President Obama today announced a multi-agency effort to expand U.S. biofuels production and accelerate the development of technologies to capture and sequester greenhouse-gas emissions from coal-fired power plants.

At a meeting with 11 governors, Obama released a roadmap for expanding biofuels production to meet the federal goal of 36 billion gallons in 2022, with 21 billion gallons to come from advanced biofuels. Last year, U.S. manufacturers produced 11.1 billion gallons of biofuels, primarily from corn-based ethanol. In a telephone briefing with reporters, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the White House plan includes accelerating the research and development of a new generation of biofuels feed stocks.

The administration also released an EPA rule allowing biofuels makers to meet the government standard by producing more corn-based ethanol. Administrator Lisa Jackson said agency scientists have determined that the greenhouse gas emissions from corn-based ethanol are "20 percent less than the greenhouse gas emissions from gasoline."

Environmentalists criticized the decision, arguing that EPA's ethanol pollution assessment was overly optimistic. "EPA appears to have bent over backward to allow some highly problematic biofuels to meet the environmental criteria set by Congress," Jonathan Lewis, an attorney with the Clean Air Task Force, said in a statement. "The rule overstates the actual environmental benefits of many biofuels, including corn ethanol."

But Renewable Fuels Association President Bob Dinneen praised the biofuels rule, describing it as "a workable program that will achieve the stated policy goals of reduced oil dependence, economic opportunity, and environmental stewardship."

The president also unveiled a clean coal technology plan aimed at opening five to 10 carbon capture and storage demonstration projects by 2016 and developing affordable capture and storage technologies within 10 years.

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