BP Pulls Funds For Biofuels Institute

Oil giant BP will slash funding for the Energy Biosciences Institute at the University of California, Berkeley. The program, which includes the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, began in 2007 with $350 million pledged by BP for 10 years of research on nonfood cellulosic biofuels. But low oil prices and costs stemming from the 2010 Gulf oil spill mean BP will significantly reduce its remaining $100 million outlay for the program’s final three years. The institute had plans to grow its laboratory experiments to pilot scale and is now looking to other energy companies for funding.