U.S. dependence on imports of crude oil has steadily increased for three decades. One way to reduce this dependence is to increase domestic production of renewable fuels such as ethanol. Cellulosic ethanol is ethanol that is manufactured from the cellulosic materials in biomass, such as crop and forestry residues, energy crops, and wood wastes. This report examines the effect on the U.S. economy in 2020 if advances in technology allow cellulosic ethanol to become commercially viable and if production of it becomes adequate to allow total annual U.S. ethanol production to reach 30 billion gallons.
(November 2007; 20 pages)
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