Michael Bennet, U.S. Senator for Colorado, and Congresswoman Betsy Markey announced today that Colorado State University’s Sustainable Biofuels Development Center is on track to receive $500,000 in funding to help grow its efforts in research and development of sustainable techniques to produce biofuels at competitive costs.
The funding is included in the final Energy and Water appropriations bill, which passed the Senate by a vote of 80-17. The House passed the bill earlier this month, where Markey supported the measure, and it now awaits the President’s signature.
“CSU’s Sustainable Biofuels Development Center is another example of how entrepreneurs and researchers in Colorado are turning innovative ideas into new businesses and new jobs,” said Bennet. “This funding will help farmers and businesses across Colorado stay competitive and help reduce our reliance on foreign oil.”
“Colorado continues to be a model for the rest of America for our commitment to developing renewable energy technologies,” said Rep. Markey. “This funding will do more than create jobs in Northern Colorado-with the combined power of the great research and development being pursued at Colorado State University and our massive potential for renewable energy, Colorado can be a world leader in the solution to our current and future energy challenges.”
The mission of the Sustainable Biofuels Development Center is to enhance the capability of America’s biofuels industry to produce transportation fuels and chemical feedstocks on a large scale, with significant energy yields. The goal is to produce these fuels at competitive cost, through sustainable production techniques. The funding will enable CSU to expand the Center and acquire equipment that will facilitate the chemical and biological analysis of plants, microorganisms and biofuels.
The SBDC builds on a history of entrepreneurship-based research at CSU and will have a direct impact on the local, state and national economy. Nationally, the SBDC will help to insulate the U.S. economy from fuel shortages by helping to increase the country’s ability to produce and utilize a variety of domestically-produced biofuels.
In Colorado, the SBDC will help state’s farmers and fuel processors be more competitive. The SBDC’s work will create jobs as a result of the commercialization of new production processes that will serve a global market for sustainable biofuels and biological energy production systems. Ultimately, the energy companies created at the SBDC and the processes those companies develop will help brand Colorado as a focal point of clean biofuel entrepreneurship, resulting in economic and environmental benefits.