By Russell Ray
As printed in the Tulsa World, October 4, 2006.

NORMAN — Former CIA Director James Woolsey sees Oklahoma switchgrass, a potential feedstock for fuel, as a weapon against terrorism.

The perennial grass, which is abundant in Oklahoma and other Great Plains states, can be coverted into ethanol, an emerging substitute for gasoline and a potential tool for reducing the nation's dependence on oil from hostile nations, said Woolsey, who spoke Tuesday at the Governor's Conference on Biofuels.

"Being locked into oil is a serious national security problem," Woolsey said in an interview before his keynote address. "We're borrowing about $320 billion a year just to import oil. It has a negative effect on the value of our currency.

"We're essentially paying for both sides of the war against terrorism."

The United States imports close to 60 percent of the oil it consumes, a figure that is expected to rise. As a result, the nation is vulnerable to disruptions in Mideast oil supplies.

In Saudi Arabia, the world's largest producer of crude, oil operations remain vulnerable to terrorist attacks, Woolsey said.

"Attacks on the infrastructure are not only possible, but rather easy," he said.

The biofuels conference is part of an initiative to develop a biofuels industry in Oklahoma. State officials are trying to encourage farmers to grow dedicated energy crops such as switchgrass.

Cellulosic ethanol — ethanol made from biomass such as switchgrass — will be needed to reach the government's goal of replacing 30 percent of U.S. petroleum consumption with ethanol by 2030. Most ethanol is made from corn, but the government cannot meet its objective with corn alone.

Corn ethanol accounted for about 2 percent, or 4 billion gallons, of the nation's transportation fuel last year.

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 requires refiners to double the use of ethanol in gasoline by 2012. What's more, U.S. automakers are building more vehicles capable of using E85, a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline.

"If you want to go to E85, you have to turn to cellulosic biomass," Woolsey said.

The potential for switchgrass-based ethanol production in Oklahoma is significant, said Anna Rath, director of business development for Ceres, a California-based biotech company that is working with the Noble Foundation in Ardmore to develop higher-yielding varieties of switchgrass.

If Oklahoma utilized its 34 million acres of farm land to grow biomass such as switchgrass for ethanol production, the state could produce the equivalent of 1.86 million barrels of oil a day from the crops, Rath said.

"There's no reason biofuels can't become a significant portion of our transportation fuel," Rath said. "We think there is tremendous potential for dedicated energy crops."

Such a development could be a boon for farmers, who could make more money by selling their crops as feedstock for fuel than as forage for cattle.

"It's an opportunity for that farmer and rancher who stays on the farm to make a living," said Michael Cawley, president and CEO of the Noble Foundation. "This is an issue that will provide Oklahoma opportunities."

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Photo:

Tulsa World file James Woolsey

This article appeared in the Tulsa World, www.tulsaworld.com, on October 4, 2006.