Eight percent of the energy produced during the first six months of 2011 came from renewable energy sources such as biomass and biofuels, geothermal energy, solar power, wind energy and hydropower. According to data released by the Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration renewable energy sources provided 4.687 quadrillion BTUs of energy, or 12.25 percent of the nation’s total. By comparison, renewables accounted for 11.05 percent of domestic production during the first half of 2010 and 10.50 percent during the first half of 2009.

When considering all energy sectors, including electricity, transportation and thermal, renewable energy production, including hydropower, has gone up some 15 percent when compared with the first six months of 2010, and by nearly 23 percent compared to the first half of 2009. Among sources of renewable energy produced in the first six months of this year, biomass and biofuels accounted for 46 percent, hydropower at 37 percent, wind energy at 13.4 percent, geothermal power at 2.33 percent and solar power at 1.22 percent.

In the electricity sector alone, the EIA says that renewable energy sources (biomass, geothermal, solar, water, wind) accounted for nearly 14 percent of net U.S. electrical generation from January through June of 2011, up 26 percent from the same period in 2010.

Tuesday, the Senate Finance Committee will hold a hearing on the Free Trade Agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama. Last week the House Ways and Means Committee passed the enabling legislation. The Senate could vote on the pending free-trade agreements as soon as this Wednesday. The House could also vote this week.

White House Chief of Staff William Daley says passing the accords as well as Trade Adjustment Assistance for workers who lose their jobs to foreign competition is an – essential piece of the president’s jobs agenda.

On October 3, President Barack Obama sent Congress legislation for the trade accords reached four years ago after House Speaker John Boehner said he would consider the worker assistance in tandem with the trade deals. Action by both chambers would send the accords to Obama on the eve of a state visit by South Korea’s President Lee Myung Bak.

At its annual membership meeting, the Renewable Fuels Association re-elected Chuck Woodside, CEO of KAAPA Ethanol in Minden, Nebraska, as Chairman of the Board of Directors of RFA. Re-elected officers include: Vice Chairman Neill McKinstray; Treasurer Randall Doyal; Secretary Walter Wendland; and President Bob Dinneen.

Woodside says – America cannot afford to backslide on its investments in domestic ethanol production. Whether it’s the nearly 14-billion gallons of ethanol production from grain today or the countless billions of gallons from a wide range of feedstocks in the future, a strong domestic ethanol industry will provide this country with unparalleled economic, environmental and energy security benefits for generations to come.

Woodside continues, – America’s ethanol producers are answering the call by creating jobs, reducing oil imports, and cleaning our environment while others continuously tell us we can’t.