Happy March, everyone! Say goodbye to universally crappy February and hello to the month when Coca-Cola, pancakes, the rubber band, and the parachute were invented. None of those things directly relate to ethanol or green energy, granted, but the world would be in pretty sad shape without pancakes. Or rubber bands, quite frankly.

As it is, we’re living in weird times. The relationship between Democrats and Republicans has gotten more caustic and spiteful than ever, to the point where ANY legislation sent to Congress will run aground, energy legislation being no exception. But state governments, hoping to reverse a wheezing economy and ballooning unemployment, “are increasingly courting renewable energy companies with stringent new rules mandating that a share of their state’s electricity come from renewable sources.” Generally, these “renewable portfolio standards” require that utilities either produce or buy renewable energy. Specific percentages and timelines are left to the individual states: New York wants 24% green energy by 2013, while Michigan only wants 10% by 2015. Maine, ever the overachiever, has its sights set on 40% by 2017.

This move towards green energy is rooted in studies finding that “almost 300,000 clean energy jobs could be created nationwide by 2025.” It’s not quite the 800,000 jobs we lost a year ago, but it’s still an impressive figure from a field wide open for innovation and growth. The most common sources of green energy are wind and solar power, but everything from ethanol production (yay!) to dredging up geothermal energy to torching biomass is being considered. Even the clean coal people are still building castles in the air. It’s so wide open that CO Democrat Max Tyler and FL Republican Lee Constantine are pushing for almost the exact same green energy bill for their respective states - their mandates only differ by 10%.

Finally! We’ve been cheerleading the economic benefits of green energy production for what seems like ever, and so have a lot of other, more prominent bloggers and public figures and people with good sense. Hopefully Washington won’t let things get too desperate before acting on the states’ momentum.

There’s a lot to be said about Timothy Geithner, and little of it is complimentary at this point; many see him as the the banking/financial industry’s chief administrative finger puppet. But he’s also one of Obama’s point men in the president’s renewed drive to take his ideas on the road, which is why Geithner toured Minnesota’s much-touted “green economy” yesterday.

Indeed, the Land of 10,000 Lakes has capitalized on the fact that it’s essentially a desolate, windswept prairie by building turbines and developing a solid wind energy industry. It was also one of the first states to push ethanol as an additive for motor fuel, which surprises people who don’t realize that Minnesota is a progressive-minded state with high numbers of healthy, literate people, a demographic that tends to support renewables. And while no one’s immune to economic woes - the company Joe Biden endorsed as a triumph of stimulus spending laid off 300 people last year - hopes are still high that green jobs will prevail in 2010. Which, we imagine, is what Geithner was there to determine. Hopefully he’ll decide that funding growing companies is as important as eternally propping up their badly-run counterparts. Our hopes aren’t high - nor should they be, to judge by his performance as Treasury Secretary up to now - but both Obama and Joe Biden have pledged money towards green jobs and high-speed rail, so he can only backslide so far.

For more about high-speed rail plans, Click the Car. As a bonus, you’ll see a typically childish, obstructionist response from the Wisconsin GOP. Seeya next week!

Finally, some real ethanol news. It’s nice to find some actual news stories to comment on instead of cantankerous op-ed pieces that might as well have been written five years ago, for how relevant they are now. We’ve got cantankerous covered, thanks.

Anyway, auto supplier Ricardo Inc. has built an ethanol-burning engine that, they claim, has better fuel economy than a traditional gas engine. Using diesel engines as a model, Ricardo built one that runs on a 30% to 50% ethanol blend that tops off at 15 mpg and weighs between 400 and 500 pounds. Meant for heavy trucks, their engine costs less than a comparably-sized diesel engine. The problem, of course, is that Ricardo’s optimum blend isn’t available anywhere yet, but Oil Price Information Service’s Tom Kloza points out that “people are agnostic” when it comes to fuel prices, and we don’t see gas getting much cheaper any time soon. It also helps that the U.S. Energy Information Administration is projecting improvements for the ethanol industry this year, based on a reversal of gasoline consumption dips that will boost demand for biofuels, and the rising requirements of federal renewable fuels standards.

