Energy Department funds bioenergy centers

WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Energy will invest nearly $30 million in end of fiscal year funds to accelerate the start-up of three Bioenergy Research Centers.

The three centers -- located at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee; the University of Wisconsin and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California -- are designed to advance research in making the production of cellulosic ethanol and other biofuels commercially viable on a national scale.

The funding is in addition to the $375 million the department previously announced it will invest during the next five years.

"For the sake of both our nation's energy security and the health of our environment, we need major alternatives to imported oil and fossil fuels, and we need them soon," said Energy Department Under Secretary for Science Raymond Orbach.

"This early infusion of funds will permit the (centers) to get to work immediately on the basic, transformational science needed to make environmentally friendly biofuels cost-effective, increase their use for transportation, and help achieve President Bush's goal of reducing gasoline consumption by 20 percent in 10 years," he added.