DES MOINES- The Department of Energy will spend up to $375 million on bioenergy research centers in California, Tennessee and Wisconsin.

Iowa State University will have a role in the center at the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center in Madison, Wis., but the three sites named will receive most of the funding.

In announcing the sites Tuesday, U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman noted that the United States must move beyond its reliance on foreign oil _ and on corn ethanol as an alternative.

“Corn ethanol has its virtues, but it also has its limits … ” he said. “We need to learn to make bio fuels cost effectively from cellulose. The investment is high risk, but we expect they will show us the way to overcome the barriers.”

In addition to Madison, the centers will be at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory near Berkeley, Calif.