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USDA Offers Loan Guarantees To Boost Advanced Biofuels
By Agri-Pulse WASHINGTON, Oct. 21, 2013 – USDA says it will invest $181 million in loan guarantees to develop commercial-scale biorefineries or retrofit existing facilities with appropriate technology to develop advanced biofuels. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says the funding will expand the number of commercial biorefineries in operation that produce advanced biofuels from non-food sources. Vilsack said the benefits of advanced biofuel production go beyond reducing U.S. dependence on foreign oil. “These biorefineries are also creating lasting job opportunities in rural America and are boosting the rural economy as well,” he said. The Biorefinery Assistance Program was created through the 2008 Farm Bill and is administered by USDA Rural Development. It provides loan guarantees to viable commercial-scale facilities to develop new and emerging technologies for advanced biofuels. Eligible entities include Indian tribes, State or local governments, corporations, farmer co-ops, agricultural producer associations, higher education institutions, rural electric co-ops and public power entities. In making the announcement, the department cited a number of “success stories” from previous funding, including Sapphire Energy’s “Green Crude Farm” in Columbus, N.M., where, in 2011, USDA provided a $54.5 million loan guarantee to build a refined alga oil commercial facility. In continuous operation since May 2012, the plant is producing renewable algal oil that can be further refined to replace petroleum-derived diesel and jet fuel. According to the company, more than 600 jobs were created throughout the first phase of construction at the facility, and 30 full-time employees currently operate the plant. The company expects to produce 100 barrels of refined algal oil per day by 2015, and to be at commercial-scale production by 2018. After receiving additional equity from private investors, Sapphire was able to repay the remaining balance on its USDA-backed loan earlier this year, USDA said. Also in 2011, USDA issued a $12.8 million loan guarantee to Fremont Community Digester for construction of an anaerobic digester in Fremont, Mich. The digester, which began commercial operations late last year, is the largest commercial-scale anaerobic digester in the United States and has the capacity to process more than 100,000 tons of food waste annually to produce biogas and electricity. The operators of the facility say the biogas produced runs generators that total 2.85 megawatts in capacity. The electricity produced is sold to a local utility and is providing power for about 1,500 local homes. USDA officials say applications for biorefinery assistance are due by Jan. 30, 2014 USDA says since 2009, it has more than $684 million in assistance to support biofuels projects in eight states. Vilsack said today’s funding announcement underscores the importance of USDA farm energy programs and other farm bill provisions to rural areas. He called on Congress to quickly pass a new farm bill – the 2008 Farm Bill expired Sept. 30 ‑ that will “expand the rural economy.” Andy Olsen, a senior policy analyst with the Environmental Law and Policy Institute and an advocate of farm energy programs, says the Biorefinery Assistance Program “has helped accelerate introduction to the marketplace of new technologies for clean energy.” He said Congress needs to authorize and fund programs that have proven effective since they were first implemented in the 2003 and 2008 Farm Bills. “We need to continue this progress for the benefit of agriculture, rural communities and the entire country,” he said. For more news, go to www.agri-pulse.com Continue reading
India, Pakistan leaders reach no concrete agreements
India, Pakistan leaders reach no concrete agreements (Reuters) / 30 September 2013 Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, agreed on Sunday to work to restore a cross-border ceasefire after a spate of shootings in order to improve strained ties, officials said. Singh and Sharif met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, amid heightened tension between the nuclear-armed neighbours over the Kashmir region, sparked by series of fatal clashes on their de facto Himalayan border. India emerged from the meeting of more than an hour calling the talks “useful” while Pakistan called the atmosphere “very positive.” They both expressed a desire to improve ties but agreed that “peace and tranquillity across the LOC (Line of Control) is a precondition,” Indian national security adviser Shivshankar Menon told reporters in New York. “We need to address the issues that we face today and then we hope to move it forward,” he said. Pakistan’s Secretary for Foreign Affairs Jalil Abbas Jilani told reporters the New York meeting set the stage for future cooperation even though they did not reach specific agreements. “The most significant aspect of the meeting was that the leaders expressed their commitment to … better relations between the two countries,” he told reporters at a separate New York briefing. “Both sides wish to see a better India-Pakistan relationship than we have today,” said Menon. A series of fatal clashes along the so-called Line of Control dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan have killed at least eight soldiers from both countries in less than two months. The South Asia Terrorism Portal, a website that tracks the violence, says this year’s toll is 44 members of the security forces, up from 17 for all of last year. In their speeches to the U.N. General Assembly, both leaders said they wanted to improve relations between their countries, which have fought three wars since becoming independent from Britain in 1947, two of them over Kashmir. The two prime ministers agreed to instruct military officials to work together to develop a mechanism to stop ceasefire violations, Menom and Jalil said. The two leaders accepted invitations to visit each other’s countries, but no dates were set, Menon added. Continue reading