And for what it’s worth, 2004 presidential candidate Wesley Clark supports ethanol. In fact, he was on hand for Ricardo Inc.’s engine test at today’s Washington, D.C. Auto Show, where he talked up ethanol’s job creation and environmental benefits, as well as the role it could play in national security. Clark may have been the laziest presidential candidate this side of Fred Thompson, but at least something can stir him to action. We’re glad it’s ethanol.

We’ve been looking for ethanol news all afternoon, but unfortunately all we can turn up are cranky blog entries about corn being yanked from the mouths of starving orphans and ethanol is a waste of time and money and other Republican hand-waving. Same with electric cars, only that topic brings out the whiners who want their glorious electropia now now now and are pissed off that a magic wand hasn’t been waved over the energy grid yet. It’s maddening. So we decided to not completely bum ourselves out and find something fun to post on the blog instead, and it just so happens that we found a fun little cartoon about how ethanol is actually made. Bonus points for the use of clip art and ubiquitous 1950s instructional video music. Click the Car to watch it, and we’ll see you next week when, hopefully, there will be something besides meaningless conjecture on the Internet.

According to the Environmental Law Institute, energy subsidies are “black, not green.” Approximately $72 billion in fossil fuel subsidies was handed out over ELI’s seven-year study period; renewable fuels only got $29 billion. Half of the renewable subsidies went to corn ethanol production, interestingly enough, but that’s still only $15 billion or so compared to $72 billion for fossil fuels, despite overwhelming evidence that we need to cut our dependence on it for environmental and geopolitical reasons.

Little wonder, then, that ethanol plants keep losing money and shutting down. Articles like New American’s “The Ethanol Fiasco” miss the point because, clearly, the government hasn’t really invested much of anything in renewable fuels yet. But then again, pro-oil shills missed the point for most of 2009, and will continue missing it as long as they dismiss renewables out of hand without noticing how other countries - Brazil, China, India - are capitalizing on them.

But let’s not get too glum, here: Click the Car for an article about the Eco-Smart Zeta ethanol fireplace (which we wrote about last April) that’ll keep you warm during the record cold fronts sweeping the country right now.

Say what you want about Henry Ford (Hitler-admiring, right-wing extremist asshole is a good place to start), but the man knew cars. He practically invented them, in the American sense of it. And as it turns out, he was an early and passionate advocate of biofuels, according to the Examiner. An article about Ford’s support of biofuels, specifically hemp, was posted on their website back in September, and it links to excerpts of Ford’s fuel philosophies (provided by Hempcar).

“The fuel of the future,” Ford told a NYT reporter, “is going to come from…apples, weeds, sawdust — almost anything…there is fuel in every bit of vegetable matter that can be fermented.” Ford is talking about cellulosic ethanol here, and this interview was conducted back in 1925. That’s like hearing Clara Bow predicting celebrity sex tapes or something.

Similar sentiments (about hemp fuel, not sex tapes) have been espoused by ex-Dead Kennedys frontman and political gadfly Jello Biafra, whose “Grow More Pot” speech gives an entertaining summary of American hemp culture and highlights its use as a sustainable fuel source (pt. 1 and pt. 2, courtesy of Youtube).

Granted, the discourse has been hijacked by goofy stoners since Ford’s time and Jello panders to that element a little much, but the larger point is that sustainable fuels are not a trivial, passing fad; they were, in Ford’s time, part of a larger proposal for a broad movement for scientific research to revitalize a then-struggling economy on the verge, as it turned out, of a major depression. We’re kind of in the same position now. But it’s a new year, and that means new opportunities to promote biofuels and sustainable energy that were seriously considered even at the birth of the automobile.

Sorry this post is so late, but for the uninformed, the Southeast/Mid-Atlantic areas were mercilessly pummeled by snow over the weekend. Virginia, which is where we were, got 20 inches of snow in a little more than a day. And since most cities in VA aren’t prepared for anything except the Rapture, plowing the roads took forever. So did digging our cars out of that miserable hellfrost - it might as well have been archaeology, considering how long we were out there.

But! We’ve still got some last minute holiday tips for those planning on a green Christmas this year. First up are some fun pro-ethanol gifts courtesy of CafePress - shirts, sweatshirts, mugs, and even clocks abound. You could also grab some LED holiday lights for around the house and yard; we personally think LED lights look awesome. Finally, here are some tips from Renewable DIY Energy about keeping Christmas fun, and good for the planet.

