Tue Feb 23, 2010 07:28 AM CST

WASHINGTON (DTN) -- President Barack Obama will continue championing biofuels as a job creator, said Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack when he spoke to members of the Governors' Biofuels Coalition on Monday. Vilsack is hopeful for a positive decision on higher ethanol blends soon.

The administration wants to increase the production and use of biofuels.

Vilsack said he spent part of Monday afternoon at a meeting with the president talking about the effects of the recession on rural America. Coupled with expansions in broadband access, Vilsack said biofuels can provide more opportunities in rural parts of the country.

"We need to do an even better job getting that message out because there are enormous opportunities here, opportunities to create jobs and futures in rural America," Vilsack said. "So I impressed that upon the president and I think the president recognizes that."

USDA continues advocating for EPA to increase the allowable ethanol blend in most newer automobiles from 10 percent ethanol to 15 percent, or E15. Vilsack said EPA is waiting on some final analysis from the Department of Energy before making a decision on raising the blend.

"I remain confident we will have expanded opportunities and that we will be working with our auto industry to create vehicles that will use higher levels of biofuels," Vilsack said.

Still, members of the Governors' Biofuels Coalition are searching for ways to better educate the public about the benefits of biofuels. Burl Haigwood, president of the Clean Fuels Development Coalition, said afterward that the biofuels industry is now a success story getting twisted around by critics who continue to claim biofuels can't succeed. Haigwood noted that a decade ago few people would have imagined there being enough ethanol produced nationally to hit the E10 blend wall.
"We need to hear we're still shored up and the administration is behind ethanol," Haigwood said.

The Department of Energy and EPA have a responsibility to explain the importance of biofuels research and how biofuels benefit the overall public, Vilsack said. USDA also has a responsibility to explain the benefits of biofuels when it comes to creating refineries across the country and helping the nation produce more of its own energy. Governors and others also need to highlight the benefits to their own states, he said.

"I'm talking about biofuels all the time," Vilsack said. "There are significant investments being made in rural America that we haven't seen in quite some time."
Still, planning is needed to effectively implement the 36-billion-gallon Renewable Fuels Standard, Vilsack said. The RFS was already in place when the Obama administration came into office last year, but Vilsack said there was no strategic program to ensure the country achieves the RFS. "There really wasn't a plan that tells us or shows us how the country was going to reach that 36-billion-gallon goal," he said.

So the administration has been developing a strategic plan and set some benchmarks over the next several years to determine if goals are being met. Further, Vilsack said different departments such as USDA, the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency had to eliminate some redundancy amongst themselves, such as studies on feedstocks and biofuels.

Vilsack added that the administration recognizes that some parts of the country only see biofuels as a Midwest program and aren't engaged. Vilsack said every region has resources that can develop various biofuels.

"To the extent that ethanol has been perceived to be a regional fuel, that only a small portion of (how) America is benefiting from this, I think it's important for us to send a strong message across the country that we see a national biofuels effort that is not going to be stationed solely in one area because there is plenty of capacity here with 36 billion gallons," Vilsack said.

Further, Vilsack said criticism of corn-based ethanol is misplaced. Increases in production of corn are not slowing down. There is more corn being exported and enough to meet the demands of feed and fuel, he said. "There is more than enough to do everything we need to do."

USDA's energy programs have grown dramatically. Vilsack noted the Biomass Crop Assistance Program is now up and running with 240 certified facilities. The administration plans to spend $400 million to $500 million a year on that program to assist farmers and others who provide feedstocks for biofuels.