The Department of Energy (DOE) announced that it will invest $375 million to support three new Bioenergy Research Centers from fiscal year 2008 to fiscal year 2013. The Centers will be established in Oakridge, Tennessee; Madison, Wisconsin; and near Berkeley, California. The Centers will be hubs of collaboration, staffed by groups of researchers from 18 universities, many private companies, seven DOE national laboratories and at least one nonprofit organization, the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation. Each of the three Centers will research the feedstock plants that grow in different regions of the country. A primary focus area for the Centers will be the development of techniques that can be used to more efficiently convert cellulose into biofuels. The Centers are expected to begin work in 2008 and should be fully operational by 2009. This funding program is a component of President Bush’s Twenty in Ten Initiative, which was announced this year and aims to cut US gasoline use by 20% in 10 years.

Source: DOE