NW and Biofuels

I recently had the privilege to talk with Sec. of Agriculture Tom Vilsack after his office reached out to me announcing that a New Report Shows U.S. Biobased Products Industry Contributes $369 Billion and 4 Million Jobs to the American Economy. The question that I had for the Secretary was how relevant the states from Colorado, West to the Pacific Coast were to the whole biofuel effort. "There is no question that the Northwestern portion of the United States has committed itself to the biofuel-based economy and we issued a report this week that this economy generally has about a $369 billion impact on the overall US economy. It helps to support over 4 million jobs and is displacing about 300,000,000 gallons of petroleum each year. This reduces our reliance on foreign oil. Idaho, Oregon and Washington states are very much active in this space. Idaho has 13 companies, Oregon has 51 companies so it is an opportunity for us to put a spotlight on the industry and also an opportunity for us to point out that the federal government is going to purchase these products under our bio preferred program.