Bush said the goal, which he outlined last month in his State of the Union address, is vital to the nation's future. "We are on the verge of breakthroughs to allow a pile of wood chips to become the raw materials for fuels that'll run your car," Bush said during a visit to a plant here that makes enzymes critical to ethanol production.

Using more alternative fuels not only will be good for the environment, Bush said, but also will reduce the nation's dependence on oil from unfriendly nations and insulate the U.S. economy from the shocks caused by sudden increases in oil prices.

Bush wants the country to be using 35 billion gallons of renewable fuels annually by 2017, and he would like to raise mileage standards for automobiles -- efforts that he said would allow the nation to meet his goal for gasoline consumption.

"I know it sounds like a pipe dream to some," Bush said, adding that the technology for increasing ethanol production is at hand. He said ethanol will be powering many of the nation's cars in the near future.

Almost all of the 6 billion to 7 billion gallons of ethanol used annually in the country is produced from corn. While corn-based ethanol is becoming common, particularly in parts of the Midwest, it is causing corn prices to increase, affecting industries as diverse as tortilla production and hog farming.

Because of the fast-rising demand for corn, Bush said, the nation will soon have to rely on ethanol made from switch grass, wood chips and agricultural waste to produce a larger share of ethanol.

Source: washingtonpost.com