I had no idea so many moonshine producers read The State Journal. My column in the June 8 issue, when I castigated an alternate energy policy that stressed ethanol produced from corn, caused some folks to question my intelligence and, more, my patriotism.

Let me be clear, I do not want this nation to continue its increasing dependence on petroleum from oil imported from nations that like our money better than us. There are simply better solutions to gaining energy independence than increasing the costs of food by putting corn in our cars rather than in our stomachs.

One of the great axioms of economics is "resources aren't, they become." Formally useless stuff, called waste, becomes valuable when somebody discovers a way to use it and give it value. That is what recycling is all about.

Some "useless stuff" called "switchgrass" is a better candidate than corn to be turned into ethanol. If you are like most, you may have never heard of switchgrass. It is the tall, hardy, woody grass that is native to most of the U.S. It is best known for so densely covering the midwest prairies that the pioneers' covered wagons just seemed to float on a grassy ocean, earning the wagons the nickname "prairie schooners."

Technically, switchgrass is one of the biofuels called "cellulosic fiber."

Even if it doesn't have a well-heeled lobby to promote it, switchgrass has some desirable characteristics that advance it ahead of corn as a substitute for gasoline. The Oakridge National Laboratory (ORNAL) has provided evidence of the following advantages for switchgrass. Switchgrass is native to most areas of the U.S. (including West Virginia) and highly productive, allowing two or three cuttings each year. It can be grown on marginal land that never could support corn. Unlike corn, switchgrass produces five times the energy used in its production and requires little fertilization. It is environmentally neutral as the greenhouse gases produced when it is burned are sequestered in the crops that are being grown. Its deep-root system prevents erosion and is tolerant of both flooding and drought.

For those readers who think I may be smoking grass rather than advocating it, the ORNAL researchers estimate that, at $40 per ton, more than 40 million mostly idle acres would be planted in switchgrass. That would increase U.S. farm income by more than $6 billion and either supply 7 percent of the nation's electricity or, if used to produce ethanol, displace 250 million barrels of oil. Perhaps it is time to switch our thinking about alternatives to petroleum.

Since we are talking about turning waste into resources, let's focus on something we have lots of in the Mountain State - wood waste. My colleague Christy Risch, using data from West Virginia University's Hardwood Center, prepared a report of its potential for the West Virginia Development Office's Energy Efficiency Program. In addition to the wood wastes used internally in wood dry kilns, there are 2.1 million tons of primary and secondary wood wastes generated here each year. That includes forest residues, mill waste and urban wood from construction. Less than 7 percent is reused. Forest residues and urban wood from construction add another 1.7 million tons.

The current primary energy use for wood waste is electrical generation. All the states surrounding West Virginia have operating wood-fired generators. Wood pellets are a good additive to coal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Particularly in pellets, wood waste has a high BTU content and is easily transported.

With current technology, wood waste plants are not competitive with coal-fired plants, but the unused wood waste in West Virginia could generate up to 700,000 megawatt hours of electricity. This estimate is based only on mill wastes and does not include "slash" that significantly would increase output.

As many other nations and some American states have adopted "energy portfolio standards" requiring a certain percentage of the energy consumption in the jurisdiction to come from renewable or alternative sources, the demand for high BTU wood fuels is expected to accelerate. The current U.S. Congress is considering such a requirement for electrical generation nationwide. That would further increase the demand for wood waste. A major conference on this topic is scheduled for Sept. 5-6 at Shephard University. Our State is in an excellent position to capitalize on this boom.

No one likes those service station signs posting gasoline prices near or above $3 per gallon. But they are a stark advertisement of an essential truth. As a nation, we cannot allow the past to predict the energy future. Before the invention of the gasoline engine, horsepower was directly generated using biofuels, such as grass and wood. It is time to go back to the future.

Cal Kent is vice president of business and economic research at Marshall University.