by Steven Savage (Forbes) Last week the governor of Iowa, Terry Branstad, signed a bill which came to him with bipartisan support from the legislature. The measure institutes tax incentives designed to accelerate the growth of the emerging biotech industry that turns crop- and animal-derived feed-stocks into high value, “building block” chemicals. These are climate friendly replacements for chemicals historically derived from oil or natural gas, and they can be used to make everything from plastics to textiles to specialty lubricants to paints and inks to pharmaceuticals. The law was carefully crafted to specifically reward new product development beyond food and fuel, and to provide a larger tax break for new entities while still encouraging innovation by existing players. Governor Branstad told me that his confidence in this kind of business stimulus reflects positive experience from similar programs during his first stint as governor (1983 to 1999).
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Iowa’s Universities are central to this vision. The Center for Biocatalysis and Bioprocessing at the University of Iowa is a major center for research in these fields. The bill signing ceremony was at the Sukup Atrium in the Biorenewables Complex on Iowa State University’s Campus. ISU has an NSF-funded Center for Biorenewable Chemicals (CBiRC). That center’s director, Dr. Brent Shanks, explained to me that the enrollment at ISU has grown in recent years from 27 to 36 thousand students, and that many of those students study Biological and Chemical Engineering or Agronomy. READ MORE
