The U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Energy today released the National Biofuels Action Plan (NBAP), an interagency plan detailing the collaborative efforts of Federal agencies to accelerate the development of a sustainable biofuels industry. The departments jointly chair the Biomass Research and Development Board.

The plan was developed in response to President Bush’s call to change the way America fuels its transportation fleets in the 2007 State of the Union Address. The President’s “Twenty In Ten” goal calls for cutting U.S. gasoline consumption by 20 percent over the next 10 years by investing in renewable and alternative fuel sources, increasing vehicle efficiency and developing alternative fuel vehicles.

The NBAP outlines interagency actions and accelerated federally supported research efforts in seven areas including – Sustainability, Feedstock Production, Feedstock Logistics, Conversion Science and Technology, Distribution Infrastructure, Blending, and Environment, Health and Safety.

Among the highlights of the plan is under the area of blending, under which the board advocates the “blending ethanol with gasoline in amounts greater than 10 percent (E10) and will review results of an interagency testing program to evaluate the impact of intermediate blends on vehicle emissions and material compatibility by fall 2008.”

Under Feedstock Production, the plan outlines a feedstock availability and cost study that was conducted and the development of a long-term integrated feedstock research and development plan to be completed by December 2008.