To boldly go ... Virgin's search for green fuel
(Sunday Herald) The Virgin group, through its new Virgin Fuels, is investing $400m in biofuels in the US and Europe.And by 2010, the group will have invested about $1 billion in green power, possibly including wind power, solar or even small nuclear, as part of what the group knows internally as the Gaia Capitalism Project. Since 1999, all companies within Virgin have operated on the ass umption energy prices will rise dramatically, regardless of the actual price of oil.

Oil giant says biofuel could cost Kiwi motorists millions
(Stuff.co.nz) New rules requiring oil companies to meet specific targets for the sale of biofuels or face massive fines are under attack from Shell. The oil giant says proposed mandatory targets outlined by the Ministry of Transport last week could increase the cost of petrol and diesel by at least 5c a litre. "That would mean New Zealanders will be paying an extra $300 million a year for their fuel," Shell NZ general manager Jim Collings said.

Corn replacing wheat as cash crop
(Arizona Republic) Once the driving force behind transforming the United States into the "breadbasket of the world," wheat is being steadily replaced by corn as the crop of choice for American farmers. Genetic modifications to corn seeds, the growing demand for corn-based ethanol as a fuel blend, and more favorable farm subsidies are leading farmers to plant corn in places where wheat long dominated.

Commuter cuts costs with biofuel
(Kansas.com) Gary Bruce doesn't mind if you stare at his van. Just don't ask about the smell. "People tell me 'It smells like french fries,' " said Bruce, driver of the "Grease Bomb," a 1983 Chevy van fixed to fight high gas prices. Bruce, who commutes more than 100 miles one way each day to his job in maintenance at Spirit AeroSystems, makes his own diesel fuel with vegetable oil. It's a creative way to cut costs. And though it's offbeat, it's getting respect as prices stay high and Bruce drives with a style all his own.

In our view: Growing gasoline
(Joplin Globe) Imagine walking into your garden, picking a few ripe tomatoes, a stalk of celery, some carrots and a bag of green beans, putting them into a special blender and then pouring the contents into your car's gas tank. That may one day become a reality, assuming that the plunging prices for a barrel of petroleum on the world market will eventually reverse and $3 gasoline will again become the unpleasant norm.