Tom Daschle joins Mascoma board

Former Democratic U.S. Senator and Senate Minority and Majority Leader Tom Daschle has joined the board of directors of cellulosic ethanol company Mascoma.

Senator Daschle represented South Dakota, and is a longtime ethanol advocate.

“Senator Daschle brings substantial leadership, ethanol industry and public policy experience to Mascoma. He will help us think strategically about our business and bring relationships needed to develop production facilities,” said Mascoma CEO Bruce Jamerson.

“As a U.S. Senator, I supported numerous public and private efforts to advance the corn ethanol industry in the Midwest, to the point that this is now a multi-billion dollar, domestic renewable fuels industry. I look forward to working with Mascoma, its investors, and its public and private partners to create a complementary cellulosic ethanol industry that spans the entire country, and other locations throughout the world,” said Daschle.

Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures is a founding Mascoma investor.

Daschle previously served more than 25 years in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate where he acted as both Senate Minority and Majority Leader for 10 years. He played an instrumental role in the development of U.S. legislative and regulatory policies.

He was a critic of the Bush administration, and in the 2004 Congressional elections, lost his seat to Republican challenger and former U.S. Representative John Thune. Daschle's Senate term expired on January 4th, 2005.

Daschle's office was one of those that received an anthrax letter in 2001. 

Mascoma is a cellulosic biomass-to-ethanol company with corporate offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Research and Development labs in Lebanon, New Hampshire. It is developing demonstration and commercial scale production facilities in several locations (see Mascoma gets money for cellulosic ethanol demo.)

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