The Missouri Energy Task Force hears an alternative to the conventional thinking on alternative fuels. A forestry expert has told the eight-member task force that ethanol is a good way for this country to loose its oil dependancy, but not the kind of ethanol usually thought of in Missouri. Peter Becker with the Eastern Ozarks Forestry Council says grain-based ethanol does not need the subsidies it currently receives. Becker says the state and federal incentives need to go to emerging ethanol production technologies, such as ethanol made of leftovers from the timber harvesting industry. State Agriculture Director Fred Ferrell says he supports the idea of biomass ethanol, but not at the cost of grain-based ethanol. And Ferrell points out that while corn ethanol might be profitable now, that’s not always been the case, so the subsidies need to stay.
