Action is needed now to minimise the impact of climate change on food and forest production, says a new report "Climate Change and the European Countryside: Impacts on Land Management and Response Strategies" launched this week by the UK's University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit and the Country Land and Business Association (CLA).

The report focuses on 21 large country estates across Europe, including four in the UK. It aims to obtain a more detailed understanding of climate change on these estates, identify ways of adapting to the changes, develop mitigation strategies and provide guidance for policymakers and stakeholders. 

For the six months ended June 30, 2006, Pacific Ethanol reported net sales of $84.7 million, an increase of $59.6 million, or 237%, as compared to $25.1 million for the same period in 2005. A substantial portion of the increase was attributable to the exclusion of Kinergy’s net sales for the period from January 1 through March 22, 2005 from the Company’s results of operations for the six months ended June 30, 2005. For the six months ended June 30, 2006, sales volume increased by 22.7 million gallons, or 134%, to 39.7 million gallons from 17.0 million gallons for
the six months ended June 30, 2005 and the Company’s average sales price of ethanol increased by $0.70 per gallon, or 47%, to $2.18 per gallon from $1.48 per gallon for the six months ended June 30, 2005. 

The Australian Biodiesel Group today (31st August) reported a loss of $4.245m for the six month period ended 30 June 2006, a result in line with the guidance included in the company’s comprehensive performance update of 10 August 2006.

As previously advised, for the 2006 full calendar year, ABG forecasts Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) for Australian Operations of $0.9m, and a group pre-tax loss of $2.6m, meaning the company expects to make a pre-tax profit of $1.6m in the second half of the calendar year. This
forecast does not include any potential licensing and construction fees from the recently announced North American joint venture. 

The Global Realty Development Corp. has announced that it has executed a Memorandum of Understanding to acquire United States Sustainable Energy Corp. of Mississippi, subject to due diligence and certain events. U.S. Sustainable Energy Corp. of Mississippi comprises a family of patent and patent-pending technologies that focus on the development of green alternative biofuels energy from sustainable biomass sources, such as soybean and corn, and the conversion of waste into alternative energy or other usable products. 

RTO Holdings, Inc. has announced the closing of a going public transaction with Orion Ethanol, L.L.C., a Kansas limited liability company. The transaction involved a stock exchange with the holders of Orion's membership interests whereby such holders received 31,272,740 shares of RTO's common capital stock, representing 95.75% of RTO's issued and outstanding common capital stock following the transaction. The companies will operate on a consolidated basis, executing upon the current business plan of Orion. As a result of the exchange transaction, Mr. Patrick Barker was appointed to the Board of Directors of RTO and senior management of Orion was elected as executive officers of RTO upon the resignation of the company's sole executive. 

Hoosier Biodiesel Company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Imperial Petroleum, has signed a marketing and sales agreement with Domestic Energy Partners for the sale of biodiesel fuel from the DEP Plant located in the Salt Lake City area. Under the agreement the company will have the right to market up to 140 million gallons annually of B100 produced by DEP. In addition, HBC can construct biodiesel production plants in certain states using the DEP technology. HBC already has purchase orders for the sales of 840,000 gallons of B100 annually that will begin delivery next week. HBC and DEP share equally in the profits of the sales of B100 under the agreement. 

Following a patent judgement in favour of Novozymes, Danisco has withdrawn the product that infringed Novozymes' patent (Spezyme(R) Ethyl) from the market. Commenting on the judgement Kristian Merser, general counsel in Novozymes ssaid: "We are very pleased with the decision but we are obviously annoyed by the harm the patent infringement has caused on our market for biofuel enzymes. It's very satisfactory that the court agreed that our patent is valid and has been infringed - considering the large amount of resources we use on research, development and patenting." 

The construction of a 100 million gallon per year ethanol plant in Sherman County, Texas has been announced by Panda Ethanol. The facility will annually refine approximately 40 million bushels of corn and milo into a clean-burning, renewable fuel for the nation's transportation needs.