The Midwestern Governors Association members voted to make Governor Granholm vice chairwoman for 2008, and they also addressed their ongoing plans to make the Midwest a leader in the development of renewable energy, reducing greenhouse emissions, and energy conservation.

Members of the Midwestern Governors Association on Sunday elected South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds and Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm as their new leaders.

Rounds replaces Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle as chairman, while Granholm will become vice chairwoman. The move makes Granholm the organization’s presumptive chairwoman in 2009.

The governors were in Washington, D.C., over the weekend attending the National Governors Association meeting.

Granholm said the dozen Midwestern governors already are working on Rounds’ and the association’s main focus for the coming year: transportation and infrastructure, which she said tie into climate change and renewable energy.

The region’s governors last November signed an agreement to work together to reduce energy consumption, focus more on renewable energy and limit greenhouse gas emissions.

Part of the energy pact that we signed includes building a “biofuel corridor” through the Midwest, increasing the availability of E85 in stages.

The Democratic governor told the AP that tying transportation and renewable energy together makes sense because “the transportation industry is deeply imbedded in finding solutions to global warning and climate change.” Automakers are building more hybrid cars and developing plug-in electric cars they plan to mass market in coming years.

Granholm said the Midwestern governors want to build a biofuel corridor through the region so that, wherever motorists are driving, the can get off the road and easily find E85 – a fuel that’s 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline – or biodiesel or other alternative fuels.

The Energy Security and Climate Stewardship Platform Plan established by the MGA outlines the goals-

Produce commercially available cellulosic ethanol and other low-carbon fuels in the region by 2012;

Increase E85 availability at retail fueling stations in the region to 15% of stations by 2015, 20% by 2020, and 33% of all fueling stations in the region by 2025;

Reduce the amount of fossil fuel that is used in the production of biofuels by 50% by 2025;

By 2025, at least 50% of all transportation fuels consumed by the Midwest will be from regionally produced biofuels and other low-carbon transportation fuels.

The Platform also establishes a regional biofuels corridor program. The program directs state transportation, agriculture, and regulatory officials to develop a system of coordinated signage across the region for biofuels and advanced transportation fuels and to collaborate to create regional E85 corridors. The program requires standardized fuel product coding at fueling stations as well as increased education for retailers about converting existing fueling infrastructure to dispense E85. The state transportation, agriculture, and regulatory officials are required to report their corridor implementation plans to the Midwest Governors Association by April 1, 2008.

Pictures, video, and other news from the National Governors Association Winter Meeting can be found here.

Congratulations Governor!

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 24th, 2008 at 9:40 pm and is filed under Alternative Energy, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.