Schafer and Bush Discuss Energy

The growth of ethanol production in the country has been both a blessing and a curse depending on your point of view Conventional ethanol can be made from crops like Corn and Soybeans pushing prices for those crops up good for the producer not so good for the consumer who sees higher prices at the grocery store or a rancher with higher feed prices There is another method however that could please both the producer and the consumer cellulosic ethanol It is produced using plant waste straw for example The President and Ag Secretary Ed Schafer were touting the bright future of cellulosic ethanol recently Ed Schafer - US Agriculture Secretary I think we are on a pathway of moving into the cellulosic ethanol which is very important in the President s new budget and the Farm Bill both contain money for research for pilot projects for efforts that are moving us away I think we recognize that the step to proper renewable fuel generation is the ethanol production of today President Bush Cellulosic ethanol holds a lot of promise I m sure there are people in the industry here who will tell you how far it has come in a very short period of time I look forward to the day when Texas ranchers can grow switch grass on their country and then have that switch grass converted to fuel The two were speaking last week at the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference in the nation s capital