The full governing board of the National Biodiesel Board took the stage today for a little recognition during our general session. You can find a list of them on the NBB website. 2011 National Biodiesel Conference Photo Album

The “Eye on Biodiesel” Awards were presented today during our last general session at the conference. I’m going to list them with their comments from the stage starting with the Inspiration Award. Accepting was Nick Portonova. Inspiration: Deer Valley Unified School District. This Arizona school district began its biodiesel program in 1999, long before the fuel was a known quantity. … Read More

During the second general session we heard about the role of government policy in advancing biodiesel from a panel of experts. Participating on the panel were moderator Shelby Neal – National Biodiesel Board; Eric Bowen – Renewable Energy Group Inc./California Biodiesel Alliance Chairman; Ed Hegland – Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council/NBB Past Chairman; Steven Levy – Sprague Energy; Rebecca … Read More

The Chairman of the National Biodiesel Board is Gary Haer, REG. Before he took the stage I spoke with him and he says that everyone is upbeat here at the conference and excited about the prospects in 2011. He says the RFS provides a demand that biodiesel will fill as the only advanced biofuel. He also says that NBB will … Read More

Educational sessions are an integral part of the National Biodiesel Conference. The sessions are broken up into different interest areas. As time allows I hope to feature a few interviews from these sessions. Technical Track The technical track is targeted primarily to engineers, chemists and other technical professionals. Sessions will cover subjects from a research perspective and will serve as … Read More

Inside the trade show during lunch you can find some very interesting biodiesel powered vehicles. The showcase session included comments from various auto company and vehicle representatives, some of whom are revealing their latest products here at the show. The vehicles themselves will be on display throughout the show so if you haven’t stopped by take time to visit. Pictured … Read More

The keynote speaker at the opening general session this morning was Michael Shermer, Skeptic Magazine. It was important to hear how pseudo science can so easily affect public opinion. It was also entertaining to hear and see some of his examples. After the session I spoke with Michael and asked him to summarize a key point he made in his … Read More

At this year’s conference we got a repeat of last year’s petroleum industry experts panel. Included are Ron Marr – Minnesota Soybean Processors; David Blatnik – Marathon Petroleum Company; John Cusick – Morgan Stanley Capital Group.; Bruce Heine – Magellan Midstream Partners; Jim Lelio – Kinder Morgan Pipeline Group and C. Mike Reed – NIC Holding Corp. They discuss the … Read More

Our opening general session is now taking place and NBB CEO Joe Jobe just left the stage. Joe gave us a rousing opening speech and I’ve recorded it for you so that you can listen or download below. Joe says the conference will rock and he hopes that all the attendees will have opportunities to conduct some real business as … Read More

During the Super Bowl party you could support the National Biodiesel Foundation in several ways that included buying raffle tickets for a post-half time raffle. Also in progress is a silent auction for some very incredible items like an autographed album by the Beatles. If you’re at the conference the silent auction runs through Tuesday. Hint, hint. I spoke about … Read More

The 2011 National Biodiesel Conference is underway and the party has started. The Super Bowl Party that is. Before the game the CEO of the National Biodiesel Board, Joe Jobe, played meet the press in the media room. He’s seen here being interviewed. I spoke with him to get an “advance” look at this year’s conference. Joe starts out by … Read More

It is time to start thinking about the next National Biodiesel Conference, coming up February 6-9 in Phoenix. Registration is now open with special early bird discounts until available until November 19. The theme of the 2011 conference is “Advance” – reflecting the fact that biodiesel is classified as an advanced biofuel by EPA under the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS2). … Read More

I’m going to close out our online coverage of this year’s National Biodiesel Conference with one more post on Emily Richards and Jason Brock. The photo is from one of the screens that was displaying them during their time on stage at the conference. Emily announced that she and Jason have been working on a music project since last year’s … Read More

With RFS-2 being such an important topic to anyone in the industry right now I conducted another interview on the subject with Larry Schafer, The Diamond Group. Larry moderated one of the panel discussions on the subject at the conference. He says that the EPA has published the regulatory rules on line and there are a number of forms that … Read More

It’s about time to fly home from the National Biodiesel Conference so I thought I’d leave you with some more music from Emily Richards and Jason Brock. This is from their new Brown album which is available via ccMixter. I’ll get a link from them to post for you later. I have a number of items that I’ll post after … Read More

Joe Jobe, CEO of the National Biodiesel Board took the stage to lead the final general session today. I spoke to him afterward to get his comments on the conference and the industry in light of what the speakers have said during the last several days. Joe says “it’s really been good” referring to the conference. There was an expectation … Read More

We have had three panels discussions on the new RFS-2 and they had to be moved to larger than scheduled rooms to handle all the people who want to hear about the new rules. You are encouraged to look to the National Biodiesel Board as a significant source of information on this very important subject. They will be compiling more … Read More

Besides our panel discussion this morning addressing feedstock realities we also heard from Anne Frick, Prudential, who also addressed the topic. To start her comments Anne says the industry depends on an ample supply of reasonably priced feedstocks. She talks about the international market since soybean oil is currently the major feedstock and it is impacted so much by what … Read More

The final general session of the conference featured a panel session titled, “Feeding the Biodiesel Machine: Understanding Feedstock Realities of Today and Tomorrow.” Captivating new feedstocks for biodiesel have grabbed headlines around the world. But which hold the most promise for expanding the biodiesel industry’s immediate and long-term feedstock needs? What’s the secret behind playing the commodities market… and winning? … Read More

Enterprise Holdings made a major announcement this morning at the Conference. Enterprise Holdings today announced plans for its entire fleet of more than 600 Alamo Rent A Car, Enterprise Rent-A-Car and National Car Rental airport shuttle buses across more than 50 North American markets to begin using at least 5 percent biodiesel (B5). Pictured at the press conference are (l-r) … Read More