Energy Policy Act of 2005--Continued

Floor Speech

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Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I congratulate the leadership of the Energy Committee, the leadership of the Environment and Public Works Committee, coming to an agreement on this particular amendment we have under consideration here today. This, as my colleague from South Dakota noted, is an issue of great importance to the energy security of our Nation and to our economy.

We have an opportunity here today to put together a bill and meld on the floor of the Senate a couple of different provisions that have come out of different committees of the Senate. The Energy Committee and the Environment and Public Works Committee, on which I serve, dealt with the renewable fuel and ethanol provisions that we reported out this year. What this does is enable us to reconcile, here on the floor, the conflicting or competing, if you will, jurisdictions between those committees. It puts into place an 8-billion-gallon renewable fuel standard.

We are at this point, we are here, and it is long overdue. This Energy bill has been kicking around for several years. Back when President Bush was first elected, the task force was composed, they met, came up with recommendations submitted to the Congress. The Congress subsequently acted in the last session of Congress, only to have the wheels fall off toward the end of the Congress in an environment that probably was more highly politically charged than anything else.

However, the reality is we are here today in the Senate--after the House having passed an Energy bill--with an opportunity to pass an Energy bill in the Senate, to get it into conference, and to come out with a conference report that we can send to the President to be signed into law.

This is an important piece of legislation for a lot of reasons, one of which is the JOBS bill. This is about creating economic opportunity for people in this country. We passed a comprehensive Energy bill which is long overdue. We will have the opportunity to create a lot of jobs for Americans across the country with the various provisions in the bill by adding to the supply of existing energy sources we have, creating new energy sources and diversifying our energy supply in areas I am very interested in, such as renewable fuels. The conservation incentives in this bill are good for America, both for people who purchase cars and for manufacturers who produce cars. There are a lot of things about this bill that are necessary, if we are going to get our country back on track toward the path of energy independence.

Having grown up 30 years ago now, I remember going through an energy crisis, with everyone wringing their hands about how dependent we are on foreign sources of energy. At that time, we were over 50-percent reliant on foreign sources of energy, saying we have to do something about it. Here we are, 30 years later, at 55-percent dependent upon foreign sources of energy.

We still have to get much of our energy supply from other places around the world, places that are very unstable, which create tremendous pressures on us not only in terms of our economy but also our military commitments that are necessary in order to protect those areas of the world that are primary conduits of energy for our country.

It is about the economy. It is about energy security. It is about jobs and about reducing the cost of energy for Americans. Look where gas prices are today. That is why we are where we are. This is a time we have the impetus for getting an Energy bill passed because people are frustrated and are looking to the Congress to act. They go to the pump, and pay over $2 a gallon--in some places well over $2 a gallon--for gasoline. They are looking for Congress to take action that will help address the long-term supply problems we face as a Nation, which are creating this demand today for energy that continues to push prices higher and higher.

This comprehensive Energy bill is an approach which I believe addresses many of the components. Parts of this bill address many of the needs out there, one of which, of course, is additional supply. Not too long ago I had the opportunity to join with a number of my colleagues in the Senate and travel to the North Slope of Alaska. Earlier this year, during debate of the budget, we authorized exploration for energy in Alaska. In my view, when we have a million barrels a day of additional production we could bring online with ease, which will reduce the pressure we have on oil supplies in this country and continue to lessen our dependence upon foreign sources of energy, it is an important part of this debate. So additional supply is part of this discussion.

More particularly, what this amendment deals with, is the comprehensive need for diversifying our energy supply in this country and moving more toward renewable sources of energy. In my State of South Dakota, in the State of Minnesota, in the State of

Iowa, and all across the Midwest, we have rows and rows and rows of corn and rows and rows and rows of soybeans. I look at that as a food source, and it is. We feed it to cattle. We use it in a lot of different ways. However, it can also be converted to energy. A bushel of corn can be converted to 2.5 gallons of ethanol. That puts energy in the pipeline for this country that will lessen our dependence upon foreign sources of energy.

