Venture arm of BP invests in CoolPlanetBiofuels

gigaom.com discussed the investment of oil company BP in CoolPlanetBiofuels. Within the post was the text:

While there are dozens (likely hundreds) of next-gen biofuel companies, almost none of them have produced biofuels at any scale. The Environmental Protection Agency said this week that once again, only a tiny fraction of the biofuels required by the U.S. mandate will come from next-gen cellulosic biofuels: less than one-tenth of 1 percent, according to the Wall Street Journal. The mandate was for 3 percent.

Of the BP investment, smartplanet noted:

BP didn’t disclose the amount of this latest investment, which was part of a series C funding round led by Shea Ventures. However, CoolPlanet did say the financing round was wrapped up ahead of schedule so it could accelerate the development of its modular fuel production plants. The company says it expects to deploy hundreds of “relatively low-cost modular plants” around the U.S. in the next few years.

See previous post on IPBiz
Google Ventures backs CoolPlanetBiofuels

***Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal noted of BP on Dec. 29:

U.S. prosecutors are preparing what would be the first criminal charges against BP PLC employees stemming from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon accident, which killed 11 workers and caused the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history, said people familiar with the matter