A new report from internal watchdogs at the Environmental Protection Agency says that after seven years of effort and hundreds of millions of dollars in spending, the feds are still falling short of goals to spur commercial scale production of biofuels.
"Despite the expenditure of about $603 million, the Department had not yet achieved its biorefinery development and production goals," read a new report issued by the Inspector General of the EPA.
The report also found that extra efforts to spur biomass-to-ethanol production under the Obama Administration's economic stimulus plan had not lived up to expectations - in other words, the number of jobs created was lower than original estimates.
"For example, one Recovery Act integrated biorefinery project expected to create up to 750 construction and 65-70 permanent jobs had only created or retained a total of 13 jobs as of June 2012," the report said.
The feds have awarded money to fifteen different biofuels projects since 2007 (this was started during the Bush Administration), but only nine of those fifteen are still active at this point.
The report said the six projects that are no longer operational, "were mutually terminated by the Department and the recipients after expending more than $75 million in Government funds."
As for the other nine, the report said that "all experienced technical, financial, and regulatory problems such as difficulties with ethanol meeting technical specification requirements, problems with acquiring private industry partners, and extended environmental reviews."
One setback for biofuels development, the report indicated, was the economic troubles after the Wall Street Collapse of 2008, which has made it more difficult for companies to raise needed funds for production facilities.
Still, the review makes it clear that figuring out a commercial-scale process that works - both physically and economically - remains a challenge.
"Additionally, project delays and terminations increase the risk of wasteful spending as the Department may continue to fund projects that ultimately are terminated without achieving project objectives," the report concluded.
You can read about the biofuels efforts here.
