White House Announces Plans to Explore Biofuel Alternatives
As part of its effort to address the need for alternative energy sources, the White House announced the formation of the Biofuels Interagency Working Group on Tuesday, a consortium of the Departments of Agriculture and Energy, and the Environmental Protection Agency. The New York Times reported that the newly formed group will focus on boosting the ethanol industry. Plans include shielding corn ethanol producers from the credit crisis, finding ways to cut their use of natural gas and coal in ethanol production, and encouraging the auto industry to produce vehicles that can use ethanol in concentrations of up to 85 percent. The federal government announced that help will be given to refinance existing ethanol and biodiesel factories whose owners face credit trouble, guaranteeing loans for the construction of new bio-refineries, and speeding funding to help producers of cellulosic crops (portions of crops that are not used for food, such as corn stalks).
CNET.com reported that Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced the availability of $768.5 million for biofuels research. Over half of those funds will be made available through grants to demonstrate "integrated bio-refinery technologies," which show that refineries can use alternatives to fossil fuels to operate. Research money will also go toward the creation of an algae biofuels consortium and a group dedicated to biofuels compatible with the existing infrastructure.
The new initiative illustrates the Obama administration's continued dedication to solving yet another immediate crisis – that of finding a climate-friendly, oil-independent source of energy, that can be implemented into the existing infrastructure without overhauling the system. However, ethanol has been blamed recently for the rise in global food prices, along with the factor that the fuels used at ethanol refineries produce more pollution than it's worth.
