The president is "passionate" about biofuels!

The president visited one of the world's top enzyme companies, Novozymes, in North Carolina today.
That may not sound like big news. Until you realize that enzymes are one of the keys to unlocking ethanol from plant matter to create an alternative fuel for our cars - in much the same way as yeast is used to ferment beer.

Below you will find a link to the president's public appearance alongside a panel of biofuels experts. I encourage you to read it. It provides a fascinating insight into how the president has gotten his head around the biofuels concept. This is huge news for the alternative energy industry. President Bush has found a subject which it seems to me he truly understands. As environmentalists might say, "He gets it."

His question and answer session with the panel is truly remarkable. It was a sort of biofuels masterclass. As moderator, the president displayed an astonishing command of the subject. At one point talking about ethanol he makes this revealing statement: "I am passionate on the subject."

Some critics will question why more government money wasn't put into this sooner. Some allege that the Bush administration in its early years actually cut funding for alternative energy research, and put too much money into far-off hydrogen fuel cell technology. The record is not altogether clear and I don't have all the figures (*see below).

Others will say that the president is less motivated by global climate change, and that his current advocacy of ethanol is more to do with reducing our dependence on 'hostile' foreign oil. The important thing is that serious money is now going into biofuels, and the president is putting his political capital firmly behind it.

Next month he travels to Brazil, pursuing his biofuels agenda to new heights.

* The New York Times has some useful numbers in today's paper. Click here.
 

Click here for a link to the White House transcript and other background material.

Click here for the White House 'Fact Sheet' on the role of enzyme technology in increasing biofuels production.

- David Adams