On visit to Missouri, Obama says U.S. should be No. 1 in biofuels

Posted on Wed, Apr. 28, 2010 10:46 PM

By STEVE EVERLY

The Kansas City Star

MACON, MO. | President Barack Obama, visiting Missouri’s first ethanol plant Wednesday, said that after two hard years the economy was on its way back — and biofuels would play an important part in future growth.
In a metal barn usually used for storing corn, the president told an audience of more than 200 that clean energy, including ethanol, would reduce U.S. reliance on foreign oil and be part of the foundation for future prosperity.
“There shouldn’t be any doubt that renewable, homegrown fuels are a key part of our strategy,” he said.
The ethanol industry, like the overall economy, has struggled recently but is hopeful in part because of federal initiatives.
The federal Renewable Fuels Standard calls for tripling U.S. ethanol use by 2022, and the president said the stimulus package passed last year included $800 million for biofuel research and infrastructure.
The chief executive of Poet Biofuels, which owns the Macon plant and 25 others around the country, met with Obama before the speech and called the president “a true champion of biofuels.”
His industry faces substantial challenges with financing, CEO Jeff Broin said, but he thought Obama would provide the support needed.
The president — with sparrows chirping overhead, a semi-truck and trailer behind him, and a Caterpillar tractor with a 5-foot-wide scoop filled with corn on his left — told his audience of plant workers and government officials that he wanted the U.S. to lead in the field of clean energy, and not lose out to China or other nations.
“I want to be first when it comes to biofuels,” he said.
Obama also said renewable energy, including ethanol, wind and solar power, should save or create 700,000 jobs by the end of 2012.
The Macon visit was part of a two-day swing through Iowa, Missouri and Illinois, Obama’s latest “Main Street tour” designed to talk with people about jobs and the economy.
Obama made an unannounced stop for lunch Wednesday at Peggy Sue’s Cafe in Monroe City, Mo., where he talked with customers about health care and other issues.
Then, a quarter mile from the ethanol plant, he was greeted by about 100 people. The crowd was a mixture of onlookers, supporters and protesters, including one who had a sign with a rifle sketched on it that said, “Try to take it away.”
Charlotte Beelam, a Macon area resident who was standing outside the plant hoping to see the president, said she was willing to be patient. “This country was in a mess, and it can’t be straightened out overnight,” she said.
Obama said that although the economy was recovering, visits to places such as Macon showed that times were still tough for many people, and that more needed to be done.
He said more clean energy, better schools and health care, and financial reform all would help the recovery.
The president’s Main Street visits have often had a campaign atmosphere and emphasized different steps to create jobs.
This week’s tour focused on how clean energy could bring jobs to rural areas. The White House released a report Tuesday on that topic, and the president visited an Iowa wind turbine plant.
The emphasis shifted Wednesday to ethanol and the Macon plant, which was Missouri’s first when it opened in 2000 and is now one of a half-dozen in the state. It started with a capacity of 15 million gallons but now can produce 46 million gallons a year using corn.
Critics say the ethanol industry needs to move from corn-based production and build more plants that can make ethanol from cellulose, which can come from non-food sources such as wood and grass.
The federal Renewable Fuels Standard does call for cellulosic ethanol to account for about half of the 36 billion gallons of biofuels mandated by 2022.
But little cellulosic capacity has been built, in part because the plants are expensive and financing has been hard to get.
Jeremy Martin, senior scientist for the Union of Concerned Scientists, said growth in biofuels would depend on getting government loan guarantees and investment tax credits to ensure that the cellulosic plants get built.
“It’s not going to happen on its own,” he said.
Poet said last week that its cellulosic technology was ready, but that market conditions would have to improve before it expanded. It does have plans, when conditions are right, to add cellulosic production capacity at several of its existing plants — including the one near Macon.
Tom Buis, chief executive office of Growth Energy, a group representing the ethanol industry, said, “I think the president has always been very forceful in his support and … recognition we do have a vital role to play in the nation’s economy.”

Source: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/04/28/1910739/obama-says-us-should-be-no-1-in.html