McClatchy News Headline: "Brew fits Bush's Energy Plan" (A Must Read)

[KoKo]

(Yesterday Bush visited the Novozymes Plant in North Carolina and McClatchy Papers Barbara Barrett just skewers his visit. If our local N&O News staff had covered his trip it wouldn't have read like this. :thumbsup: to Barbara Barrett. The article is subscription only but also listed all the energy use of the Bush entourage including the 4 helicopters to transport him and the 5 Chevy Surburbans to transport him the "few hundred yards" to the plant) ROFL for the description of Bush in the Brewery!
------------------------------------------------

Barbara Barrett, Washington Correspondent
FRANKLINTON - Enzymes culled from the microbial soups of the earth were mixed with plant scraps inside a laboratory here, fermented into a sugary liquid, dumped into a beaker and presented Thursday morning to the presidential nose.

"Would you like to smell it?" asked laboratory technician Erin Quattrini.

President Bush, clad in a white lab coat and safety glasses, leaned over for a sniff. This, to his way of thinking, is the scent of progress.

Bush came to Novozymes in Franklinton on Thursday to tout his "20 in 10" proposal to reduce gasoline usage by 20 percent over the next decade. Landing amid a rotor wash of mowed cornstalks on company property, he toured labs, posed for pictures with workers and led a panel discussion with scientists about new kinds of ethanol.

-snip-

Marine One touched down about 11:15 a.m. Bush ducked into an armored black sport utility vehicle, and his motorcade drove a few hundred yards to the door of a nearby laboratory building.

Then, Bush took a well-orchestrated tour. Novozymes has become one of the leading suppliers of enzymes, helping the United States create about 7 billion gallons a year of ethanol out of corn kernels. But because ethanol is pushing up corn prices, hog and cattle farmers are crying for help.

Now, Novozymes has created an enzyme cocktail that, it says, will significantly reduce the costs to mass produce "cellulosic ethanol," derived from tougher plant matters such as saw grasses and wood chips. The ethanol can be blended with gasoline to run vehicles.

Inside the plant, Bush moved from room to room to hear the process of how enzymes can be found, selected and converted. A man in a goatee showed Bush a bottle of liquid in a glass bottle.

"Senator, don't drink this!" Bush hollered over his shoulder to Burr.

"I quit drinking in '86," Bush added. He would mention the date twice more in his tour through what is, essentially, a giant fermentation operation with the faint aroma of a brewery.

****************

In a room of 2-gallon carboys holding liquid the color of amber beer, Bush picked up a jar of straw to show off to the journalists tagging along.

"Straw!" he proclaimed. Cameras clicked and whirred.

"Someday, you're going to be using this in your car," he said.

He picked up another jar. "Spruce chips!"

He picked up yet another vessel, this one containing clear ethanol, and took another sniff.

Later, he talked about the possibilities with a panel of hand-picked guests. The discussion stretched about 40 minutes inside a warehouse adorned with stage lighting, blue draperies and an excited audience of nearly 200 Novozymes employees.

http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/546280.html

[KoKo]

1. kick...posted in wrong forum.