Harking, Obama, Lugar Introduce Legislation to Increase Availability and Use of Renewable Fuels, Decrease U. S. Dependence on Foreign Oil

HARKIN, OBAMA, LUGAR INTRODUCE LEGISLATION TO INCREASE AVAILABILITY AND USE OF RENEWABLE FUELS, DECREASE U.S. DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL

U.S. Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA), Barack Obama (D-IL) and Richard Lugar (R-IN) announced today that they have introduced comprehensive legislation to both increase the production of renewable fuels like ethanol, and make that expanded volume of fuel more widely available to motorists nationwide. Harkin is the incoming Chairman of the Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee.

"As a matter of national security, I believe we must wean ourselves off our dependence on foreign oil," Harkin said. "We as a nation should be doing more to accelerate the development and use of clean, domestic renewable energy. This bill directly addresses one of the most critical pieces of a strong national energy transition policy."

"To become truly energy independent, we need not only to increase domestic production of renewable fuels like ethanol, but also make sure that the pumps are widely available to distribute the fuel and that automakers produce more vehicles that can use the fuel," Obama said. "This legislation will greatly reduce our dependence on foreign oil and strengthen farm income by increasing both supply of and demand for biofuels."

"U.S. policies should be targeted to replace hydrocarbons with carbohydrates. Obviously this is not a short-term proposition, but we can off-set a significant portion of demand for oil by giving American consumers a real choice of automotive fuel. This bill will help tilt our energy balance toward alternative fuels, moving these fuels into additional markets and making them more widely available for consumers," said Lugar.

The American Fuels Act of 2007 would help greatly decrease U.S. dependence on foreign oil by increasing production, distribution and consumption of renewable fuels. The bill would increase production by mandating an increase in the creation of biodiesel, and by providing tax credits to spur new investment in cellulosic biomass fuels, which are considered the next generation in renewable fuels.

It would also create a robust biofuel distribution network by ensuring that oil companies aren't prohibiting the sale of renewable fuels, and would provide a tax credit that would encourage more ethanol producers to blend and sell their fuels on-site without the added cost of shipping the ethanol to oil refineries.

Finally, the bill would increase the use of renewable fuels by providing tax credits to increase production of ethanol-capable vehicles, requiring the entire federal vehicle fleet to be fuel-efficient by 2014, and requiring buses purchased with federal funds to use clean technologies.

The bill will work in concert with legislation introduced yesterday by Senators Harkin, Obama, Lugar, Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and Joe Biden (D-DE) that would increase the supply and demand for renewable fuels by blending 60 billion gallons of ethanol and biodiesel in the United States motor vehicle fuel supply annually by the year 2030.

http://harkin.senate.gov/news.cfm?id=267231