USDA Chief Touts Ethanol's Benefits

by Andy Humbles (The Tennessean) He lauds TN's key role in development of rising biofuel
...U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack was in Nashville on Monday, speaking at a Thorntons gas station in West Nashville on the advantages of ethanol and the federal government’s initiative of installing 10,000 flexible-fuel pumps in the next five years.
...“Greater supply and accessibility will mean greater acceptance,” Vilsack said at the Thorntons station, which has two of the approximately 20 flexible-fuel pumps available in Middle Tennessee.
...“We have over 5,000 acres of switchgrass production on 61 different farms,” said Sam Jackson, research assistant professor with the University of Tennessee. “Switchgrass is one of the favored feedstocks because of the high volume that can be created … per acre.”
The bio-refinery in Vonore is the only facility of its scale that converts switchgrass into ethanol, Jackson said. The facility began producing ethanol with cornstalks and is in the process of converting to switchgrass as its primary feedstock, Jackson said. READ MORE and MORE (Forbes/AP)