MSU and Michigan Tech will partner to develop a biofuel research program in the Upper Peninsula using $1.4 million in federal funding.
The program, to be based at MSU’s Upper Peninsula Tree Improvement Center in Escanaba, Mich., will research how trees can be used for renewable fuels, like ethanol, according to a university statement.
The $1.4 million award comes nearly a month after Gov. Jennifer Granholm proposed severe funding cuts to the MSU Extension and the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station, or MAES.
The funding is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy out of the $410 billion federal omnibus spending bill approved Wednesday, and is being distributed by the Michigan Economic Development Corp.
The Upper Peninsula “is the perfect place to investigate and demonstrate the best ways to use our vast forest resources to expand the state’s rural economies in environmentally, economically and socially sustainable ways,” Ray Miller, MSU forest biomass development coordinator, said in a university statement.
The Upper Peninsula Tree Improvement Center is one of 14 MAES field stations around Michigan. MAES is directly involved in conducting and supporting important research on biofuels.
During the State of the State address in February, Granholm called for Michigan to reduce its dependency on imported fuels by 45 percent by the year 2020. But in proposing her budget just more than a week later, she recommended consolidating the MSU Extension program and MAES and cutting their state funding by 50 percent, or $32 million.
For more on this story, read The State News print edition on Monday, March 16, when we resume publication after Spring Break.
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