News and Music Discovery
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Tennessee Lawmakers Question Biofuels

By Angela Hatton

Nashville, TN – Some Tennessee lawmakers say they were misled in approving 70-million dollars for an initiative to turn switchgrass into ethanol and have delayed approval on part of the project. The Joint Fiscal Review Committee heard a report yesterday on University of Tennessee's Biofuels Initiative that said the project cannot be self-sufficient as originally promised. The committee delayed its approval of a contract amendment that involves about 11-million dollars of the funding. The company president running the project defended changes and said taxpayers still stand to make "a significant return on their investment" in the long term.