Click here to listen to Newsradio 620 WTMJ's Jay Sorgi report on UW's new grant to turn grass into gas for your car, along with other energy applications.

UW-Madison is getting a boatload of cash to find ways to turn stuff you might find in your lawn and garden into fuel.

The U.S. Department of Energy has given UW $125,000,000 to find a way to turn grass, wood chips, and other plants into fuel - the kind that could both power your car and power the electric company.

UW said it would turn the grant into the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, partnering with the University of Florida and Michigan State.

The Wisconsin state legislature, along with private sector funding, could add another $100,000,000 to the project.

It's meant to find alternative fuels to use as ethanol, part of an effort of the Bush Administration to drop gas consumption by 20 percent in the next 10 years.

(Photos: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)