02/15/08 Building for the Future

Building for the Future. I'm Greg Martin as Line On Agriculture presents the Harvest Clean Energy Report. When it comes to fuel production, developing alternate fuel sources is at the beginning stages. But we are learning quickly and moving in a positive direction. One company in the thick of the ethanol industry is Pacific Ethanol. Director of Government Affairs and Communications, Tim Raphael says they have been awarded a grant to help move things forward. RAPHAEL: This newest effort is a 24.3 million dollar grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to build the first cellulosic ethanol demonstration plant in the Northwest. We would co-locate that at our Boardman facility to use wheat straw, wood chips, corn stover, other residual products there to really start developing next generation fuels. Pacific Ethanol has plants in Boardman, Oregon  Madera, California  and are part owners of a plant in Windsor, Colorado. One of the big issues in the industry has been the transportation of raw materials. RAPHAEL: This grant really is aimed at targeting feed stocks that are within about a 50 mile radius of our plant and the Northwest is really very well positioned for these next generation, low carbon fuels with all of the wheat and other agricultural products grown in the region we think that there's a healthy amount of feed stocks very local to our existing plant there in Boardman. Raphael says the government is committed to helping build the industry for the future. RAPHAEL: (The) recently signed energy bill really set the policy direction for renewable fuels for the next several decades and there'll be an effort to start moving away from conventional biofuels and developing next generation fuels like cellulosic ethanol. We're very exited about the potential to demonstrate this new technology and being able to provide larger and larger amounts of locally produced, home grown biofuels that reduce our reliance on imported foreign oil that are less polluting and really are good for farmers, good for local communities and good for the country. As for the Northwest ethanol industry, it appears to be in a good place with lots of growth potential. RAPHAEL: The Northwest is just very well positioned for next generation fuels with the amount of cellulose through agricultural residuals and residuals from forest product industry using what has typically considered waste products and turning them into fuel. There's tremendous potential here and that's one of the reasons that we've been locating our plants where we have. For additional information on clean energy, visit harvestcleanenergy.org. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network. www.harvestcleanenergy.org