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Sunopta Endorses Cellulosic Ethanol Initiatives in the State of the Union Address
Sunopta Endorses Cellulosic Ethanol Initiatives in the State of the Union Address.
About this update from Sunopta Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"\n\n\n\nTORONTO, January 24 /CNW/ - SunOpta Inc. (NASDAQ:STKL) (TSX:SOY) today\ncommended the current administration for its focus and commitment to\ncommercial deployment of cellulosic ethanol in the State of the Union Address.\nThe new Renewable Fuels Standard will mandate production of 35 billion gallons\nof biofuel by 2017, a five-fold increase. In addition, the new Farm Bill will\ninclude $2 billion dollars for funding of cellulosic ethanol plants.\nCellulosic ethanol is clearly a large part of the solution to America's\n\"addiction to oil\" and the policy steps and financial commitment detailed in\nsupport of cellulosic ethanol represent significant progress towards this\ngoal.\n\n\nThe availability of corn (starch) as an ethanol feedstock is expected to\nlimit production of ethanol to a maximum 15 billion gallons per year, making a\nmove to cellulosic feedstocks inevitable. To achieve 35 billion gallons per\nyear of ethanol production by 2017, it is clear that cellulosic ethanol will\nbe required in massive quantities in order to fill that 20 billion gallon per\nyear gap as a large part of an overall effort towards energy security and\nreduction of greenhouse gases.\n\n\nCellulosic ethanol addresses the moral issue of using food (corn, wheat)\nfor fuel as numerous agricultural wastes and underutilized forest products can\nbe utilized without impacting costs and supply within the food chain. As\neconomist Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute has pointed out, ethanol\nplants in the U.S. are expected to consume 50% of the U.S. corn crop in 2008\nand this will have a significant impact on the cost and availability of foods\naround the world. Mr. Brown has estimated that the corn needed to fill a 25\ngallon tank with ethanol could feed a person for a year.\n\n\nCellulosic ethanol also provides significant energy efficiency versus\ncorn starch-based ethanol and produces 95% less carbon emissions than\ngasoline, a very important factor as the impacts of global warming are felt\naround the world.\n\n\nSunOpta's participation in existing cellulosic ethanol projects in China,\nEurope and the United States confirms that large-scale commercial cellulosic\nethanol production is viable now and that production of upwards of 20 billion\ngallons of cellulosic biofuels by 2017 is an achievable goal. The SunOpta\nplant provided to Chi...