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US to Build 6 Biofuel Refineries

The US Energy Ministry reported it will invest $385 million, in the next 4 years, to fund 6 new refineries, which will turn sources such as lumber chips and cereals into ethanol. In President George W. Bush`s January address to the state, the President said he intends to increase production of biofuel 5-fold by 2017 in order to decrease US dependency on Middle Eastern oil, which reached 35 billion gallons last year.

Bush`s plan depends a great deal in advancement in ethanol production from new sources, except corn, which is currently the main source of ethanol. According to the Energy Ministry, new refineries will be founded in Kansas, Florida, California, Iowa, Idaho and Georgia. The cost of founding these refineries will reach $1.2 billion, and are expected to reach more than 130 million gallons of ethanol annually. According to Sam Bodman, US Energy Secretary said that the biofuel refineries will play the vital role of bringing ethanol to the market, as well as, teach the US how to produce ethanol more efficiently and competitively. Bodman said that he expects the price of ethanol by 2012 will reach a dollar per gallon.

Some of the refineries will be founded in partnership with major companies such as DuPont, Goldman Sachs and Royal Dutch Shell. They will be founded in collaboration with the Energy Department`s National Renewable Energy Laboratory. One of the refineries will concentrate on extracting ethanol from garbage. The recent bloom in the ethanol industry due to President Bush`s policy has caused, among other things, a sharp rise in the price of corn, in world markets, which in turn caused significant political unrest in neighboring Mexico, due to the sharp rise in tortillas, which are considered a basic food in the country.