10/24/08 Learning About Biofuels

Learning About Biofuels. I'm Greg Martin as Line On Agriculture presents the Harvest Clean Energy Report. We hear about it almost everyday. And only a few years ago it was totally unknown. Biofuels. What are they and where do they come from? Many people only know the little bit that they hear either from friends or neighbors. But a new college course is aimed at setting the record straight and informing people from the ground up. Miles Community College in Miles City, Montana is offering an introduction to biofuels. BUCK: The goal is to just give an idea of the biofuels industry in general, a basic understanding of what they different fuels are and the science behind it so that the students at the end of the class would have an understanding of the industry enough to pursue things further. That is Kristen Buck, the instructor of the course. Tim and Margaret Cowley are currently enrolled in the course to find out more about the biofuels industry. T. COWLEY: Originally I didn't think there was anything to it but I thought maybe it affected the food chain and this and that and it just wasn't a good idea. But I have found out that there are so many bi-products that are a plus to it and that they have made many advances. You know they get more corn per acre because of it and I just think it's an exciting new field. Tim is thinking about perhaps investing in biofuels as part of his retirement. Currently there is not any biofuels production in the area. The new knowledge has Margaret sharing her knew information with many of the residents of the Miles City community. M. COWLEY: I was hoping to catch the mayor one day, who is a new one I guess and kind of give him an earful why this would be a good thing to have here. I think if you do some homework first then we would be able to promote it to a workable cause that would provide employment, a tax base and a number of other things so I'm hoping this will fly. According to Buck the class is part of a 2-year degree program offered at the college. BUCK: This class is geared to be the first in the series for the degree program and so my original goal with this class was just to kind of give an overview of the subject and an understanding of why they needed to know some of the science and math and business kind of things that were required in the degree program that somebody maybe coming in with an interest in biofuels might not realize they needed to 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