US Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) has introduced legislation to create a “Biofuels Investment Trust Fund.”

According to a Nelson release, the fund would “direct tens of millions of dollars through the Department of Energy and USDA into research that will increase and diversify biofuel production in the U.S.”

The trust fund would especially focus on the development of switchgrass as a dedicated energy crop. According to Nelson, “The United States must continue to push ahead with research and development of biofuels and cellulosic ethanol represents the next generation of this important alternative, renewable fuel.”

Nelson formed and was the first chairman of the Governor’s Ethanol Coalition when he was governor of Nebraska in 1992.