On November 3, 2010 a Biofuels Round Table Forum was held at El Yunque National Rain Forest Park in the municipality of Río Grande, Puerto Rico.
The main objective of this meeting was to share the contents of the USDA Biofuels Strategic Production Report with local stakeholders and to obtain feedback to identify local efforts directed to complying with set goals of EPA’s Renewable Fuels Standard mandate of producing and consuming 36 billion gallons of biofuels annually by 2022.
The activity was organized by members of the Food and Agricultural Council (FAC) of Puerto Rico, Juan M. Ortiz-Serbiá, USDA-Farm Service Puerto Rico Director and Chair of the PR FAC, José Otero-García, USDA Rural Development State Director for Puerto Rico, Edwin Almodovar, NRCS Director for the Caribbean Area and Pablo Cruz, USDA Forest Service Supervisor.
The moderator of the forum was Dr. Luis Perez Alegría, Professor at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez Campus.
The meeting gathered over 90 participants, including a Representative of the Governor, local elected officials, state officials, academia members from community colleges and universities, farmers, representatives from the Biofuels industry and Hon. Pedro Pierluissi, Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico in the U.S. Congress.
The discussion proved to be one of much interest and concluded with an agreement to realize future follow up meeting to discuss further local policy on Biofuels and analyze the feedback from the panelist group and participants.
Puerto Rico’s FAC Committee will send the recommendations of the Forum to the Office of Secretary Tom Vilsack.
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