Obama: Biofuels Are Part of America’s “Clean Energy Future”
President Obama tours the POET biorefinery in Macon, MO. (image: nytimes.com)
President Barack Obama visited the POET biorefinery in Macon, MO on Wednesday to emphasize his commitment to making biofuels a key component of America’s future energy mix, and make the US “first when it comes to biodiesel and the technologies that are being developed in places like POET.” In his speech, Obama hailed biofuels’ advantages as a clean, renewable, and domestic energy source that could create jobs and lead to energy independence.
As the Kansas City Star reported, Obama focused as much on economic recovery as he did on environment and energy. He pledged to follow through on the plan laid out by the Renewable Fuels Standard, which calls for US production of biofuels to triple by 2022, and said, “There shouldn’t be any doubt that renewable, homegrown fuels are a key part of our strategy for a clean energy future.”
In his remarks (full text available at the White House website),Obama made it clear that the development of biofuels was just one part of a broader strategy to create jobs and develop clean, domestic energy:
We began early last year by making the largest investment in clean energy in our nation’s history. It’s an investment that we expect will create or save up to 700,000 jobs across America by the end of 2012—jobs manufacturing next-generation batteries for next-generation vehicles; jobs upgrading a smarter, stronger power grid; jobs doubling the capacity to generate renewable energy from sources like sun and wind and biofuels, just like you do here.
POET produces more than one quarter of the country’s ethanol each year, and is a leader in cellulosic ethanol, which uses the non-edible parts of plants such as corn cobs. Even though Obama toured an ethanol biorefinery and made his remarks while a front-end loader filled with corn stood next to him, the president was intent on endorsing biofuels in general, not just ethanol (to the dismay of ethanol advocates). The ethanol industry may have wished that Obama had offered more specific support for the corn-based fuel, but his inclusive endorsement of all biofuels could be good news for heating oil users.
While gasoline is blended with ethanol, home heating oil is blended with biodiesel, which can be produced from a wide variety of feedstocks. If the government backs the production of biodiesel from algae, waste cooking oil, or other sources—and not just ethanol production—heating oil users are more likely to have access to a clean and affordable heating fuel.
Watch the full video of President Obama’s remarks at the POET biorefinery below.
-Michael Hoven
