Ethanol and biodiesel have gained unprecedented popularity over the past two years as gasoline prices soared to record highs.
Proponents say nearly all consumers could benefit from increased use of the plant-based fuel, but farmers and rural America likely will be among the biggest winners.
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"America's road to energy independence is going to run right through rural America," said Thomas Dorr, under secretary for rural development at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "I'm convinced renewable energy is the greatest new economic opportunity to arise in rural America in our lifetimes. The future is very bright. If we can figure out how to do it right, there is opportunity here for all of us."
Dorr spoke at the Oklahoma Governor's Conference on Biofuels last month.
The debate over whether biofuels are the best option to replace or compliment traditional gasoline is far from decided. But ethanol and biodiesel clearly are the early leaders in the country's renewed efforts to reduce its dependence on foreign oil. Ethanol and biodiesel have early advantages over hydrogen and other alternatives in part because they more easily can fuel existing vehicles and require less modification to the country's existing gasoline infrastructure.
Biofuels received an additional boost this spring when President Bush endorsed the effort in his "addicted to oil" speech.
Former Central Intelligence Agency director and Tulsa native James Woolsey said increased biofuel production would increase the country's national security while also providing a boost to the farmers and the national economy.
"We borrow $320 billion a year to import oil," he said. "If we replaced only one-fourth of that with ethanol, it would double our country's annual farm profit. If we replaced half the oil, we would triple the farm income."
Biofuels proponents promote the alternative as a way to keep more energy dollars in the country.
"There are some who would remark that they don't see increased ethanol in this country reducing the price of fuel in the future," said Terry Detrick, vice president of the Oklahoma Farmers Union and president of Oklahoma Sustainable Energy.
"I would say that's not our goal. We are going to be paying more for energy in the future than we have in the past regardless of where it comes from. Our goal is to see that these high-priced energy dollars find their way into the United States economy — much of it through agriculture — instead of finding its way overseas to countries that don't like us."
While boosting the state and national economies, biofuels also could help save family-owned farms, Detrick said.
"Young people are not coming back to the farm because they cannot provide for their families the same amenities that other people their age are providing for their families by working in town," he said.
For biofuels to become popular, the industry must continue to improve technology and farmers must be willing to plant biofuels feedstocks, Dorr said. The under secretary said farmers cannot afford to resist the effort.
"Renewable energy is not just the biggest market for agriculture in history," he said. "It is a new market that may in fact be larger than all of American agriculture today. When the stakes are this big, the dollars add up very fast."
"America's road to energy
independence is going to run right through rural America."
Thomas Dorr,
under secretary for rural development at the U.S. Department of Agriculture
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