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June 26, 2007
The Oak Ridge National Laboratory was selected Tuesday to host one of three U.S. Department of Energy bioenergy research centers, each receiving $125 million in funding over five years.
The lab anticipates benefiting from Oak Ridge's supercomputing center and a proposed 5-million-a-gallon-per-year ethanol demonstration project proposed by Gov. Phil Bredesen.
The $40 million ethanol facility, which will concentrate on ethanol production from switchgrass and poplar trees, is funded by the state beginning next month and is expected to be operating in as little as two years.
"This research center is a perfect fit for Tennessee, which should become a national hub for bioenergy," U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander said in a statement. "Combined with the efforts of Gov. Bredesen, the University of Tennessee, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Tennessee Farm Bureau, this center can help produce new jobs for Tennesseans and higher incomes for farmers."
Alexander, U.S. Sen. Bob Corker and U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, all Tennessee Republicans, disclosed the decision in advance of a formal announcement by Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman later Tuesday.
The announcement did not reveal locations of the other two centers.
University of Tennessee President John Petersen said last week that the Oak Ridge Lab, which is managed by the university and Battelle Memorial Institute, was one of four finalists and the only one in the Southeast.
The Oak Ridge Lab teamed in its application with the University of Tennessee, the University of Georgia, Georgia Institute of Technology, Dartmouth College, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado and the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation in Oklahoma.
The Oak Ridge center would be housed at the lab's new Joint Institute for Biological Sciences building, a state-funded research center due to open in August.
UT specifically will provide specialized instrumentation, plant breeding technologies and new microbe research.
"This is outstanding news for Tennessee in terms of the role our scientific, agricultural and business communities are playing in our country's energy security, and it couldn't come at a better time," Corker said.
Corker noted the Senate last week passed an energy bill that promotes the development of biofuel alternatives to petroleum.
"If biofuels are part of the answer to our goal of energy independence, our region will be out front with solutions," Wamp said.
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