UC Biofuel Grant Expected, Contractor Sought For New Lab

Word that the regents had already voted to fund the lab building for the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI) lab building stunned critics of the $500 million grant from the former British Petroleum.

While dissenting faculty and students were still marshaling their opposition to the controversial biofuel program funded by BP plc (the initials stand for "public liability corporation, the British equivalent of "inc."), UC Regents had already approved plans for the project's building.

University officials are now seeking a contractor to build the structure, a $125 million, 160,000-square-foot building planned for a steep hillside site in Strawberry Canyon at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL).

Meanwhile, LBNL scientists will learn this morning (Tuesday) if they've won the $125 million Department of Energy grant to fund the second biofuel lab's program headed by the same scientists who will direct the BP program.