Robert Rapier writes: Despite optimistic federal mandates that required the addition of advanced biofuels to the fuel supply, commercialization has been slow to develop. Ethanol produced from cellulose was initially envisioned as a likely candidate for making a major contribution to the mandates, but project delays, overruns, and bankruptcy in the case of the first company to produce a qualifying batch of cellulosic ethanol have all tempered the initial enthusiasm. A different pathway called fast pyrolysis that results in drop-in fuels as the final product after upgrading has emerged as a contender, but this pathway has also struggled to gain a foothold.  The Future of Biofuels

Georgieva has a new position as Vice-president for budget and human resources.  She describes herself:  I have been the European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response.
Before joining the European Commission in February 2010, I have held various positions at the World Bank. I started working there in 1993, initially as Environmental Economist, then Senior Environmental Economist. I continued as Sector Manager on Environment for the East Asia and Pacific Region, and later became the Director in charge of World Bank environmental strategy, policies and lending.
In 2004 my work took me to Moscow, where I was World Bank Director for the Russian Federation, responsible for a large portfolio of World Bank projects in tax administration, customs, education, health, environment and regional development.
In 2007-2008 I held the position of Director for Sustainable Development and, finally I was appointed Vice President and Corporate Secretary of the World Bank Group. At this post, I acted as the interlocutor between the World Bank’s senior management, its Board of Directors and the 186 countries that make up the World Bank Group shareholders.
I have obtained my M. A. in Political Economy and Sociology at the University of National and World Economy in Sofia, Bulgaria. My PhD in Economic Science was granted by the same university, for my dissertation on Environmental Policy. Between 1977 and 1993, I worked as Associate Professor at the University of National and World Economy.
During this period I was also a Research Fellow at the London School of Economics, and spent one year as Visiting Professor at Fiji’s University of the South Pacific and the Australian National University. In 1991 I went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where I did post-graduate research in environmental policy, co-led a course on economies in transition, and consulted on environmental policy in Eastern Europe.
I have served as a board member of several educational and environmental organizations. I am currently a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of National and World Economy, Sofia, Bulgaria. I have more than 100 publications on environmental and economic policy topics, including a textbook on microeconomics.
I was born in Sofia in 1953. I am married, and have one child. In addition to my native Bulgarian, I am fluent in English and Russian, and I am learning French.

Elżbieta Bieńkowska has often stressed: “I am not a politician. I am a technocrat.”  As minister for regional development in 2007-13, she made her reputation as an effective manager of European Union funds. But in a reshuffle on 20 November, Prime Minister Donald Tusk put her in the front line, despite her professed dislike for the limelight and party politics.

Poland is favoured with the largest allocation of EU funds of any member state: Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski called it Poland’s “Marshall Plan.”  In February 2013, the Polish government secured €105.8 billion from the EU budget for 2014-20. “We don’t accept that it is simply aid for Europe’s poor. It is Europe’s most important driver of growth,” Bienkowska has said.

Bienkowska now heads Poland’s ‘superministry’, the ministry of infrastructure and development, formed from a merger of the regional development and transport ministries that was announced during the November reshuffle.

Yet from the start, determination has been Bienkowska’s strong point. At the age of 29, with a masters in Iranian studies from Kraków’s prestigious Jagiellonian University and two small children at home, she passed the entrance exam for Poland’s National School of Public Administration (KSAP). But she was turned down by the selection committee, who doubted whether she could combine a career with family life.

Over the next decade, she worked in regional administration in Katowice, her native Upper Silesia, south-western Poland, rising to head of the department responsible for managing EU funds. In 2007, she was summoned to Warsaw and offered the position of minister of regional development. It was initially meant to be a temporary position to sort out the pension system.

In Warsaw, Bienkowska soon gained a reputation as an effective manager.  Outside working hours, she enjoys attending rock concerts and has been known to stay out until 2am, only to get up at 4.30am to attend an important meeting in Brussels.

The Polish media has been quick to adopt Bieńkowska. Shortly after the reshuffle, the Polish edition of Newsweek ran a cover story crowning her “Elżbieta I”

At the same time, Bienkowska remains little known for a minister with such great responsibility. In a November poll, two-thirds of respondents did not recognise her – although by the following month, with her new appointment, that figure had shrunk to just below a half of respondents. The tabloid press only recently began writing about her, albeit focusing on her fondness for high heels and perfume. “For six years, she kept a low profile, managing EU funds,” says Smoczynski. “Now Tusk needs her at the forefront, to carry the government’s investment programme fuelled by EU funds for 2014-20.”

Meanwhile, Bienkowska has big ambitions, for Poland if not on a political level. Last week (8 January) Tusk, with Bienkowska seated at his side, announced that Poland will be among the world’s 20 largest economies by 2022, which would enable it to join the G20.

Byron Dorgan writes:  Contrary to a popular belief, backing a strong renewable-fuels industry is in no way at odds with supporting continued growth in domestic oil production. The new oil-and-gas discoveries and increased production here at home are good news for our country. But so is the work we’ve done to build a renewable-fuels industry, which provides fuel diversity and environmental benefits while strengthening our energy security and national security.