News

April 22, 2009
New Mexico Takes Leadership Role in Biofuels Industry
Maria Zannes

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., April 22, 2009 – More than 200 participants are expected to join top New Mexico public officials, government, education, environmental, and biodiesel industry leaders to discuss challenges and strategies for public policy and the development of environmentally beneficial biodiesel fuel at the Southwestern Biofuels Association Policy Summit, slated for May 27-28, 2009, at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Albuquerque. 
More than 30 experts in the biofuels’ political and scientific arenas including Senator Tom Udall (D-NM), U.S. Rep. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and U.S. Rep. Harry Teague, Gov. Bill Richardson’s Science Advisor, Tom Bowles, Sapphire Energy’s Chief Executive Officer Dr. Jason Pyle, and top scientists from New Mexico State University and America’s National Laboratories will address the Summit.

New Mexico and the Southwest are prime areas for development of “third generation” biofuel feedstocks, such as oil-rich camelina which grows on marginal land, requires little water, and does not compete with the food supply.  New Mexico also is leading research on algae-based biofuels.

“New Mexico’s high altitude and high summer heat can provide the perfect climate for some alternative biodiesel feedstock production,” said New Mexico Secretary of Agriculture Dr. I. Miley Gonzalez. “We are geographically poised to capture this development opportunity and are now on our way to supporting it with appropriate public policy.”

Event hosts include the Southwestern Biofuels Association, the New Mexico Department of Agriculture, Green Earth Fuels, LLC, ARFuels, Inc., Sandia National Laboratories, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sapphire Energy Inc., New Mexico State University, and Symbios Technologies.

"The SWBA Policy Summit will be a seminal step toward establishing a biofuels industry in the Southwest.  We expect leaders from across the nation to attend and focus their attention on this region’s potential,” said Jeffrey Trucksess, Executive Vice President of Regulatory Affairs for national biodiesel energy producer Green Earth Fuels, a lead sponsor of the Summit.