(2004-06-03) -- The White House cannot prove that CIA Director George Tenet has resigned, according to Democrat presidential hopeful John Forbes Kerry, therefore "no action should be taken to replace him."

Mr. Kerry, who is also a U.S. Senator, called for a United Nations investigation into Bush administration claims that Mr. Tenet had stepped aside for "personal reasons."

"We’ve learned to look askance at CIA data interpreted by this administration," said Mr. Kerry. "Only the U.N. can legitimately determine the truth in this matter."

If the White House claim can be proved by a multilateral probe team, then Mr. Kerry said he would support appointing a new CIA chief with the advice and consent of the U.N. Secretary-General

-Biotechnology process changes allow for ethanol transportation fuel production not only from corn but from cellulosic biomass such as crop residues; bioethanol from cellulose generates 8 to 10 times as much net energy as is required for its production. It is estimated that one gallon of cellulosic ethanol can replace 30 gallons of imported oil equivalents.

-The closed-loop nature of using cellulosic biomass to produce bioethanol can contribute substantially to the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions and can help provide a partial solution to global warming. DOE estimates cellulosic ethanol production would absorb more CO2 than would be emitted by its use.

-Biotechnology process changes in the textile finishing sector reduce water usage by about 17–18%, cost associated with water usage and air emissions by 50–60%, and energy demand for bleaching by about 9–14%. Textile mills may cut water consumption by as much as 30–50% by using biotechnology. Industry-wide use of biotechnology in the textile finishing industry would save about 3 trillion Btu per year—about the equivalent of one natural gas combined-cycle power plant or the electricity consumed by 28,120 homes in one year.

-Biotechnology process changes in plastics production replace petrochemical feedstocks with feedstocks made from organic material such as corn, thereby reducing demand for petrochemicals by 20–80%. Because these bioplastics are biodegradable, their use could also reduce plastics in the waste stream by up to 80%. Bioplastics made from PLA can be composted instead of disposed in landfills or incinerators. More than 80 billion pounds of plastic products are produced annually in the United States. Of that, 1 billion pounds are biobased plastics. If all plastics were made from biobased polylactic acid, oil consumption would decrease by 90–145 million barrels per year.

-Biotechnology process changes in the production and bleaching of pulp for paper reduce the amount of chlorine chemicals necessary for bleaching by 10–15%. If applied across the industry, these process changes could reduce chlorine in water and air as well as chlorine dioxide by a combined 75 tons per year. The biotechnology process also lowers wastewater toxicity including less of the very toxic dioxin.