在中心地帶發(fā)展生物燃料

位置：堪薩斯州考爾比

????堪薩斯州算不上生態(tài)主義的熱土。但是，在當(dāng)?shù)?，居民也并非像他們支持能源自主那樣反?duì)利用石油。

????肯尼思?弗拉姆曾擔(dān)任前州長(zhǎng)凱瑟琳?西貝利厄斯領(lǐng)導(dǎo)的堪薩斯州委員會(huì)（Kansas Energy Council）的會(huì)長(zhǎng)，現(xiàn)在負(fù)責(zé)25x'25聯(lián)盟堪薩斯分部。25x'25聯(lián)盟的宗旨是，到2025年，實(shí)現(xiàn)美國(guó)25%的能源來源于可再生能源的目標(biāo)。

????弗拉姆表示，堪薩斯能通過利用肥沃的土地，種植可轉(zhuǎn)化為生物燃料的農(nóng)作物，擴(kuò)大可再生能源的來源。他說，如果政府制定正確的計(jì)劃，農(nóng)民就可以種植除玉米之外的其他作物，如柳枝稷或白揚(yáng)，用于生產(chǎn)一種名為纖維素乙醇的可再生燃料。

????他說，新技術(shù)對(duì)于堪薩斯生物燃料產(chǎn)業(yè)發(fā)展的成敗舉足輕重?，F(xiàn)在，弗拉姆就職于堪薩斯技術(shù)企業(yè)公司（Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation）董事會(huì)。這是一家州立機(jī)構(gòu)，利用本州的彩票資金對(duì)有潛力的企業(yè)進(jìn)行投資。

????Eden技術(shù)公司是KTEC支持的一個(gè)項(xiàng)目，該公司開發(fā)出了從玉米的不可食用部分提煉乙醇的技術(shù)。弗拉姆說，“它生動(dòng)地說明了我們要實(shí)現(xiàn)的目標(biāo)，”即從本州的主要農(nóng)作物廢料中提煉出有用的燃料。

????弗拉姆表示，堪薩斯幅員遼闊，非常適合開發(fā)風(fēng)能。許多農(nóng)民都擁有面積達(dá)數(shù)百英畝的開闊土地，有足夠的空間安裝風(fēng)車，而不會(huì)像其他人口密度大的州一樣，引發(fā)“不要在我家后院”安裝風(fēng)車之類的問題。

????弗拉姆說：“我們希望堪薩斯人能夠支持我們，別讓政府干涉我們的事情?！倍?dāng)?shù)厝艘泊_實(shí)這么做了。他的妻子1996年是美國(guó)共產(chǎn)黨參議員。但是，如果生物燃料真的能在中西部地區(qū)實(shí)現(xiàn)迅速發(fā)展，堪薩斯的環(huán)保項(xiàng)目必將大有作為。

Growing biofuels in the heartland

Location: Colby, Kan.

????Kansas is hardly a hotbed of eco-activism. But it does have a contingent of denizens who aren't so much anti-oil as they are pro-energy-independence.

????Take Kenneth Frahm, who had served as chair of the Kansas Energy Council under former governor Kathleen Sebelius and currently runs the Kansas division of 25x'25, a group that aims to have 25% of America's energy come from renewable resources by 2025.

????Kansas can add to the renewable energy mix, Frahm believes, by using its ample farmland to grow crops that can be converted into biofuels. With the right government incentives, he says, it could become financially viable for farmers to grow not just corn but switchgrass or poplar, which are used to make a kind of renewable fuel called cellulosic ethanol.

????New technology will be key to the success of the biofuel industry in Kansas, says Frahm, who is on the board of the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation, a state agency that invests in promising businesses using money from the state lottery.

????EdenTechnologies, one of Frahm's favorite KTEC investments, developed the technology to make ethanol out of the inedible parts of corn. "It's just a wonderful example of what we're trying to achieve," he says, turning waste products from one of the state's major crops into something useful.

????Kansas' spaciousness also makes the state a good fit for wind power, Frahm says, as many farmers have hundreds of acres worth of open land. That leaves plenty of room to erect windmills without stirring up the "not in my backyard" issues that come up in more cramped states.

????"You expect the people of Kansas to want government out of our business," says Frahm, whose wife served as a Republican U.S. senator in 1996, and they do. But if biofuels ever take off in the Midwest, Frahm believes Kansas' green movement will have plenty of open space to grow.