The enormous potential to utilize biomass to create sustainable bioproducts and bioenergy was the focus of the Fourth Biomass Conference of the Americas held in Oakland, California in early September. Organized by the California Energy Commission, the United States Department of Energy (DEO), Natural Resources Canada and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the conference brought together 500 participants from around the world to report progress in achieving value-added products derived from biomass.

Since the conference took place less than a month after President Clinton's Executive Order on Biobased Products and Bioenergy, the Oakland sessions had an extra aura of relevance. The Executive Order sets a goal of tripling U.S. use of biomass by 2010, which could generate $15 billion in new income and reduce carbon emissions by the equivalent of taking 70 million cars off the road. An Interagency Council of Biobased Products and Bioenergy was also established, with representatives from the heads of the federal Agriculture, Commerce, Energy and Interior departments, the EPA, the Office of Management and Budget, and the National Science Foundation. The first annual strategic plan for achieving goals for "safe and affordable supplies of food, feed and fiber" is April, 2000.

IMPACT ON GLOBAL WARMING

Over the past decade, the biomass utilization field has been driven largely in response to oil supply disruptions and the challenge of meeting the Kyoto agreement on global warming