It’s not unrealistic to assume that by 2025, agriculture will be supplying as much as 35 percent of the U.S. energy supply, says David Bransby, an Auburn University professor of agronomy and soils and a nationally recognized authority on biofuel alternatives.
Bransby spoke at the recent Alabama Agriculture Energy Conference held in Auburn.
“The United States accounts for 25 percent of the global consumption of oil, but we own only 3 percent, making us critically vulnerable,” says Bransby. “We import more than 60 percent of what we use, and 15 percent of that comes from the unstable Middle East. It’s not possible to replace that 60 percent, but it is possible to replace that 15 percent.”
Biofuels won’t solve these problems completely, but they certainly can help, he says. “If the recent hurricanes aren’t a ‘wake-up call,’ then I don’t know what it’ll take. It’ll fall back on us down here, and if we have to do it without Washington, then we’ll do it. We have to do something. Rural America will respond a heck of a lot faster than Washington,” says Bransby.
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