsaw.

Speaking informally to several consultants here they tell of over optimism, interest in potential projects that are badly thought through. Including statements by investors that ‘the US would never let the biofuels sector fail’ and using that as a justification for investing in bioethanol plants. The US may not let the sector fail, but as one delegate pointed out to me, that doesn’t mean that the investor will be able to hold onto the asset if the bank forecloses to get its money out.

If the money goes into biofuels, then look out for grain prices, and overcapacity, and a visit to the Klondike at the tax payer's expense.

The intention is laudable, get away from dependence on fossil fuels, imported from distant parts of the world.

But will there be a sufficient funding into subsidiaries fertilizers to ensure that yields can be maintained and into deciding which crops with minimal water requirements and high yields should be grown to sustain biofuels into the future. Somehow I doubt it.