Relight Biofuels Center

Editorial by Fayetteville Observer, September 4, 2013.

Shutting down the North Carolina Biofuels Center will save North Carolina taxpayers $4.3 a year. But it may cost many times more in jobs and revenues that will pass us by.

As the picture of the evolving biofuels industry becomes clearer, it's evident that the savings in shutting down the research center is a false economy, because its work could spur the growth of an important new industry.

As a story in Sunday's Observer pointed out, the biofuels industry is interested in North Carolina. An Italian company, Chemtex, will break ground this winter on 166 acres in Sampson County, building a $200 million refinery that will turn more than 20 million tons of grassy material into fuels each year.

The company, whose North American headquarters is in Wilmington, has already signed agreements to buy energy crops grown on 6,000 acres of fields on hog farms. That's about half of the acreage the plant will require. Chemtex says the plant will create about 300 jobs, 65 of them at the plant itself, and others on the farms and in transportation of raw materials and the finished product. That's an estimated annual bump of $12 million for a rural economy that really needs it.

But that's not all of it. Chemtex officials believe this state has enough suitable land to support 15 refineries, which would add 5,000 new jobs and $2 billion to the state's economy. That pales when compared to the $24 million the state has spent on the Biofuels Center since 2007, doesn't it?

The Chemtex project is the breakthrough that biofuels advocates have long awaited, a process that creates fuels from plants that aren't diverted from the food supply. The rise of corn-derived ethanol has caused jarring disruptions in the food supply chain, affecting prices for livestock that is fed on corn as well as spurring price hikes in other products created from it.

There is a down side to the innovative technology: Plants used in the new process are labeled "invasive" in many states, meaning they have spread rapidly, and with environment-altering consequences. That's especially true of the bamboo-like arundo donax plant that Chemtex wants to use in its manufacturing. Fans of the plant, though, say it can be contained and won't become another kudzu.

It's important to keep the biofuels' raw materials from becoming a nuisance, but that shouldn't get in the way of a transformative boost to our rural economy. Neither should a funding issue in Raleigh. The General Assembly should re-fund the Biofuels Center when it returns for its budget-tweaking short session. The center's research is a key to the growth of this new industry. We should do everything we can to foster it.