September’s Red-Hot Emerging Markets
By Nicholas A. Vardy, CFA With Ben Bernanke’s putting “tapering” on hold, the green light for a traditional fourth-quarter rally in emerging markets is on. Recall that the mere threat of tapering on May 22 had put emerging markets into a tailspin. The stock markets of formerly red-hot BRICs — Brazil, Russia, India and China — fell off a cliff, as sentiment soured on these economic powerhouses. Political unrest in Egypt, Turkey and Syria sent global investors scurrying for the safety and security of developed markets, the U.S. and Japan in particular. That all changed on Aug. 27 when emerging markets bottomed. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index has rallied 14.59% since then, and among the 40 global stock markets I monitor on a daily basis, 13 are up by double digits in September alone. That’s a huge turnaround — but not an unexpected one. I’d be hard pressed to recall many other episodes of such massive underperformance of emerging markets compared with the U.S. Following such a sharp rally, emerging markets are certainly overbought on a short-term basis. But with the Fed putting tapering on the back burner for now, I’m looking for a big fourth quarter in emerging markets. And in a liquidity-driven market, September’s top emerging-market performers are a good place to start. 1. iShares MSCI Thailand Capped ETF : +21.29% The iShares MSCI Thailand Capped ETF THD -2.36% has been one of the top-performing emerging-market exchange-traded funds (ETFs) of the past few years, soaring 39.98% in 2012 alone. But during this past summer’s drubbing of emerging markets, Thailand was hit harder than most. Between May 22 — the day the Fed announced the prospect of tapering — and hitting a its low on Aug. 27, the Thai ETF tumbled over 28%. But since then, the Thai market has rallied 23.49%. The triple whammy of a slump in the Thailand’s currency, the baht, economic growth screeching to halt, and fears of the Federal Reserve’s tapering plunged Thailand’s stock exchange firmly into a bear market. Indeed, Thailand’s economy hardly is ship-shape. Its economy contracted 0.3% between April and June, following a previous fall of 1.7% during the first quarter of 2013, putting the Thai economy officially into recession. That’s a stark contrast to last year’s strong economic growth of more than 6%. No wonder that even as the market has rallied, Goldman Sachs cut its rating for Thailand from overweight. 2. iShares MSCI Turkey ETF : +20.45% Turkey was the top-performing emerging market of 2012, with the iShares MSCI Turkey ETF TUR -1.36% soaring an eye-popping 65.58%. But the threat of imminent tapering and boisterous anti-government protests caused the Turkish market to plunge almost 32% between May 24 through Aug. 26. Since bottoming, however, the market has rallied 21.47%. The summer’s political protests caught investors off guard. Back in the 1990s, Turkey’s emerging market was a poster child for economic instability. Sure as day follows night, you could always count on Turkey’s stock market to blow up regularly. That all changed with a new pro-business Islamic government installed in 2001. The Turkish economy grew at an Asian Tiger-like average rate of 7.5% between 2002 and 2006, faster than any other OECD country. By 2012, Istanbul boasted an eye-popping 36 billionaires, putting it fifth in the world behind Moscow, New York City, London and Hong Kong. In November 2012, Fitch Ratings upgraded Turkey sovereign debt to “BBB-,” the lowest rung on the investment-grade level — the emerging market’s first investment-grade rating in 18 years. Moody’s followed in May 2103, and the Turkish market hit highs not seen in 25 years. 3. WisdomTree India Earnings : +15.27%. Few former emerging-market darlings have attracted more negative headlines over the past six months than India. One of my favorite contrarian indicators is to look at headlines … and bet the opposite. That strategy would have paid off in spades with India. Britain’s Economist magazine dedicated its Aug. 24 cover story to India’s fall from economic grace. Since bottoming four days later, the Wisdom Tree India Earnings ETF EPI -0.32% has rallied 20.15%. Since May 22, the Indian had market plunged 27.7%, hitting a low on Aug. 28. Political gridlock, a brake on economic reforms, and a plummeting rupee, have made the Indian stock market the worst-performing stock market in the world in 2013, down 17.4%. And that’s after it’s recent sharp rally. The appointment of Raghuram Rajan, a University of Chicago economist and former chief economist of the World Bank , as India’s central-bank chief has lit a fire under the rupee and the Indian stock market. Rajan is introducing reforms to address India’s most glaring weaknesses. But not all of Rajan’s actions bode well for this former emerging market high-flyer. On Friday, Rajan unexpectedly raised a key interest rate in an effort to quell inflation — the first increase since 2011. Disclosure: I hold the iShares MSCI Turkey ETF. Continue reading
