Vilsack: Administration Wants to Expand Biofuels

February 24, 2010

Print This Article Share it With Friends

(DTN Ethanol Center) President Barack Obama will continue championing biofuels as a job creator, said Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack when he spoke to members of the Governors' Biofuels Coalition on Monday. Vilsack is hopeful for a positive decision on higher ethanol blends soon.

...USDA continues advocating for EPA to increase the allowable ethanol blend in most newer automobiles from 10 percent ethanol to 15 percent, or E15. Vilsack said EPA is waiting on some final analysis from the Department of Energy before making a decision on raising the blend.

"I remain confident we will have expanded opportunities and that we will be working with our auto industry to create vehicles that will use higher levels of biofuels," Vilsack said.

...The Department of Energy and EPA have a responsibility to explain the importance of biofuels research and how biofuels benefit the overall public, Vilsack said. USDA also has a responsibility to explain the benefits of biofuels when it comes to creating refineries across the country and helping the nation produce more of its own energy. Governors and others also need to highlight the benefits to their own states, he said.

"I'm talking about biofuels all the time," Vilsack said. "There are significant investments being made in rural America that we haven't seen in quite some time."

Still, planning is needed to effectively implement the 36-billion-gallon Renewable Fuels Standard, Vilsack said. The RFS was already in place when the Obama administration came into office last year, but Vilsack said there was no strategic program to ensure the country achieves the RFS. "There really wasn't a plan that tells us or shows us how the country was going to reach that 36-billion-gallon goal," he said. READ MORE