Read about the SWBA's environmental approach to
solving the energy crisis
in the United States and eliminating our dependence on foreign oil.

June 24, 2009 »
SWBA Supports Interim EPA Rule on Biodiesel Standards
Albuquerque, NM (June 24, 2009) – The Southwestern Biofuels Association (SWBA) today joined Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM), Rep. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and Rep. Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM) in urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to consider an interim rulemaking to help the U.S. biodiesel industry remain viable in the marketplace until EPA issues final Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) rules in 2010. Read more »

June 22, 2009 »
NMSU takes a lead in growing America’s energy future
Las Cruces Sun News
By M. Therese Shakra
The green economy is quickly growing and NMSU and the College of Engineering’s Institute for Energy and the Environment (IEE) continue to fuel New Mexico’s instrumental role in the transformative ‘green age.’ Read more »

June 10, 2009 »
Energy future tied to national policy
Alamogordo Daily News
By Joan E. Price
This month, a national energy bill setting a national course for decades to come will be crafted. That may lead to a transformation of historically oil-rich New Mexican lifestyle especially if New Mexicans fulfill their unique fit in terms of solar radiation, marginal lands and saline ground water resources for cultivation of green energy fuels. Read more »

June 8, 2009 »
NM research powers up biofuels industry
Out of the labs, into the markets. New Mexico-based laboratories and universities are front and center in the race to pwer ground and air vehicles with biofuels. Read more »

Pending Legislation
New Mexico Congressman Harry Teague plans to introduce the "Biofuels Engineering Training Act" this Session. The legislation would jumpstart the development of the academic field of biofuels engineering by providing a grant for an organization like ABET to study what the accreditation standards should be for biofuels engineering programs. The bill also provides for resources to institutions of higher education to support under grad and graduate biofuels engineering programs and biofuels engineering training centers, and cooperation between those programs and the national labs. Government fellowships for biofuels engineering students also would be available if the bill becomes law. View the draft of the bill dated May 5, 2009 »

Funding Opportunities
Recovery Act - Note of Intent to Post Biomass Funding Opportunity Announcements. The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of the Biomass Program (OBP) intends to issue two Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOAs) to address research and development efforts related to intermediate ethanol blends and algal and advanced biofuels. DOE expects to publish both FOAs in the summer of 2009. This special advance notice is intended to provide potential applicants the opportunity to develop partnerships and begin the process of gathering data to prepare their applications. Printable Version »

The Southwestern Biofuels Association's Policy Summit
Nearly 150 participants joined top New Mexico public officials, government, education, environmental, and biodiesel industry leaders to discuss challenges and strategies for public policy and the development of environmentally beneficial biodiesel fuel at the Southwestern Biofuels Association Policy Summit, May 27-28, 2009, at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Albuquerque. More than 30 experts in the biofuels’ political and scientific arenas including Senator Tom Udall (D-NM), U.S. Rep. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and U.S. Rep. Harry Teague, Gov. Bill Richardson’s Science Advisor, Tom Bowles, Sapphire Energy’s Chief Executive Officer Dr. Jason Pyle, and top scientists from New Mexico State University and America’s National Laboratories addressed the Summit.

View/Download the Agenda/PowerPoint slides »

The Southwest Biofuels Association (SWBA) is a non-profit organization promoting renewable biofuels through strategic partnerships between the Southwest’s biofuel industry, universities, national laboratories, state agencies, educators, consumers, business entrepreneurs, agribusiness, environmental and other interested organizations. SWBA works with the Southwest’s unique combination of resources to make it a national leader in the emerging renewable biofuels industry by capitalizing on the region’s outstanding scientific resources, unique climate and natural resources conducive to producing biofuels feedstock in an environmentally superior manner, existing biofuel industry and infrastructure in agribusiness and fuel production, and progressive economic environment.

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