US DOE proposes $250 mil effort to advance biofuel development

Aurora, Illinois (Platts)--2Aug2006

The US Department of Energy will spend $250 million over the next five
years on two centers that will compete for research and development funds to
advance biofuels, Secretary Samuel Bodman said Wednesday.

The centers will deepen the nation's understanding of how to
cost-effectively produce transportation fuels from plant matter such as wood
chips and switchgrass and ultimately will help ease the US dependence on
foreign sources of oil, Bodman said in remarks delivered in Aurora, Illinois.

"We've got to get away from worrying just about oil," he said, adding
that the country must begin focusing on alternatives to oil. He said the US is
the world's leader in biotechnology, and this initiative "goes to the heart of
what America's all about"--scientific innovation.

He called the formation of the bioenergy centers "an important step toward
our goal of replacing 30% of transportation fuels with biofuels by 2030."

The centers will be run by private companies, national laboratories,
universities or a consortium of different organizations. Starting in 2008,
each biocenter would get $25 million per year. Money would be subject to
annual appropriations, but Bodman said that he hoped that Congress would see
the value of the initiative.

The department has a goal of producing cost-competitive cellulosic
ethanol by 2012.

--Dan Whitten, daniel_whitten@platts.com

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