ST. LOUIS, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- The U.S. Agriculture and Energy Departments on Wednesday announced nearly $17.5 million in funds fr 17 biomass research projects.
"Americans are discovering the road to energy independence is paved with natural resources grown right here at home," Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said in a statement. "This is a new era for America's farmers, ranchers and rural communities as they seize this moment where opportunity meets need, and where American ingenuity breaks a century long addiction to oil."
Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said he hoped the funding will spur scientific innovation that will allow the United States to "kick our over-reliance on oil."
The announcement came during the Advancing Renewable Energy conference in St. Louis, which is being organized by the two Cabinet agencies.
The grants are expected to develop technologies to help make bio-based fuels cost-competitive with fossil fuels in the marketplace. Of the $17.49 million announced, $12.7 comes from the Agriculture department and $4.7 from the Energy Department.
The following are the recipients of the grants: Edenspace Systems Corp of Virginia, Center for Technology Transfer and Lucigen Corp. of Wisconsin, Ceres, Inc. or California, Western Governors' Association or Colorado, Southern Illinois University, the Energy Department's Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, the Iowa Corn Promotion Board, the Louisiana State University Agriculture Center, Michigan State University, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in New York, Clarkson University in New York, North Carolina State University, Pennsylvania State University, Drexel University of Pennsylvania and Virent Energy Systems, Inc. of Wisconsin.
