There is a bright future for biofuels, if the vision presented at the Governors' Ethanol Coalition (GEC) meeting in Washington, D.C., comes to fruition.

Speakers representing the White House and both houses of Congress praised the coalition for its work in creating a vision for the future of biofuels in the United States. Larry Pearce, a coalition representative from the Nebraska Energy Office, said there were few surprises at the meeting, held Feb. 27-28. "The only surprise has been the extraordinary support that's been demonstrated for the governors' recommendations," Pearce said.

The coalition published its recommendations in December in a report titled "Ethanol from Biomass: How to Get to a Biofuels Future." The report had four recommendations to increase ethanol's role as a viable transportation fuel in the future:

--Expand the renewable fuels standard (RFS) to 12 billion gallons by 2010 and, in the longer term, to 15 percent of total motor fuels consumption by 2015 and 25 percent by 2025.

--Assign a financial value to RFS cellulosic ethanol production tax credits.

--Establish a timetable for developing E85 infrastructure on a regional basis within five years.

--Provide adequate funding for biofuel research, demonstration and incentive programs authorized by the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

The governors' recommendations have played an important role in shaping the debate over renewable fuels on Capitol Hill, Pearce said. In particular, momentum for the expansion of the RFS seems to have gathered widespread support. "The governors' recommendations are clearly consistent with the direction Congress is headed and consistent with the way the White House is headed," Pearce said. "I think there is broad bipartisan and nonpartisan support for an expansion of the RFS in some way. What the specific numbers will be remains to be seen. Clearly, there is support for that, as well as for significant infrastructure development work to make more ethanol available as an alternative fuel, as well as a blend fuel."

Al Hubbard, director of the White House National Economic Council, spoke about the Bush administration's support for the ethanol industry. The president is proposing to increase the RFS as part of his plan to reduce the consumption of oil by 20 percent by 2020. The new RFS would require 35 billion gallons of biofuels by 2017, more than five times the current ethanol production. The new standard would also include cellulosic ethanol, biodiesel, methanol, butanol, hydrogen and other undefined alternative fuels. "We were very pleased to hear from Al Hubbard indicating that it was because of the governors' recommendations that the White House was willing to propose such a vigorous renewable fuels standard," Pearce said. "We are very pleased with the support that all the governors' recommendations have received over the last couple of days."

Other notable leaders speaking at the conference included U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., who has introduced the Cellulosic Ethanol Incentive Act to promote the regional diversity of biofuels production. Rep. Stephanie Herseth, D-S.D., and former Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., also addressed the GEC.