Aga unveils biofuel models
As part of its ongoing commitment to the environment, Aga has developed biofuel-enabled cookers. The Aga is, of course, the original recycled product. Most of each Aga produced is made from materials previously used for another purpose. £7 million has also been spent on ensuring emissions from the Aga foundry in Coalbrookdale – on the original site where Abraham Derby started the industrial revolution – are as clean as the air you breathe.

Granholm announces fund to help add E85, biodiesel pumps
Gov. Jennifer Granholm announced Tuesday that the state is setting aside $250,000 in federal funds to help service station owners offer alternative fuels. During a news conference at a Chevrolet dealership in Lansing, the governor said she hopes the new grants will lead to 1,000 pumps being installed or converted by 2008. That would increase the number of pumps now offering biodiesel fuel or E85, a mix of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, by 20 percent.

Bakrie Sumatera to Sell Bonds for Biodiesel Expansion
PT Bakrie Sumatera Plantations, Indonesia's best performing agriculture company this year, plans to sell $120 million of bonds in the last week of September to build a biodiesel plant and pay debt. The company may pay 10.5 percent interest on the five-year bonds, said Ambono Janurianto, president of Bakrie Sumatera. The plantation company will spend $25 million to build a plant to produce 100,000 tons a year of fatty acid methyl ester, made from crude palm oil and used as an additive to diesel.

Biodiesel crackdown nabs dangerous felon
An accused felon is on the loose in Floyd County, putting Southwest Virginia at risk of ... cleaner air! Virginia Division of Motor Vehicles agents took every precaution in apprehending Samuel Floyd Bolt. They kept him under surveillance for six weeks, finally arresting him last week for allegedly selling biodiesel fuel without a license, a misdemeanor. Even more dangerous to the people of Virginia, he did it without paying state fuel taxes, a felony.

Biodiesel seller waiting for demand to rise
Biodiesel's popularity is on the rise nationally as gas prices have soared in recent years. To meet demand, Griffin Industries in Cold Spring has plans to expand its production of biodiesel by adding two new production plants. The company annually makes about 2 million gallons of the fuel from animal and vegetable fats. Almost any diesel engine can run on it, and country singer Willie Nelson is singing the fuel's praises for being a renewable fuel grown by American farmers. Locally, it's in every Campbell County School District bus. And three area gas stations are selling it. The school district converted its bus fleet to biodiesel in February 2006 with federal grant money from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It's saving the school district money, said Transportation Director Ted Roseberry. "We're saving about 30 cents a gallon," Roseberry said.

Construction to begin on soy biodiesel plant
"This is an important day for the soy biodiesel industry not only in Ohio but throughout the U.S.," said John Lumpe, Ohio Soybean Council executive director. "This ground breaking for American Biodiesel means that we just lessened our import of foreign oil by 30 million gallons and truly shows that with soy biodiesel, we are fueling Ohio’s future." Construction of the plant to be located at the Delta Fuels facility on Front Street will begin by the end of the year. Fuel production at the 30-million-gallon-per-year facility should begin by early second quarter of 2007 and be fully ramped up by July 2007.