Rush to bio-fuels reflects profitability, tax breaks

May 26 - Pilot Online.com - Tobin Freid has heard so many proposals to build ethanol and biodiesel plants in North Carolina over the past few years that she’s lost count.

“It seems like every day we get some announcement, but a lot of them don’t come through,” said Freid, the Durham-based coordinator for Clean Cities, a U.S. Department of Energy project to encourage use of renewable fuels.

Some of the developers plan to construct more than they’re capable of and become overwhelmed, she said. Others are lured by the relative ease by which animal fats or vegetable oils are processed into biodiesel but fail because they don’t focus on other important elements of building a commercial plant, such as logistics and securing feedstocks and permits. Read More.