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Researcher: current ethanol production a "transitional" step BISMARCK, ND (NDPR) - A Nobel Prize winner and California laboratory director says corn-and-sugar-based ethanol is only a transition step as biofuels production changes and becomes more efficient and economical.

Dr. Steve Chu is the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Chu was the featured speaker at the Renewable Fuels Action Summit in Bismarck.

Chu says the use of grasses and plant stalks to produce renewable fuels is only a few years away. But he says there is a concern about how it will affect current ethanol and bio-diesel manufacturing.

"The concern is -- you made all these bio-refineries for doing corn -- are they now wasted five to ten years from now," Chu told reporters. "The hope is 'no,' that what we're looking at is changing the microbes that can munch on the cellulose, convert it to fuel -- and actuall go even further than that, and say 'Ethanol's a start -- but it's not the be-all, end-all.'"

Chu also says it isn't fair to blame higher food costs on ethanol production.

"Biofuels is about a couple of percent (of corn production)," said Chu. "That alone can't distort food prices."

Instead, Chu says it's the cost of energy to produce and transport the food.

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