It’s been an interesting, and often disappointing, year for biofuel/renewable energy supporters, but the idea that we should conserve and protect our environment keeps gaining momentum among ordinary people. That it took a near collapse of the world economy to bring this stuff into sharper focus is unfortunate (and many current woes in the ethanol industry come from sudden lack of available funding), but the transition from people being aware of renewable energy to actually caring about it is being made right now. Whether the legislation to back us up appears or not has yet to be determined, but there’s certainly a lot of dirt stirring up on the ground, both literally and figuratively.

And the ethanol industry is preparing to come back hard in 2010, backed by improving operating plant margins and the EPA’s tentative approval of a higher ethanol blend in gasoline; Click the Car to read more about that. For now, we’re going to drink more organic egg nog and offer tribute to Ullr, Norse god of snow, so that he might spare us another freak blizzard. Merry holidays, all!

Short update today, but a worthwhile one: the New York Times has an interesting and sobering article (free registration required) on America’s sluggish green energy development. While some geothermal and wind stuff is being done, overall progress is lagging behind Europe, China, and India (as we all know), and it’s reaching the point where mud hut-dwelling peasants in the ass end of nowhere are going to beat us to a workable green energy program.

Part of the problem is money - banks aren’t lending to alt-energy projects, and existing companies don’t want to invest in new equipment before relevant legislation kicks in. And part of the problem lies at the feet of contentious fartbags like Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who still doesn’t believe that greenhouse gases hurt anything and calls any regulations on them “onerous” and based on “manipulated data.” What will convince him of something that’s already demonstrably true is a mystery. And unfortunately, his fellow Republicans aren’t much more reasonable - their tendency towards anti-everything political hypochondria is just clouding the issue.

The Apollo Alliance’s Cathy Calfo puts it best; “As a country, we need to make a decision that we do or don’t want to be a leader in this area.” Right now, it’s looking like we don’t. And that’s going to cost us dearly in the future. Hell, it already is in the present.

But to cheer us all up, Click the Car for an article about Denmark’s electric car ambitions.

Has it really been 9 days since our last update? Where does the time go? Oh yeah, to work and grad school. Right.

Anyway, we do have some good news to report for once: a taxpayer-owned garbage-to-ethanol plant is in the works for rural Schneider, Indiana. This is good news for Indiana, whose ethanol industry has hit some major snags thanks to the economic downturn.

Land negotiations between Indiana Ethanol Power LLC and Lake County waste management officials actually began last year, but Schneider locals have recently been concerned as to the politics behind the plant - former state Democratic Party chairman Michael Pannos did legal work to help secure the land it was built on - but local waste management swears up and down that he doesn’t have a controlling stake in the plant.

In fact, Lake County Solid Waste Management District Director Jeffrey Langbehn took time to “reassure the public that…the county waste district will own the land and buildings as protection against its being abused by anyone for private gain at public expense.” And we here at Corn Car can certainly trust a man with such an ostentatious job title. He must print his business cards on bookmarks. Sheesh.

Anyway, we agree with Green Car Congress’ followers about this being a fabulous local/regional energy solution. It may seem like a trivial story to follow, but if larger, dirtier cities like Chicago or Baltimore tried this, it could really catch on. Hell, there’s probably enough junk at the bottom of the Chesapeake Bay right now to keep Charm City’s lights on for decades.

Well, while Democrats try to force the global warming bill through the Senate and Republicans threaten to kill it in committee with a boycott, F.O. Licht’s World Ethanol 2009 12th annual conference is being held in Paris this week. Countries like the United States, Brazil, India, France, and Nigeria are being represented and sharing their views on global ethanol development. One of our representatives, Renewable Fuels Association CEO/President Bob Dinneen,  will look at “expanding ethanol markets and addressing unsubstantiated claims about the environmental impact of ethanol.” So at least SOMEONE can address the topic like an adult.

Meanwhile, the rest of us get Barbara Boxer and George Voinovich interrupting each other over a retarded semantics disagreement and conservative pundits smearing anyone who speaks up about the issue as a fanatic hippie moonbat. And that’s not even counting the Midwestern contingent who can’t debate this issue for more than ten seconds without tripping over their own dicks trying to monopolize it for political points.

Anyway, now that we’ve thoroughly bummed ourselves out, we’re gonna stop here and hope for the best. But we need something to cheer us up. Some hot chicks posing next to an electric car should do it.