Today, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell will be in Spokane to highlight a new jet-biofuel program to encourage farmers in Eastern Washington to plant up to 11,000 acres of camelina for biofuel production. Cantwell will encourage farmers to apply to Washington state’s first large-scale program for the growing of camelina sativa, a promising feedstock for aviation biofuels that can be grown in rotation with wheat. The meeting is for press only but expect more information soon.

Cantwell will be joined by Washington State University crop scientist Scot Hulbert, Washington State Farm Bureau representative Bill Warren, Sustainable Oils President Scott Johnson and Steve Camp, a Whitman County farmer who successfully grew a test plot of camelina.

August is the first month that Eastern Washington farmers can apply for the new Biomass Crop Assistance Program, run by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). This significant step forward will support Eastern Washington farming jobs and provide the necessary feedstock to support hundreds of jobs at a planned biofuel refinery in Western Washington, expected to go online in 2014. The camelina will be used as a feedstock for sustainable, low-carbon aviation fuel. 

Cantwell has been a longtime advocate for biofuel innovation, and recently chaired a hearing of the Senate Aviation Subcommittee on aviation biofuels.

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