As predicted in the Detroit Free Press and reported here yesterday, Michigan Governor Jennifer M. Granholm has called for $100 million dollars in public and private money to be put into alternative energy investments.
From the speech posted on her website:
This new industry, so critical to our economy, our national security, and our environment is already setting up shop in Michigan. With other states clamoring for this opportunity, Michigan cannot afford to wait.
Tonight I am announcing that we will begin an aggressive, three-year effort to attract even more alternative energy companies to Michigan through more than $100 million in combined public-private investments. This will include the green technology companies that will make Michigan a leader in building the products that reduce the emissions that cause global warming.
Next, I will ask this Legislature to set ambitious goals for our state, so that within eight years, a minimum of 10 percent of our energy will come from renewable sources. And we will double that goal in the decade after that.
I will also ask you to expand alternative energy renaissance zones to attract new solar and wind energy companies. .
Finally, by 2008 we will have 1,000 ethanol and bio-diesel pumps at gas stations across the state so you can put ethanol in your gas tank;
In the 20th century, we were the state that put the nation on wheels.
In the 21st century, Michigan can be the state that breaks our nation’s dependence on foreign oil!
To put this into perspective, the state is facing a major budget crisis… projected to be $800 million in the red this year and $3 billion by next year…. that Granholm is proposing to fix, at least in part, with budget cuts. So, to see alternative fuels getting such a commitment is really a testament to what the governor believes they’ll return to the state.
Willett Kempton, Richard Garvine and Amardeep Dhanju at the University of Delaware and Mark Jacobson and Cristina Archer at Stanford, found that the wind over the Middle Atlantic Bight, the aquatic region from Cape Cod, Mass., to Cape Hatteras, N.C., could produce 330 gigawatts (GW) of average electrical power if thousands of wind turbines were installed off the coast.
“The production of renewable fuels is one of Missouri agriculture’s greatest success stories,” Blunt said. “In the same way that Missouri’s family farmers rose to a great challenge and fed the world in the last century, this century’s family farmers will answer another noble calling and fuel America. This study shows that renewable fuels will not only help reduce our dependence on foreign oil, but also create jobs and economic growth.”
“Most companies go to New York in order to do this type of ceremony,” said US BioEnergy CEO Gordon Ommen. “Since we are a midwest company, really founded on the American farmer and those relationships, we thought we’d have New York come to rural America and meet us on our ground.”
US BioEnergy is the largest “pure play” ethanol producer in the country. “The largest producer of ethanol in the U.S. is ADM,” said Ommen. “We are the second largest producer of ethanol and the largest ‘pure play’ producer, which means ethanol is our primary product.”
The theme for 
Here’s your chance to hear a new song from Emily Richards and her new band – 
NBB Chairman Darryl Brinkmann took to the stage today at the National Biodiesel Conference and gave us a great overview of what the organization is doing. He mentioned that the word biodiesel is now in the dictionary for the first time. You can learn a lot about what NBB is doing, especially in the area of quality control. Darryl talks about the growth of the BQ-9000 program.
The folks at the National Biodiesel Board have to be happy about an announcement made by 