03/26/07 Strong Cellulosic Ethanol Support

Strong Cellulosic Ethanol Support. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. State and federal agricultural leaders are making a strong case for cellulosic renewable fuels. Both at an event in BioTown and again at a roundtable conference at Purdue - Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns made a strong case for energy made from a variety of agricultural and animal waste. JOHANNS: Today we're standing on corn stubble, in a field here in Indiana. What is we could say to a farmer, we envision a day where you'll not only produce ethanol from that ear of corn you raise but from the stubble. All of a sudden you have a whole new cash crop. And it could just be unbelievable in the opportunity it presents. Well we believe that day can arrive. That's why we put that money into our Farm Bill proposals, to encourage the research and development. Johanns says someday really isn`t very far off. JOHANNS: I'm really optimistic about ethanol and that's what I would tell them. Now I would tell you this  for the next few years it's going to be corn based ethanol in the United States. But I also share with you what I hear from the industry is that cellulosic ethanol is coming along. And so I really think  this Farm Bill is a 5-year farm bill and I really think during the life of this farm bill you're going to see some very major steps forward in terms of cellulosic ethanol. The other thing I would tell you is just recently the Department of Energy released some grants to some cellulosic plants. They're smaller plants. They're kind of a pilot  demonstration kind of plant but they're a step in the direction of making cellulosic energy economically viable. And once we cross that threshold, hold on. You've really set a whole new world for agriculture in our country. During the discussion at Purdue University - Johanns made the case that the next Farm Bill must have programs and funding for renewable energy. He says this bill simply isn`t your grandfather`s farm bill. He says the 2007 version of farm policy should target the next generation of renewable fuels like cellulosic ethanol. While today`s production of corn- and soy-based biofuels is not going to meet demand - Johanns says cellulosic ethanol can. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.