U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman today attended a groundbreaking ceremony for Range Fuels' biorefinery - one of the nation’s first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol biorefineries – and made the following statement.

“Together, the Department of Energy and private sector pioneers, such as Range Fuels, are blending science and technology to advance the President's goal of reducing our dependence on foreign oil,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman said. “The production of cost-competitive cellulosic ethanol is a significant part of America's energy future. This new facility, one of six commercial scale biorefineries to be constructed with the Department of Energy's support, will expand the use of home-grown alternative fuels - protecting the environment and enhancing the nation's energy security.”

The six biorefinery projects selected to receive DOE 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.