Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns is disappointed with the 2007 Farm Bill he sees developing in the House Agriculture Committee for a number of reasons. One of them is lack of funding for cellulosic ethanol research.

Johanns says the farm bill proposal put forth by the administration boosted cellulosic ethanol research funding by $1.6 billion and had over $2 billion in loan guarantees. In the bill being considered by the House Agriculture Committee, Johanns says that would either not be funded or would be under discretionary spending.

“At a time when our nation is really trying to move toward independence from foreign oil, I believe we have to put some real money behind this effort,” said Johanns in a recent interview. “It’s also good for farmers all across the country because it takes ethanol across the corn belt and creates the opportunity to produce ethanol in any part of the United States.”

Listen to the secretary’s comments here: [audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/audio/johanns-cellulosic.mp3]