Corn prices have surged but, as Biofuels Digest reports, the culprit this time is a poor harvest and shutdown of grain exports from Russia.

U.S. ethanol production remains sluggish as low gas prices and a lack of investment capital have held back plans for new plants.  In addition, Congress’  inability to  extend biofuel subsidies that expired that the end of 2009 means that China has surged ahead of the rest of the G20 both in energy consumption and in clean energy investment.

Taylor English Attorney Aaron Kowan, spoke at the Reznick Group’s Real Estate and Renewable Energy Markets Forum at Lowe’s Hotel in Atlanta on August 24th.

Tax credits are a key element in many structured finance transactions involving real estate or renewable energy and Mr. Kowan’s practice focuses on ways to derive cash to fund project development from tax credits.

The Reznick Group is a national accounting firm that has been sponsoring symposiums on tax credit financings for several years. The meetings are generally attended by investors, project developers, bankers, accountants and lawyers looking for ways to structure financings for new projects.

Mr. Kowan is part of the renewable energy finance practice at Taylor English Duma which structures tax credit-driven financings for project developers, sponsors and investors.

Colorado Governor Bill Ritter this week signed into law an increase in that state’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS).

Colorado’s HB 10-1001 requires Colorado to produce at least 30% of its electricty from renewable sources by the year 2020.  The state’s goal had previously been 20%, as established in a 2004 law. 

At 30%, Colorado’s RPS is the second most agresssive in the nation, trailing only Maine which seeks to achieve 40% by 2017. 

The bill requires a portion of the RPS to be met through a subset of renewable generation, or “distributed generation” (DG), which does not require additional transmission facilities to connect to the grid. By 2015 and through 2019, 20 percent of retail electricity sales in Colorado must be renewable with DG equaling at least 1¾ percent of retail electricity sales; 30 percent of its retail electricity sales by 2020 and thereafter with DG equaling at least 3 percent of its retail electricity sales. 

The bill will apply to all providers of retail electric service in Colorado, other than municipally owned utilities that serve 40,000 or fewer customers.

The bill’s sponsors say that the measure will create thousands of new jobs as a result of the shift in sources of electrical generation.