British Petroleum announces it has selected the University of California, Berkeley, in partnership with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Illinois to lead an unprecedented $500 million research effort to develop new sources of energy and reduce the impact of energy consumption on the environment.

British Petroleum announces it has selected the University of California, Berkeley, in partnership with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Illinois to lead an unprecedented $500 million research effort to develop new sources of energy and reduce the impact of energy consumption on the environment.

The funding will create the Energy Biosciences Institute which initially will focus its research on biotechnology to produce biofuels--that is, turning plants and plant materials, including corn, field waste, switchgrass and algae, into transportation fuels.