What this amendment does is create a market. It says we are going to have, phased in over a 7-year period, an 8-billion-gallon market opportunity for ethanol producers in this country. That is good for the farmers of the Midwest, the farmers of South Dakota. It puts more money in their pocket. They can take their corn down to an ethanol plant and receive 10 or 15 cents a bushel more for it than they would if they put it on a rail car headed to some terminal elevator somewhere. That is good for the economy and for the farmers of this country. It is good for the consumers of this country, the people who have to buy energy.

Ours is a State with long distances. We are very reliant upon tourism and reliant upon the farm, ranch, and agricultural economy. We are very reliant upon our small businesses who have to get to their destinations. We are a State which is very energy dependent and energy intensive. Our State, similar to many others in the Midwest, spends a lot of money on energy. When gas skyrockets to well over $2 a gallon, it has a profound impact on the ability of our State to attract economic development, to bring the tourists to our State, and to support the economy there. So this is an important issue not only for those who are producing the crops that can be converted into energy but also for those people across this country, those families, those small business people, those farmers, and those ranchers who are faced with higher and higher energy costs. This is an issue that is about our economy.

I would also say that when an ethanol plant is created, it brings a whole new vitality to rural areas. There are a lot of rural areas of our country and many in my State of South Dakota. We have a number of ethanol plants in my State. Each time another comes online, and every time we build another ethanol plant that produces 40 million, 50 million, or 80 million gallons of ethanol a year, it creates 40, 50, or 60 new direct jobs. It also creates a lot of ripple-effect jobs throughout the economy, indirect jobs that help restore and revitalize rural areas of this country, which are struggling for their very survival every day.

This is about the economy of rural areas. It is about the economic impact that passage of this legislation could have on consumers in this country. It is about the jobs that are going to be created in America. That is why, from so many different perspectives, this is good policy. This is something we, as a Congress, ought to be doing. We ought to be looking at those rows and rows and rows of soybeans and those rows and rows and rows of corn and the renewable things we grow every year.

We have a finite petroleum-based product--hydrocarbons and fossil fuels--that compose our energy supply today, but every year we can grow, because of the good work of the farmers in this country. We can continue to grow these products, these commodities, that can be converted into energy sources that will make America more secure going into the future.

An 8-billion renewable fuel standard--and as my colleague from South Dakota mentioned earlier, the House is at 5 billion gallons in their bill--it is important. I would like to see a 12-billion or 15-billion gallon threshold, maybe to the chagrin of some of my colleagues in the Senate who maybe are not as favorably disposed to renewable energy. However, the reality is this is good, clean energy. This is energy that lessens our dependence upon foreign sources of energy that makes our country more energy independent. That is good for the economy of the Midwest.

With all the jobs involved with this, with all the impacts I have mentioned--I also add that it is good for the environment in this country--this is good policy in creating a permanent 8-billion-gallon renewable fuel standard market for ethanol in this country that will put us on a path toward energy independence. It is something we ought to have a lot more of in this country.

I hope, as this legislation moves forward in this process, the 8-billion-gallon renewable fuel standard will be adopted by the Senate and will be part of the bill we send into conference with the House. And when we get to the negotiations with the House, I hope we will be able to retain that level of renewable fuel standards because it is important to America's future.

I urge my colleagues, not only on this amendment but as the bill moves forward, to support this amendment and to resist other amendments that could lessen, in any way, the commitment we are going to make to 8 billion gallons of ethanol for America's future.

It is about jobs. It is about the economy. It is about more dollars in rural areas that will help our farmers and ranchers survive. It is about keeping our small communities going. It is about energy independence for America's future. It is about a stronger, cleaner, and better environment. For all those reasons, I support this amendment.

I am happy to be a part of bringing this to the floor and working with our leadership on the two committees--on the Energy Committee and on the Environment and Public Works Committee--with Senator Inhofe, Senator Jeffords, Senator Domenici, and Senator Bingaman, and with our leadership in the Senate to get to where we are today.

I hope we can push this bill forward, get a bill through the conference, on the President's desk, and signed into law so that the American people will have what they have needed for some time and what this Congress has failed to deliver--and it is high time we did deliver--and that is a comprehensive energy policy for America's future.

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