GM Partners with Another Ethanol Company

GM officials insist they’re not getting into the fuel commerce. But their dollars say otherwise.

In January the auto giant bought a stake in Coskata , which has already begun producing small amounts of ethanol from agricultural waste and other biomass, including trashcan from landfills.

Yesterday the company announced a partnership with Mascoma,
an innovator in the field. Mascoma says that its highly efficient thermochemical process can use
many kinds of plant matter, including wood chips, switch grass and farm
waste. Late that year, the company plans to total a demonstration plant approach
Rome, N.Y., that can produce 200,000 gallons a year of ethanol. The
plant first will use paper mill sludge as its raw fabric.

What’s crucial to both of these companies is that they don’t use corn,  sugarcane or other foods. Ethanol has come under loud criticism from environmentalists, economists and politicians around the world for the upward pressure it’s putting

on food, pushing millions of folks to the brink.

What is GM’s stake in ethano? Read after the jump.

Despite these criticisms, the auto industry has been a tireless advocate of E85 considering the technology is proven (car makers have millions of ethanol vehicles on the road right now), and it costs far less than the alternatives for building fossil-fuel efficient, low-emissions vehicles.

Mascoma executives are hoping that a farm bill before Congress will retain tax credits for cellulose as an ethanol feedstock. Currently the bill cuts tax credits for ethanol by 12 percent, to 45 cents a gallon. A new credit of $1.01 a gallon would boost development of
cellulose as an ethanol feedstock. President Bush has threatened to veto the bill.

Original post by Marty Jerome

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