Vermont Biofuels Initiative: Local Production for Local Use to Supply a Portion of Vermont's Energy Needs

摘要

The Vermont Biofuels initiative (VBI) is the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund's (VSJF) biomass-to-biofuels market development program. Vermont is a small state with a large petroleum dependency for transportation (18th in per capita petroleum consumption) and home heating (55% of all households use petroleum for heating). The VBI marks the first strategic effort to reduce Vermont's dependency on petroleum through the development of homegrown alternatives. As such, it supports the four key priorities of the U.S. Department of Energy's Multi-year Biomass Plan: (1.) Dramatically reduce dependence on foreign oil; (2.) Promote the use of diverse, domestic and sustainable energy resources; (3.) Reduce carbon emissions from energy production and consumption; (4.) Establish a domestic bioindustry. The intent and strategic focus of the VBI is similar to another DOE funded organization the Biofuels Center of North Carolina in that it is a nonprofit driven, statewide biofuels market development effort.