WASHINGTON - The White House announced earlier this week a $510 million initiative to jumpstart development of a new biofuel industry that eschews corn for non-food crops like algae or wood chips, ABC News reports.

The effort is part of the Obama administration??s effort to reduce U.S. dependency on foreign oil while creating new jobs in rural parts of the country.

The news source notes that the U.S. currently lacks the capacity to produce "drop-in" biofuels, so the new three-year program is expected to stimulate efforts to construct and retrofit new fuel plants.

Private companies that win government contracts to build the new facilities will receive a minimum one-to-one match of federal funds for their investment, with money coming from existing budgets at the U.S. Navy and Energy and Agriculture Departments.

"The idea is that we would help start these new competitive industries, but that they become self-sustaining going forward," said Energy Secretary Steven Chu. The Navy is expected to be the primary early consumer of the new fuels.

"We buy too much fuel from potentially and actually volatile places on earth," said Navy Secretary Ray Mabus. Advanced biofuels will "reduce vulnerabilities??and save costs and lives."

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the program would also create construction jobs, refinery jobs and "economic opportunity in rural communities throughout the country."