Barack Obama, the US President, has detailed a range of measures that would see the United States embrace renewable energy technologies all the more: supporting biofuel production initiatives and moving away from CO2-emission-heavy industrial fossil fuel incineration.

In conversation with state governors, Obama emphasised the importance of political harmony as a means of achieving this. “America can win the race to build a clean energy economy, but we're going to have to overcome the weight of our own politics”, he stressed, adding: “We have to focus not so much on those narrow areas where we disagree, but on the broad areas where we agree.”

Obama’s latest environmental comments came hot on the heels of his January 27th State of the Union speech, during which he called on the US Senate to prioritise climate change strategies, describing “incentives for energy efficiency and clean energy” as “the right thing to do for our future.”

Obama: Biofuel Production

Among those present at the February 3rd meeting were Lisa Jackson and Steven Chu – Environmental Protection Agency Administrator and Energy Secretary respectively.

Together, they heard the US President speak on issues that included biofuel production and carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies. “By 2022, we will more than double the amount of biofuels we produce to 36 billion gallons, which will decrease our dependence on foreign oil by hundreds of millions of barrels per year”, he stated.

On the subject of CCS, meanwhile, he laid out plans to develop financially viable technologies (cost is an issue that’s prevented CCS from being widely adopted, so far) over the coming decade, and to have 10 carbon capture and storage demonstrators in operation within six years.

In comments made on the same day, the EPA stressed that renewable source-based fuels – including ethanol – needed to represent over eight per cent of the US’ overall 2010 gasoline sales, in order to meet production volume level legislation issued by US Congress. This revised an earlier statement, in which the agency called for a market share of over 10 per cent where biofuels were concerned.

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