Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and Secretary of Energy Steven Chu named the recipients of $6.3 million in funding for fundamental genomic-enabled research leading to improved use of plant feedstocks for biofuel production. According to USDA’s press release, available here these investments will further the Obama Administration's efforts to broaden the nation's energy portfolio while decreasing our dependence on foreign oil.Secretary Vilsack made remarks emphasizing the importance of biofuels as a future energy source:
Helping expand and diversify production of biofuels is an example of the Obama Administration's commitment to developing a sustainable domestic biofuels industry that can help strengthen rural America while decreasing our dependence on foreign oil.Private funding to further develop alternative fuels from biomass is also helping to further the science. Chevron recently gave $25 million to the University of California-Davis to study biofuels. But according to Alex Yelland of Chevron, the change may not come quickly:
It's a process that's going to take time. We are trying to speed the process of moving from the lab to pilot production. That's why we have spread our research and development across many institutions. But it does take a number of years.
As Janie Mara reported in the Mercury News, large grants mostly private companies are helping to speed up the process. In addition to the Davis funding from Chevron, UC-Berkeley, along with two other universities, were awarded $350 million from BP in 2006. Stanford University got $225 million in 2002 for broad-based energy research including biofuel projects from Exxon Mobil. Additionally, a coalition headed by Lawrence Berkeley Lab got $125 million from the Department of Energy in 2007. To read Mara’s article, click here.
More information on the projects funded through the joint Department of Energy and USDA program is available by clicking here.
Posted: 07/23/09
