Sep. 25--While John McCain and Barack Obama powwowed with President Bush at the White House about saving Wall Street, an Obama adviser visited Sedalia Thursday to tout the Democrat's energy plan.

Daniel M. Kammen, a University of California-Berkeley professor, spent about 15 minutes at The Sedalia Democrat office discussing Obama's plans for affordable, clean energy.

Kammen, who had just visited Centerview's Show-Me Energy Cooperative, lauded the plant's effort to turn farm plant waste into pellets for use at power plants and home stoves.

"The Centerview plant is kind of remarkable," said Kammen.

He cited the ability of the farmer-owned plant to make energy pellets from husks, corn stalks, out-of-condition hay, and soybean and milo stubble -- without using thousands of gallons of water.

"These guys are making fuel with no water," Kammen said. "That's remarkable."

Kurt Herman, chief executive officer of the Show Me Energy, said he thought the hour-long visit to his plant "went very well. They were very knowledgeable, and their interest was very great."

Herman said while ethanol gets a lot of attention, "many people don't really know we exist. ... It's a whole new idea here."

The plant began production June 1, and sells its pellets for use in stoves and to the KCP&L plant to mix with coal.

The plant exemplifies what "the Obama administration wants to promote for two reasons. One is it promotes local U.S. jobs, and it contributes to a low-carbon green friendly plan," Kammen said.

Kammen and two Obama campaign staffers were visiting more than a dozen Missouri cities in a few days.

"It's pretty much all about showing people the key to energy independence is happening right now in Missouri," said Michael Kadish, Missouri policy director for the Obama campaign. "The Obama plan would invest in that, in what's working here today, and create more jobs here rather than continue our dependence on foreign oil."

Kammen, director of the Renewable & Appropriate Energy Laboratory, said the Obama plan would pump $150 billion into developing and putting into the marketplace wind turbines, plug-in hybrid cars and other energy efficient ideas.

"This all started in U.S. labs, but without any deployment plans over the last eight years, very little of that has gotten to the U.S. market," Kammen said.

He said such "deployment" would have contributed to the tax base and better investments and "would have reduced the need for this massive bailout of Wall Street. It's that kind of investing in the next generation of technology that is really vital."

Kammen said that while "corn ethanol is not an ideal feed stock in the long run," it has helped open the market and created competition. He cited as an example the use of 10 percent ethanol at the Missouri gas pumps, which he said has kept prices lower here than on either coast.

"You have ethanol pumps around the city. The diversity means that price fluctuations don't affect you here as quickly," Kammen said.

But, in the long run, Kammen said, producers should go toward more cellulosic forms of fuel, such as switch grass.

"It's unlikely that 10 years from now, corn is going to be the provider of the ethanol market. In terms of building the market today, it's an important player," Kammen said.

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