US Sen Chambliss: Energy A Key Role In 07 Farm Bill

The 2007 farm bill will shift U.S. policy on alternative energy closer that of Brazil, which generates one-fifth of its fuel needs from sugar, the chairman of the senate agriculture committee said Saturday. Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Georgia) told Dow Jones Newswires that in a bid to reduce reliance on oil imports, the farm bill would redouble previous government efforts to promote ethanol, a derivative of sugar cane and beets or corn that can be used as an additive to power vehicles.

Chambliss said the new farm bill would also play up the better use of wood and grasses in energy use. Using wood chips, “some timber growers sell 100% of their production of their electricity to the power company and get their energy for free. He said in parts of the U.S. “we harvest pine trees. We take nothing but the straight stick out of the woods. We’re looking at harvesting all of those remaining limbs and utilizing that to make energy. We will hopefully address this in the farm bill to try to encourage that.”

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