energy.agwired.com

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]

Encouraging development of cellulosic ethanol is one of the main goals of the bi-partisan American Farm Improvement Act of 2007 introduced by Florida Congressmen Tim Mahoney and Adam Putnam.

The bill seeks to jumpstart the alternative energy market by eliminating multiple, conflicting definitions of “biomass,” “cellulosic ethanol,” and other terms relating to the emerging biofuels market. The American Farm Improvement Act also creates and improves loan guarantee programs within USDA that focus on building facilities to produce liquid fuels, power and other commercial products from cellulosic feedstocks.

Congressman Putnam said, “By jumpstarting the research and development on cellulosic ethanol, we think it can play a tremendous role in adding value to existing agricultural commodities.”

Putnam believes Florida could play a key role in producing cellulosic ethanol “with a year-round growing season and tremendous acres of formally mined phosphate lands that offer potential for energy crops.” Adding value to agricultural lands for the production of energy crops could also help slow the loss of land to urban development in the state.

Listen to an interview with Congressman Putnam about the proposed legislation here: [audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/audio/putnam-ethanol.mp3]