Backing for biofuels high

Source:
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/energywatch/features/article_1250530.php/Backing_for_biofuels_high
Backing for biofuels high

By Krishnadev Calamur Jan 23, 2007, 17:01 GMT

WASHINGTON, DC, United States (UPI) -- President Bush in his State of
the Union address Tuesday is expected to call for a dramatic increase in
the amount of ethanol blended into gasoline by 2030, giving a further
boost to an already red-hot industry.

News reports have said Bush is preparing to call for as many as 60
billion gallons of ethanol to be blended with gasoline by 2030, up from
today`s 7.5 billion gallons by 2030.

The call comes a year after Bush`s last State of the Union speech where
he famously said 'America is addicted to oil' and called for new fuels
such as ethanol to make the nation more energy independent. Since then,
much of the American public, aided by rising gas prices, has come around
to Bush`s thinking, according to a new UPI/Zogby Interactive poll
conducted Jan. 16-18 and released Tuesday.

The poll of 6,882 people, which has a margin of error of 1.2 percent,
showed that 61.1 percent of those surveyed said renewables would replace
less than 25 percent of fossil fuel use; 21.9 percent said it would
replace 26 percent to 50 percent.

But, significantly, the poll found that the majority of those Americans
surveyed thought biofuels would most likely replace fossil fuels in the
future - 39.8 percent of the 6,882 people. Solar was No. 2 with 10.8
percent.

Despite this support, the poll showed that nearly half the U.S. public
(49.9 percent) thought Bush was doing a 'poor' job handling energy
issues; 9.4 percent said his performance on energy issues had been
'excellent' and 23.6 percent said it was 'good.'

Tuesday`s speech is a good opportunity for the president to change some
of those perceptions.

'The big question is are they going to make it a Manhattan project or
are they going to put a Band-Aid on it?' asked Mark Emalfarb, chief
executive officer of Dyadic International, Inc., a Jupiter, Fla.,
company that has developed high-efficiency enzymes that have lowered the
cost of converting biomass into fermentable sugar and, consequently,
cellulosic ethanol.

Emalfarb said the focus would have to be on biomass rather than corn
because increased demand for corn -- both as food and ethanol feedstock
-- has driven corn futures to double over the past year and close last
Friday at around $4 per bushel.

'We anticipate that the president recognizes that we don`t want to get
to the point of food or fuel,' he said. 'We have this perfect storm
today where we`ve got rising fuel prices, national security issues and,
of course, the demand for food.'

Still, ethanol from biomass is not yet commercially feasible and will
likely require government incentives in the form of funds for research
and development and other measures.

'They dramatically need to go after biomass,' Emalfarb said. 'It`s
obvious to the entire world, and I believe the president knows this ...
he understands that 60 billion by 2030 -- 75 percent of that is going to
come from biomass.'

Richard Hamilton, president and CEO of Ceres, Inc., a Thousand Oaks,
Calif., company that develops first-generation energy crops that will be
planted as feedstock for ethanol production, says he believes the 60
billion gallons is a realistic goal if ethanol is produced from
cellulosic sources instead of corn.

Hamilton pointed to Brazil where the military government in the 1970s
introduced ethanol from sugarcane as a fuel and subsidized it.
Government subsidies were maintained for the next nearly three decades
by subsequent government until it became cost-efficient and made Brazil
not only energy independent but also the world leader in ethanol as a fuel.

'The best thing the government can do is set a very high standard for
ethanol production. They can incentivize cellulosic and also incentivize
cellulosic ethanol from switchgrass,' Hamilton said.

There is support among the American public for such a move. The
UPI/Zogby poll found that more than half (55.3 percent) favored
increased government action in research and development of alternate
energy sources; 3.2 percent said they backed publicly funded campaigns
to raise awareness of alternate energy while 11.7 percent said the
supported tax breaks for small businesses that use alternate energy.

With support for biofuels and increased research spending, Bush`s State
of the Union speech Tuesday will likely chart the near-term future of
biofuels.

(Comments to energy@upi.com)
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