10/16/01

By MARK POWELL

Biofuels — including ethanol — are essential for the security of the United States.
That was the message, delivered in point-blank terms from the former head of the CIA, at a Baltimore, Md., ethanol conference, Oct. 11.
The conference, sponsored by the federal energy department, dealt mostly with ethanol, but also discussed other forms of biofuel.
In Maryland, one state delegate said, the issue of building an ethanol plant is not even on the legislature’s radar screen. The Maryland Grain Producers Association hopes to turn that around, aiming to get state help in their efforts to build an ethanol plant. A contingent of Virginia ag officials also attended the conference. They said grain producers in the commonwealth are also interested in building an ethanol plant to use barley and other small grains.
The future of ethanol and other biofuels may take off, if the words of former CIA director James Woolsey are heeded.
Woolsey, a long-time advocate of biofuel for national security reasons, said the United States has been “on beach time” in recent years, complacent about the fact that the vast majority of its energy demands are dependent on a highly volatile part of the world.
“On Sept. 11 that all changed,” he said. “Beach time has ended for the United States. Even the dimmest bulb should realize now that our petroleum dependence is a national security issue.”
The United States controls 2 percent of the world’s known oil reserves.
Woolsey suggested that ethanol production needs to undergo a major upramping. And, he said, the feed stock needs to include virtually all forms of plant material, not just corn and other grains.
“You could harvest CRP lands,” Woosley suggested.
Internationally, he said a shift from dependence upon petroleum for energy needs to ethanol and biofuels, would be a huge rural development project. “Essentially, we’re talking about a redistribution of wealth from a few petroleum companies to the world’s farmers and foresters,” he said. “I’m a conservative, but that sounds like a good deal to me.”