A strategy for preparing Iowa to utilize its potential for generating biorenewable energy was recently made available to the public by Iowa State.

The strategy is outlined in the final report of the A Call to Action Summit and is available on the ISU Web site.

The summit, hosted by Iowa State on Nov. 28, 2006, was held to discuss ways to encourage members in state government, business and agriculture to engage in the process of propelling Iowa ahead of the competition in the biorenewable fuel industry.

The report will be distributed to summit participants, Iowa Legislators and the general public through the Internet posting, according to the report.

According to the report, Iowa State will meet with interested legislators during January to discuss the report’s recommendations and specific legislative actions that might be pursued during the 2007 legislative session.

The Assistant Vice Provost for Research at Iowa State, Chitra Rajan, compiled the report directly from recommendations discussed in sessions at the summit. Rajan stressed the importance of establishing a competitive industry before other states gain an advantage.

“If we don’t hurry up and do it, we may lose to some other state taking the initiative and lose the opportunity,” Rajan said.

Rajan said the recommendations were organized in the report according to the different sessions that occurred at the summit.

“Each session came up with recommendations for the specific area that they were focusing on,” Rajan said.

The eight areas outlined ways in which Iowa can improve upon the economic climate to attract biofuel businesses, including plans to encourage Iowa’s schools to better prepare its students to enter into the biofuels industry.

Rajan said that Iowa would benefit the most if all the recommendations were implemented.

“I would not single out any one finding other than to point out that it will take a comprehensive effort to make it work,” Rajan said. “It’s not this or that. It really is a fairly new initiative that will require investments in various areas for us to get it right.”

Even though Rajan has a background in research, she said focusing too much on this one area of the Iowa biofuel industry would be a mistake.

“I’m not going to say that research is more important than something else. I think those recommendations were meant to be comprehensive in scope, recognizing that a growing bioeconomy will have an impact on so many aspects of the state,” Rajan said. “We need to anticipate what our needs would be and be prepared to make the right investment in those areas.”

Jill Euken, assistant director of industry and outreach for the office of biorenewable programs at Iowa State said the summit recommendations have shown up in a lot of publications, including the newsletter sent out by the Iowa Biorenewable Fuels Association.

“I think that it has been very well-received by a number of the industry leaders in the state,” Euken said.