The White House underlined its support for biofuels today, forming a Biofuels Interagency Working Group that will include the Secretaries of Agriculture and Energy, as well as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
The group is to develop the country’s first comprehensive biofuels market development program, while also providing financial assistance, such as helping to refinance troubled biofuel factories and guaranteeing loans for new bio-refineries. It also will help build a market for biofuels products by developing policies to increase flexible fuel vehicle production and assist in retail marketing efforts.
The timing could not be better. The National Biodiesel Board noted yesterday that a review of the March biodiesel production numbers show commercial biodiesel production fell to 30m gallons. That trend, if it continues, could well reduce industry production to half of the 700m gallons produced last year, the board said. The White House wants the biofuels industry, like all alternative energy industries, to grow, not contract.
