WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 (UPI) -- A U.S. senator said Friday the first federal loan guarantee for a cellulosic ethanol plant was a signal that non-corn ethanol was becoming viable.
Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., called the guarantee approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for a new cellulosic plant in Georgia an effective way for Washington to help ethanol technology evolve.
"The science exists to make biofuels from diverse feedstocks such as specialty energy crops, municipal waste and residue from agriculture and forestry," Lugar said in a written statement. "These new technologies need a helping hand to demonstrate they are viable and to bring down their costs."
Lugar is a member of the Senate's Energy and Agriculture Committees and is a longtime booster of ethanol as a home-grown extender of the U.S. gasoline supply.
Cellulosic ethanol is produced from plant material other than corn and has been a major goal of ethanol boosters.
The Agriculture Department said in a written statement this week that the $80 million loan to Range Fuels in Soperton, Ga., would help establish a plant that would be operational next year and produce annually 20 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol from wood chips.
