Obama trying to give biofuels a bump
 

Filed under: Hybrids/Alternative, Government/Legal, Green

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Currently, the United States isn't producing enough biofuels to satisfy the requirements set out by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, and President Obama's administration is planning to do something about it. On Tuesday, Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced a new $786.5 million program to speed development and commercialization of biofuels in America.

Of the $786.5 million fund, which will be drawn from President Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, $480 million will be used to build pilot- and demonstration-scale biofuel refineries, $176.5 million will be used to build commercial biofuel refineries and $130 million will fund various biofuel research programs.

Further, a new Biofuels Interagency Working Group was formed on Tuesday to promote biofuel use in America and reduce the country's dependence on foreign oil. The panel consists of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and Energy Secretary Steven Chu.

President Obama also announced that the U.S. EPA would launch a new study on the effect corn-based ethanol has on overall greenhouse gas emissions. Currently, almost 100% of all ethanol used in the United States is derived from corn, which is a significantly less desirable way to create ethanol than new cellulosic technologies.

[Source: Detroit News, DOE | Image Source: John Moore/Getty]Continue reading Obama trying to give biofuels a bump

Obama trying to give biofuels a bump originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 06 May 2009 19:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.



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