WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) announced today that Mobile resident Robert Sharp has been appointed to the Biomass Research and Development Technical Advisory Committee.
The committee advises the secretaries of Agriculture and Energy on strategies to develop energy from plant material and animal waste, known as biomass.
Sharp has 35 years of experience in the forest products industry. He is president of Forest Marketing Group in Centerville, Tennessee, and operates Mobile Forest Products with partner John Zukley, also of Mobile. Sharp is also a former president of the Alabama Forestry Association.
“I am glad that Bob has been selected to the committee,” Sessions said. “He has a proven track record of success in operating forest product companies that convert renewable forest resources into energy.”
Sharp, along with 11 other new members, will serve a three-year term on the panel, which was established in 2000 by the Biomass Research and Development Act.
“It will be good to have someone in this important position who knows Alabama and our potential to be a major player in the development of alternative energy sources,” Sessions said. “Our country’s dependence on foreign oil is a threat to our national security, so it is critically important that we cultivate the resources we have available to us, such as biomass. It is vital that Alabama be on the cutting edge in connecting wood, switchgrass, corn and other products to energy.”
