WASHINGTON, June 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Biotechnology Industry Organization
(BIO) President & CEO Jim Greenwood today announced that global energy
group BP has become the first fully integrated energy company to become a
member of BIO. "BP joins a growing list of forward-looking companies in
BIO's Industrial and Environmental Section, all of whom recognize the key
role industrial biotechnology will play in transforming how we produce
fuels and consumer products in the 21st century. BIO's Industrial and
Environmental Section member companies are all committed to renewable
energy production and sustainable industrial development and they recognize
industrial biotechnology is a key driver for a cleaner, greener and more
secure future," Greenwood stated.
"BP is the first major integrated energy company to join BIO, signaling
an important shift in fuels production that will couple biotechnology with
the use of renewable agricultural feedstocks. Twenty years of research in
genomics, proteomics and bioinformatics is now paying off, and industrial
biotechnology is the enabling technology behind this shift," Greenwood
continued.
Steve Koonin, BP's Chief Scientist said, "BP and its more than 100,000
employees operating across some 100 countries are pleased to become members
of the Biotechnology Industry Organization. We have joined because we
believe that biotechnology will be an important route to new sources of
secure and sustainable energy in the coming decades. We are investing
substantially in alternative energy and have just launched a dedicated
biofuels business to exploit advances in the biosciences -- it will be a
very exciting part of BP's future."
BP's membership in BIO follows their announcement today of a $500
million investment to establish an Energy Biosciences Institute, as part of
its continuing drive to find longer term commercial alternatives to oil and
gas. This research institute will add to BP's investment in alternative
energy and sustainable development, which already includes introduction of
E10 at its fueling stations throughout the world and production of ethanol.
Brent Erickson, executive vice president of BIO's IES, stated,
"Industrial biotechnology has reached a tipping point as biological
processes add tremendous value to industries utilizing biotech processes to
make fuels and chemicals. BP's membership in BIO is a clear sign of the
importance of biotech as an enabling technology. Renewable energy and
chemical production is now leading the way in this new industrial
revolution that is based on evolution and prevention of pollution."
BIO's Industrial and Environmental Section (IES) is one of four
sections within BIO's governance structure; the others are Health, Food and
Agriculture, and Emerging Companies. The IES comprises companies that
develop and utilize biotech-improved microbes or enzymes to convert
agricultural crops and crop residues to biofuels, biocatalysis to produce a
host of chemical and industrial goods, and enzymes for cleaner
manufacturing processes.
BIO represents more than 1,100 biotechnology companies, academic
institutions, state biotechnology centers and related organizations across
the United States and 31 other nations. BIO members are involved in the
research and development of healthcare, agricultural, industrial and
environmental biotechnology products.
SOURCE Biotechnology Industry Organization
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Related links:
http://www.bio.org
CONTACT:
Paul Winters of Biotechnology Industry
Organization, +1-202-962-9237
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