Jul. 4--LAS CRUCES U.S. Rep. Harry Teague, D-N.M., on Friday announced legislation he plans to introduce next week that would promote university biofuel-engineering programs.

The legislation would provide government funding for biofuels engineering training centers as well as provide for government fellowships to undergrads and graduate students studying biofuels engineering.

"What we need to do is replace oil imported from places like Venezuela and Iran with American sources of energy, including home-grown biofuels. By doing this, we create new jobs in America, keep our money here in America and bolster our national security," Teague said, speaking at New Mexico State University next to the institution's "green mini Baja" equipped with a 7-horsepower diesel engine NMSU plans to run on university lab-produced biodiesel. Teague said NMSU is "primed to be the center of the national biofuels industry."

Provost Waded Cruzado said the legislation "aims to train the next generation of energy professionals." Biofuel production, an emerging industry in New Mexico, converts biomass or plantlife directly into liquid biofuel for transportation and is well suited to the state's high altitude, low moisture and hot summers. Cruzado said such production "will free America from oil dependence."

Chemical engineering department head Martha Mitchell then

took Teague to several of the department's renewable energy projects the Freeport McMoRan water lab, used to test water quality and able to test biodiesel; the biodiesel supercritical reactor, where chemical engineering professor Shuguang Deng told him about the process of turning waste vegetable oil and algae into biodiesel in a single step; and a high-pressure Pfaudler kettle that can be used to prepare biodiesel.

Teague's "Energy Independence Tour" has also included stops at renewable energy facilities, which make fuel from plants, algae and animal renderings.

Ashley Meeks can be reached at ameeks@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5462.

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