Energy Roundup: Biofuel Lab Opens, Obama Abandons Windfall Tax, and More

New biofuel research lab dedicated -- The new Joint Biofuel Energy Institute (JBEI) in Emeryville, California, has been dedicated. The institute, a joint project of Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, the Universities of California at Berkeley and Davis, the Carnegie Institution for Science and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, with a $135 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, will search for clean, cost-efficient ways to transform non-food crops into new sources of renewable fuel. [Source: San Francisco Chronicle]
Phew! Obama abandons windfall oil tax scheme -- Last summer, with oil prices at a whopping $147 per barrel and oil companies reporting record earnings, then candidate presidential Barack Obama was all hip to impose a windfall profit tax on big oil, much to big oil's chagrin. Now, with oil closing below $50 per barrel, the Obamanistas have changed tune, according to at least one Obama aid. [Source: Rigzone]
Exxon inks Romanian Black Sea deal -- ExxonMobil Exploration has signed an agreement with Romania's Petrom to explore the area known as the Neptun Block off Romania in the Black Sea. Neither the area's theoretical potential yield nor the value of the deal have been disclosed. [Source: Rigzone]

Genetic engineering firm Chromatin raises capital for biofuel projects -- In its third round of funding, Chromatin, a Chicago-based company that genetically enhances crops, has raised $12.4 million to enter the biofuel feedstock sector. Players in the round include: Quantitative Financial Strategies, the Malaysian Life Sciences Capital Fund, Burrill & Co., Venture Investors, Foragen Technology Ventures, Illinois Ventures and Unilever Technology Ventures. [Source: Earth2Tech