Secretary of Energy in Georgia to Attend Groundbreaking Ceremony for Range Fuels’ Commercial-Scale Biorefinery

WASHINGTON, DC – On Tuesday, November 6, 2007, U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman will attend a groundbreaking ceremony in Soperton, Georgia, for one of the nation’s first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol biorefineries.  Secretary Bodman is expected to discuss the Administration’s  comprehensive plan to support accelerated commercialization of scientific breakthroughs on biofuels, and specifically, the Department of Energy’s announcement in February to invest up to $385 million for six biorefinery projects – including Range Fuels’ -  over the next four years.

The six biorefinery projects selected by the Department of Energy to receive funding to accelerate the production of biofuels also furthers the President’s Twenty in Ten Plan, which aims to increase the use of clean, renewable fuels in the transportation sector to the equivalent of 35 billion gallons of ethanol a year by 2017.  When fully operational, these biorefineries are expected to produce more than 130 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol per year.  Funding for these projects is also an integral part of the President’s Biofuels Initiative that will lead to the wide-scale use of non-food based biomass, such as agricultural waste, trees, forest residues, and perennial grasses in the production of transportation fuels, electricity, and other products, by 2012.

Read more information on the six biorefinery projects the Department of Energy selected in February to receive DOE funding to help accelerate the production of cellulosic ethanol at the Biomass Program website.

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Jonathan Shradar, (202) 586-4940