Henry appeals for bioenergy funding
BYLINE: By RON JENKINS, Associated Press Writer
DATELINE: OKLAHOMA CITY
Gov. Brad Henry is asking lawmakers to again appropriate $10 million for the Oklahoma Bioenergy Center.
The center was established a year ago in what Henry calls a groundbreaking initiative to bolster renewable energy, promote environmental protection and "help wean the United States from its overwhelming dependence on foreign oil."
The center coordinates biofuels research and development being conducted at the University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University and the Ardmore-based Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation.
In its first six months of existence, the OBC attracted $10 million in federal funding to match the $10 million that the state appropriated to it last year.
Henry said the potential impact of the Oklahoma Bioenergy Center is clear after recently passed federal legislation requiring the production of 36 billion gallons of biofuels by 2022.
"That amounts to roughly 25 percent of the annual gas consumption in the United States," he said. "More than half of those 36 billion gallons is likely to come from cellulosic feed stocks such as switchgrass, a prairie grass that grows naturally in Oklahoma and is a main focus of the OBC's research effort."
Henry said Oklahoma's expertise in energy and agricultural issues prepares it to take a leadership role in the development of biofuels.
Besides helping reduce dependence on imported oil, he said the center will create jobs and revitalize the state's rural economy.
Henry set the cost of the biocenter initiative at $40 million over four years.
"It is important that we adequately fund this initiative. The potential of the Oklahoma Bioenergy Center is too great and too far-reaching to let it languish."
Henry also said his executive budget will propose a $5 million increase to the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology.
"We must invest in the cutting-edge, high-tech jobs and industries of the future," he said. "OCAST has been a tremendous asset in Oklahoma's strategies for economic growth. A recent study even indicated that every dollar invested in OCAST has a $27 rate of return. That is an astonishing success, and one well worth building upon."