On Thursday United States military and strategic defense groups toured the University of South Carolina's $19 million biomass facility in Columbia. Officials with the plant said it's the first of it's kind and produces 60,000 lbs. of steam an hour.

The facility was created in 2007 as a long term solution to the school's rising energy costs. It now provides 85-percent of the campus' heat requirements in winter.

Matt Rojansky is the Executive Director of the Partnership for a Secure America and said converting biomass into affordable and useable energy is among the nation's top security priorities and could help reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil.

"When we send those dollars overseas that many times supports radical or extremist groups that want to hurt or destroy the United States, we are literally putting money in Osama Bin Ladens pocket," said Rojansky.

Rojansky said converting biomass into affordable and useable energy is among the nation's top security priorities and could help reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil.

"I think basically our reliance on foreign fuels undercuts our diplomacy, it causes us to have military people deployed around the world in dangerous places and it economically drains us," said Vice Admiral Dennis McGinn of the Naval Analysis Military Advisory Board. McGinn said creating clean energy will allow the U.S. to stay competitive with other countries and what they're doing at USC can be a big part of that part.

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