Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen has fired back at critics of a switchgrass-to-ethanol program at the University of Tennessee, who claimed they had been misled about the direction of the project, according to the Associated Press.

The governor said Thursday that a legislative staff member who criticized state-backed initiative to turn switchgrass into ethanol was endangering chances to land a large investment for east Tennessee.

A report on the University of Tennessee's Biofuels Initiative presented to the Fiscal Review Committee on Wednesday was highly critical of changes in the project since it was first announced. One of the criticisms was that DuPont was using corn stover instead of switchgrass to produce ethanol at a pilot plant. Gov. Bredesen said changes to the project had been approved in public meetings.

(Associated Press, Nov. 7, 2009)
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