Obama to form interagency biofuels group

NEW YORK, May 4 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will direct the heads of three U.S. agencies to make the biofuels industry cleaner and encourage output of ethanol made from non-food crops, according to a draft memo obtained by Reuters on Monday.

The Biofuels Interagency Working Group, to be headed by the secretaries of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy and the Department of Agriculture, will be asked to identify policies that would make biofuels more environmentally sound and encourage production of “flex-fuel” cars that can run on either gasoline or fuel that is mostly ethanol, according to the memo.

In addition, Obama will ask Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to “immediately begin refinancing of existing investments in renewable fuels as needed to preserve jobs in ethanol and biodiesel plants, renewable electricity generation plants and supporting industries,” according to the memo.

An industry source with knowledge of the memo said Obama will encourage Vilsack to speed up financing opportunities under the 2008 Farm Law. Those include loan guarantees for development of biorefineries and demonstration-scale plants that could be worth tens of millions of dollars, the source said.

Guardian