Florida takes the lead - Other Views - MiamiHerald.com

Florida is leading the way to break our national dependence on foreign oil and build an economy based on clean, American-made energy.

As the former Secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection under former Gov. Jeb Bush, I take pride in Florida's achievements on this front. In the last year of Bush's term we began to lay the groundwork for addressing Florida's climate and energy challenges, and Gov. Charlie Crist was smart to take up this mantle.

It's good for Florida, good for the country and good for our state's environment. As the world focused over the past two weeks on transforming our energy future during discussions in Copenhagen it is important to note that the vision of a clean, green Florida is a reality right now, even as we struggle to emerge from a steep economic slump. And our state can do even better if Congress passes the clean-energy legislation now in front of it.

Let me illustrate: You've heard about ethanol made from corn. But the future is cellulosic ethanol, made from grasses and nonfood crops like sorghum. And Florida -- not Iowa -- is in the lead.

Thanks in part to a generous grant from the Florida Department of Agriculture and the Governor's Energy Office, the nation's first-ever cellulosic ethanol plant is being constructed in Highlands County. The factory will take crops grown right next door on 35,000 acres of Lykes Brothers farmland, and turn them into 36 million gallons of fuel every year.

The facility will create 140 high-paying, permanent, full-time jobs. And the company plans to build a second plant on the Gulf Coast, putting still more people to work. Florida's biofuel industry is developing clean, green jobs here in our state.

And it's not just biofuels. Better batteries w