Governor Phil "We Are A Biomass State" Bredesen wants to put $61 million toward alt fuel development in Tennessee, of which $50 million would go toward cellulosic ethanol. $40 million of that would fund a pilot cellulosic ethanol plant cranking out five million gallons per year. Add that to the $11.6 million alt fuel project already underway at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) for a total of $72.6 million.
Scientists at ORNL and the University of Tennessee, like the president, are on the switchgrass bandwagon � partly because the stuff can be grown pretty much anywhere in the state. Tennessee Agriculture Commissioner Ken Givens (who co-chairs the state's Alternative Fuels Working Group), taking an alt-retro stance, calls the biofuel programs a way to "expand existing markets for traditional crops like soybeans and corn" — and, of course, to make soybean and corn farmers happy.
Other particulars of the governor's biofuel proposal:
- $10 million for UT and ORNL to expand research into switchgrass and cellulosic ethanol
- $3 million for research into other, non-biomass alternative fuel sources
- $8 million in agricultural incentives "to help Tennessee farmers tap into the new farm-based fuels market and produce switchgrass in the quantities required to supply the pilot ethanol plant"
Meanwhile, University of Illinois scientists — the same folks who teamed up with UC Berkeley to snag that huge BP biofuels grant — say Miscanthus, "a hardy perennial grass," is more than twice as productive as switchgrass.
