Word: ethanol
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...interest, the sudden materialization of capital can seem too good to be true. When Tom Todaro launched Seattle-based Targeted Growth, which uses genetic engineering to greatly enhance the yields of crops, he thought the company's ability to multiply the amount of feedstock available for biodiesel or ethanol would make it a star of the emerging biofuels sector. But it was the late 1990s, when clean tech made up less than 1% of total venture-capital spending, and investors weren't interested. "I went begging to friends and families and small investment firms," Todaro recalls. "At one point...
...Even when backed by the largesse of Bill Gates, the nonprofits' influence in Iowa or New Hampshire pales in comparison to more established interest groups such as unions and the ethanol lobby. Still, some groups made small inroads in 2004. A grassroots campaign led by the Global AIDS Alliance in Iowa convinced all nine Democratic candidates to publicly pledge to double President Bush's commitment to global HIV/AIDS and provide $30 billion to fight AIDS by 2008. Senator John Kerry and six others also agreed to a pledge sponsored by the American Arts Alliance, a national advocate for performing arts...
...almost a year, nary a day has gone by - or so it seems to us Iowans - without a public appearance by one of the 16 candidates (at last count) expounding on the war and the economy, immigration and terrorism, health care and education, and, of course, agriculture and ethanol. As I type on this blustery November day in Des Moines, John Edwards is rallying with picketing nurses at a Dubuque hospital while, in western Iowa, Rudy Giuliani is at a "meet-and-greet" at the B&L Vintage Brew and Sugar Shack in Rock Rapids...
...landmark deal to reduce energy consumption, promote renewable power and cut carbon emissions. Hammered out at a regional summit in Milwaukee, the pact calls for a 2% reduction in energy use by 2015, with a 2% cut every year after that; an increase in the availability of a cleaner ethanol-gasoline mix known as E85; and 10% of the region's electricity to come from renewable sources by 2015, with an increase to 30% by 2030. The plan also calls for reductions in greenhouse gases - though no firm targets - and the establishment of a regional cap-and-trade system...
...largely to the fact that many of the states rely heavily for power on coal, the most carbon-rich fuel (71% of the region's electricity comes from coal, compared to 49% nationwide). The deal isn't perfect. Too much emphasis is placed on biofuels, especially the corn-based ethanol that has made some farmers in the region rich, but which is of questionable environmental value at best. But the very fact that governors of red states like Kansas would agree to sign a pact that has anything to do with climate change raises hope that the issue can transcend...