The U.S. Secretary of agriculture came to North Carolina to push a plan that may further decrease America's dependence on foreign oil.
Gurnal Scott: USDA secretary Tom Vilsack stood outside the Biofuel Center of North Carolina in Oxford to encourage a new standard in domestically-produced fuel. Vilsack says an E-15 ethanol blend, 15 percent ethanol and 85 percent gasoline, will not only further wean the country from foreign oil but also create jobs. Vilsack says this should be attractive to farm families.
Tom Vilsack: These jobs, by the very nature of where this fuel will be produced, will be in small communities and rural areas. It will allow mothers and fathers and grandads and grandmoms to say to their children and grandchildren that there is opportunity in their small town.
Vilsack says he wants to develop regional research centers as part of a biofuel production strategy. He called North Carolina's biofuel research a national leader toward that goal.
