If you're in Sao Paulo, is it still considered work?

You'll have to ask POET Director of Corporate Affairs Doug Berven. Next week he'll be traveling to Brazil to participate in the Ethanol Summit 2009. Although he will cover several topics, he will primarily talk about the present status and the future prospects for cellulosic ethanol.

Doug will be on a panel with the President and CEO of Novozymes, the CEO of CanaVialis and Alellyx and a leader at BP Biofuels. Keynoting the conference is former U.S. President Bill Clinton.

To get a better idea of his topic, here's a presentation that Doug gave at the 2009 BIO International Convention last week:

Advances in Ethanol

View more OpenOffice presentations from Nathan Schock.

Governor Culver outlines support for Ethanol in letter to POET

Iowa Governor Chet Culver (pictured right) sent a letter to Jeff Broin, the Chief Executive Officer of POET (pictured left), outlining some things he requested of the Obama administration to continue development of biofuels. It's a pretty good list.

• Establish an interagency task force to assess the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions of transportation fuels.
• Initiate an immediate move to E13.
• Create new policy options that continue to increase the sustainability of biofuels feedstock production.
• Implement the nation's first comprehensive biofuel market development program.
• Approve Growth Energy's green jobs waiver.

To get the details behind each of these points, read the letter. Governor Culver closes it with this note to Broin:

On behalf of the State of Iowa, I thank you for your efforts to support the production and consumption of biofuels. The people of Iowa know that increasing the amount of ethanol that can be blended into the nation's fuel supply will create green jobs, environmental benefit and help eliminate our nation's dependence on foreign oil.