Government to spend $600M to build renewable-energy plants

TOLEDO (AP) — The federal government is speeding up plans to produce more renewable fuels, announcing Friday it will spend nearly $600 million to help build plants that turn wood chips, cornstalks and algae into fuel.

The government will team up with private companies to create 19 biorefinery projects in 15 states, including Ohio. The government’s $564 million share will come from stimulus funds and will be combined with $700 million in private investments.

The ideas range from scooping up algae from ponds in New Mexico and converting it to jet fuel to using wood waste from a wall panel company in Michigan to make ethanol.

In announcing the undertaking, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said President Barack Obama told his administration to speed up the timetable for creating renewable fuel projects and jobs.

Vilsack said he sees a time when these type of plants are found all over rural America. Most would be small operations unlike large oil refineries.

“It is really about bringing a sense of new prosperity to rural communities,” Vilsack said. “This is going to make a big difference for America.”

Most of the plants will use new technology and operate as demonstration or test factories. One goal is to show private investors that renewable energy projects can turn a profit.

The projects have the potential to create an entire new industry and thousands of jobs, especially in rural America where agriculture and forest waste is cheap and plentiful, said U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu, who attended the same news conference in Toledo, where a pilot plant will turn agriculture waste into diesel fuel.