03/13/07 A flood tide of biofuel effort

Washington Ag March 13, 2007 It was just in last year's legislative session that lawmakers established a renewable fuels standard for Washington and appropriated 23 million dollars for the Energy Freedom Program. And Dave Sjoding, renewable energy specialist for Washington State University, says the state has come a long way in the past year on biofuels. Sjoding says operating or biofuel plants under development will produce about 260 million gallons a year of biodiesel and 447 million gallons a year of ethanol, or about 26 percent of Washington's annual diesel and heating oil use and over 16 percent of the state's yearly gasoline consumption. Sjoding: "So that is a huge change in one year. And in that time we went from the explorer, pathfinder level of effort to venture capitalists saying wow here is an opportunity, to then the multi-millionaire and finally billionaire phase. We went through that in one year. The Midwest went through that cycle in ten years. That is a phenomenal story. It is exciting but it is also very challenging. This is not a smooth pathway. We have a lot of homework to get done yet." A big challenge is getting the feedstock for this biofuel production grown in Washington. More on that tomorrow. I'm Bob Hoff.