An Open Letter to President Obama on Biofuels

by Ben Thorp, Butch Johnson and Masood Akhtar

Many individuals, universities and companies have been working diligently to help create renewable biofuels to meet the strategic needs of our country. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced the selection of numerous research projects and provided technology investment agreements or cooperative agreements to help develop at least 15 commercial or demonstration facilities since start of 2007. Despite this, recent forecasts indicate that, unless we do something different, we will fail to meet the renewable fuel standards (RFS) set forth in the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007.
Numerous studies have been released on this topic. One such study reported that, “Even at high oil prices, 2nd generation biofuels will probably not become fully commercial nor enter the market for several years without significant additional government support.” What is needed is an immediate, comprehensive study to determine requirements for the full commercialization cycle. Once these requirements are known, we can apply them to those projects whose completion is necessary to meet our needs. The need is urgent, as 3 of the 15 funded projects that received DOE awards have already stopped plans to go forward. Unless something radically different is done, more projects are likely to drop out.

Renweable Energy World