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Posted on  

May 10, 2001

U.S. energy plan will endorse biofuels

A broad White House proposal to promote more oil and gas drilling will also back more funding for biofuels, which are made from crop and animal waste, the head of the Senate Agriculture Committee said on Wednesday.

The recommendation, part of a plan to trim U.S. imports of oil, will please lawmakers from economically depressed farm states who have urged policy makers to pay more attention to ethanol and other renewable biofuels.

"By replacing as little as 10 percent of oil imports with domestically produced biofuels and biochemicals produced from plants, America will diversify its energy portfolio and reap enormous economic, strategic and environmental benefits," Sen. Richard Lugar, an Indiana Republican who heads the farm panel, said in a statement.

Vice President Dick Cheney, the former head of oilfield services giant Halliburton Co, heads the White House energy task force. The panel is expected to release its recommendations for a long-term energy plan on May 17.

Industry and congressional sources have said the task force recommendations will emphasize new drilling for oil and natural gas, and promote the use of coal-fired power plants. The plan is also expected to offer an assortment of secondary proposals to promote new gas pipelines, hybrid-fueled cars, electricity transmission lines, and nuclear plant licensing.

Lugar said the energy task force's recommendations would also endorse more research and development of biofuels.

Lugar has backed legislation that would spend $49 million annually on biofuels research for a six-year period.

Ethanol, one of the best-known biofuels, is a corn-based gasoline substitute. About 15 billion gallons of ethanol is used annually, due largely to a federal subsidy in the form of a lower federal fuel excise tax at the gasoline pump.

But other biofuels can be made from virtually any plant, tree or grass or animal waste by breaking down the material into its chemical building blocks.

Supporters contend biofuels are cleaner-burning, reduce pollution and offer family farmers another market for their goods.

The U.S. Energy Department has estimated biofuels could eventually generate as much as $20 billion a year in new income for farmers and rural communities, while cutting greenhouse gas emissions by up to 100 million tons a year.

The Clinton administration, which launched a federal initiative to triple the nation's use of biofuels by 2010, last year created a national bioenergy center in Colorado to research ways of making the fuels cost competitive.  

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