North Carolina Lays Out $25M Plan for Biofuels Industry

Several U.S. states have introduced plans in attempts to take the early lead in the country's emerging biofuels industry. For example, in 2006, the Washington legislature approved the initial components of the state's Bioenergy Program. Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen also has proposed a $73 million investment in biofuels research over the next five years though a new Biofuels Initiative at the University of Tennessee, and the Oklahoma legislature is mulling a $40 million Bioenergy Center to coordinate state research.

 

North Carolina is the latest state to enter the fray with an ambitious plan to fund biofuel research and infrastructure. Last week, the Environmental Review Commission of the state's General Assembly met to discuss "Fueling North Carolina's Future: North Carolina's Strategic Plan for Biofuels Leadership," a nine-point plan to boost the biofuels industry. The plan, commissioned by the state legislature in August 2006, was developed after leaders observed that the 5.6 billion gallons of petroleum-based liquid fuels sold in North Carolina each year were not contributing in any meaningful way to the state's economy.



By switching to locally grown and processed sources of fuel, the plan states, the state can leverage its consumption into economic growth. North Carolina should focus its biofuels research and industry support on cellulose-based fuel technologies, rather than corn and grain-based initiatives more common in the Midwest, it adds. Though the state's climate and soil conditions make for unfavorable growing conditions for corn-based ethanol, the plan's authors believe that with sufficient support North Carolina could become the "ethanol capital of the East Coast."

 

A new biofuels commission would oversee the state's progress in achieving the goals of the plan. Its chief goal is to ensure that, by 2017, 10 percent of all liquid fuels sold in North Carolina come from in-state agricultural sources and production facilities. The strategy requests $500,000 annually for the commission and another $500,000 to educate leaders and the public about the biofuels industry.

 

Action points from the plan include:

• $14.5 million to develop cellulose-based fuel technologies at the state's universities and other research facilities;
• $4.5 million to identify new sources of cellulose-based fuel;
• $4 million to build small scale pilot plants;
• $2 million for agricultural, forestry and agronomic development, exploration and testing; and,
• Approximately $5 million to provide 25 percent of the cost of a public-private partnership facility that would test feedstocks for biofuels.

The state will also develop targeted incentives to produce and deliver biofuels to the consumer. Overall, the strategy calls for over $31 million in state investment. North Carolina also plans to work with other states in the South and the Mid-Atlantic to support the leadership of those regions in the national biofuel economy.

 

Find out more about the North Carolina Biofuels Leadership Plan at: http://www.ncbiotech.org/biotechnology_in_nc/strategic_plan/biofuel_plan.html