Turning Switchgrass Into Energy— NRCS-Tennessee Ready to Assist Landowners in Biofuels Initiative

Representative Zach Wamp (left) and Tennessee Farm Bureau President Lacy Upchurch (center) listen as Tennessee’s State Conservationist, Kevin Brown (right), discusses the value of using EQIP to convert croplands to grasslands.

Three U.S. Congressmen and Tennessee’s State Conservationist were among the panelists who answered questions recently from farmers about the agricultural and commercial potential of using switchgrass to produce alternative energy. The University of Tennessee’s Institute of Agriculture and the Tennessee Farm Bureau hosted the “Biofuels and Agriculture” public forum August 29, 2007. About a hundred farmers, producers, and landowners in east Tennessee took part. They heard about the state’s $70 Million investment in a biofuels initiative with an ultimate goal of moving Tennessee and the nation toward commercially viable biofuels production.

State Conservationist Kevin Brown told the forum that the Natural Resources Conservation Services’ Environmental Quality Incentives Program ( EQIP) offers landowners an opportunity to convert cropland to grassland. “Perennial crops such as switchgrass require less maintenance and fewer inputs than annual row crops like corn, so they’re cheaper to produce. If we want to ensure there is an adequate and sustained energy supply, we need crops like switchgrass to be the basis for alternative fuel,” he said. The initiative has set aside eight million dollars for switchgrass feedstock production as part of the plan.

Congressman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), the ranking minority member on the House Agriculture committee, discusses biofuels incentives with Tennessee's State Conservationist, Kevin Brown.

The State Conservationist was joined on the panel by Representative Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), the ranking minority member of the House Agriculture Committee. Rep. Goodlatte discussed developments in the 2007 Farm Bill, especially programs and incentives designed to develop the cellulosic biofuels industry. Others on the panel included Rep. Zach Wamp (R-TN) and Rep. David Davis (R-TN), Tennessee Farm Bureau President Lacy Upchurch, and officials with the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture. Congressmen Wamp and Davis represent landowners who will be growing switchgrass used to make the biofuel at a new pilot plant to be built in Vonore, Tennessee in Monroe County. Groundbreaking is set for next year. The $40 million dollar biorefinery will produce five million gallons of “Grassoline™” a year.

The biorefinery will serve as a research operation for the University of Tennessee’s Institute of Agriculture, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, private industrial partners, and farmers and landowners. As the biorefinery operates, researchers will be able to refine the conversion of switchgrass to Grassoline™ and optimize the overall process to allow commercial scale-up throughout the state. Eventually, 10 commercial biorefineries would operate throughout Tennessee, producing alternative fuel with the potential to replace 30-percent of gasoline consumption. Successful implementation of the Biofuels Initiative is estimated to bring in $100 million a year in new farm revenue to about 20,000 of the state’s producers.

For more information on the University of Tennessee Biofuels Initiative, visit their website at http://www.utbioenergy.org/. To learn more about the Natural Resources Conservation Service’s EQIP program in Tennessee, click here.

Panel members at the Biofuels and Agriculture Public Forum included (from L-R) Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA); Rep. David Davis (R-TN); Dr. Kelly Tiller, UT Office of Bioenergy Programs, Rep. Zach Wamp; Lacy Upchurch, President of the TN Farm Bureau; and State Conservationist Kevin Brown.