Our nation currently spends more than $1 billion every day on imported petroleum. Biofuels derived from biomass like crop waste, leaves, and wood might allow the United States to reduce and potentially eliminate this cost. And the Midwest may be a key player in developing these fuels.

Because the Midwest contains 50 percent of the nation’s biomass surplus, it has the potential to provide the rest of the country with low cost biomass.

Biomass has many benefits over petroleum. Biomass is less expensive and the money that would be spent on bioenergy would stay in the United States. Another benefit of using bioenergy is that it is fairly carbon-neutral. This is because, when the fuel is burned, it releases approximately the same amount of carbon as the plants absorbed during their lifetimes.

But the use of bioenergy comes with many questions. Industry experts are unsure of how much biomass can be extracted from the land and how to monitor this extraction. The cost of bioenergy is also largely unknown.

If these questions can be answered and a bioenergy market is developed, the Midwest’s economy will benefit.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison campus will be at the heart of this economic change with its new Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center. The Center hopes to double President Bush’s goal of 36 billion gallons of biofuels by the end of 2022. With this goal, it is possible that one day the U.S. could gain energy independence by using Midwest biomass and bioenergy technology.

[Source: The Capital Times; Associated Press]