Published: September 29, 2009 07:51 am      

Chandler lavished with praise for EKU funding

Eastern Kentucky University and state officials lavished praise on U.S. Ben Chandler, D-Sixth District, on Tuesday as he visited the campus to get an update on EKU’s bio-fuels partnership.

In December, Chandler announced $4 million in federal funds he had “earmarked” for the project.

In addition to the federal government and General Atomics of San Diego, the partners include local governments in Clark County, the LexTran bus system in Fayette County and BioFuel of Estill County.

If successful, the project would use algae to produce motor fuels by consuming cellulose found in switchgrass and other plants, according to Dr. Bruce Pratt, who chairs the EKU agriculture department.

“This is a long-term project that could take 10 years or more to yield results,” he said.

At present, the partners are using the federal funds to conduct technical and economic research that eventually could lead to construction of a bio-fuels plant in Clark County, he said.

Ideally, the plant would use switchgrass grown by farmers within 50 miles of the plant that algae would convert to motor fuel, Pratt said. The process also may be able to consume farm wastes such as corn stover, saw dust and pulp-mill residues.

The fuel would be consumed within the region where it is generated. Researchers also will study whether the algae oil could be used to manufacture pharmaceuticals, plastics and other products.

The switchgrass, which is not a food product, likely will be grown on land where tobacco once grew and even on former strip mines, Pratt said. Thereby, the project will not compete with food production, he said.

EKU President Doug Whitlock said Pratt will be leaving his agriculture post to head a newly created Center for Renewable and Alternative Fuels (CRAFT).

The project is an interdisciplinary effort also involving EKU’s chemistry, biology and economics departments, the president said.

By this spring, research crops will be planted at EKU’s Meadow Farm and by the Clark County Industrial Development Authority, according to information provided by the university.

Other research will focus on determining optimal crops, land availability and transportation needs.

Whitlock said he believed that the CRAFT project had helped propel EKU from a third-tier to a first-tier institution in recent ranking published by some national magazines.

Chandler recalled the 1970s when “there was a great rush to do something” about energy costs. “But (before) too long, gas prices went down, the lines (at service stations) went away and we didn’t do what ought to have been done.” After $4-plus gas prices of a year ago, “we now understand again how important it is to be independent.”

In addition Chandler’s $4 million earmark, CRAFT has received $350,000 from the Appalachian Regional Commission, $270,000 from the Kentucky Agriculture Development Board, and $27,000 from the Carl D. Perkins Fund.

Three other sizable federal grant requests are pending with the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense, according to information from the university.

The “earmark” label is applied to funds for specific projects that members of Congress have written into federal spending legislation.

The practice has gotten a bad name, said Whitlock, who asked, “How can money that does so much good get a bad name?”

“Who better to decide how tax dollars are spent than people the citizenry has elected to represent us?”

That process is to be preferred over “unelected bureaucrats deciding how to spend our money,” the president said.

“We are 100 percent dedicated to demonstrating that we will be wonderful stewards (of federal, state and other funding) and that the outcomes will be significant,” Whitlock said. “We’re fortunate to have a governor and Sixth District congressman who both see this as an opportunity for Kentucky to be in the forefront of something.”

As Chandler arrived for the 9 a.m. program in EKU’s Keen Johnson Building, two student protesters sat near the Daniel Boone statue holding a sign that read, “Ben Can’t Win 2010.”

When the congressman departed more than an hour later, the students had moved across University Drive to the campus ravine, where they were joined by two other students, one of whom held a sign reading, “My Old Kentucky Town Hall 2009?”

Stuart Warren of Harrodsburg said they were protesting Chandler’s failure to hold public meetings with constituents during the late-summer congressional recess.

At “town hall” meetings around the country, U.S. senators and representatives were confronted by hecklers who oppose the Obama administration’s health-care and climate-change initiatives confronted.

Asked about their change of location, Warren said the students had been told by EKU Police Chief Mark Merriman to register with the Student Life office and move to a “free speech zone” on campus.

Warren was joined in the ravine, a designated free-speech zone, by Jacob and Josh Hamm of Richmond and Jordan Yurt of Lexington. As Chandler entered a vehicle to depart from campus, he ignored the student’s chant, “Ben can’t win 2010.”

Bill Robinson can be reached at brobinson@richmondregister.com or at 624-6622.