Secure Fence Act of 2006 - Motion to Proceed
SECURE FENCE ACT OF 2006--MOTION TO PROCEED -- (Senate - September 20, 2006)
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Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, on July 24, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed H.R. 5534 by a vote of 355 to 9. This bipartisan legislation seeks to provide grants, not to exceed $30,000, to assist gas station owners and other eligible entities who install alternative fuels such as biodiesel, natural gas and E85 ethanol.
As all of my colleagues know, the American public has been calling on Congress to address our Nation's overdependence upon foreign sources of energy. Senator Salazar from Colorado and I have a bipartisan substitute to the House-passed bill that is currently being held in the Senate at the desk. The substitute has been cleared by the relative committees, as well as by my colleagues on this side of the aisle; however, for some unknown reason, some of my Democratic colleagues have placed secret holds on this very noncontroversial bill.
The Thune-Salazar substitute has the support of the U.S. Automakers Alliance, alternative energy groups, and environmental organizations that have called upon Congress to increase the availability of alternative fuels.
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Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, simply put, our substitute has no budgetary score and simply authorizes future appropriations for the annual penalties collected each year from foreign automakers who violate CAFE standards.
I hope my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will work with Senator Salazar and me to clear this important measure. The House has agreed to take up and pass the Thune-Salazar substitute once it clears our Chamber, allowing the bill to be sent to the President for his signature. In light of the very clear message from the American people that they want Congress to do more to increase the availability of alternative fuels, I hope my colleagues drop any objections they have so this measure can be passed by the Senate.
If we look at the state of the renewable fuel industry today and the state of our energy situation in this country, it is very clear that we need to be doing more to promote the use of alternative energy and renewable fuels.
If you look at the Energy bill that was passed last summer, it included a renewable fuels standard for the first time ever as a matter of policy for this country. We have in law a requirement that a certain amount of renewable fuel--ethanol and other types of bioenergy--be used. Now, that creates a market for ethanol.
We also have on the other side, on the production side, a lot of ethanol plants either currently in production or under construction. In fact, back in my State of South Dakota, we have 11 ethanol plants and 3 others under construction. In just a few short months from now we will be somewhere around a billion gallons of ethanol produced annually.
So we have the production side of it. Our ethanol production is gearing up. We have the market now, the renewable fuels standard we passed last year as a part of the Energy bill, which is something I think was long overdue and much needed in terms of our energy policy in this country.
What we have is a gap in the distribution system. We do not have enough retailers out there, convenience stores, filling stations, that make E-85 available at the pump. In fact, there are 180,000 fuel retailers in this country, and of those only about 600 make E-85 available at the pump.
So what we are talking about is dealing with what, in my view, is a real sort of gap in our system; that is, making all that production that is being brought on line available to consumers in this country who really want to buy and use alternative fuels but do not have access to them because fuel retailers across this country simply do not want to deal with the cost of installing the pumps.
So what this bill does, the Thune-Salazar bill, is provide up to $30,000. The cost for installing a new E-85 pump is considered to be somewhere between $40,000 and $200,000, depending on where you are in the country. But the simple fact is, we think this incentive will go a long way toward filling in that distribution gap so the ethanol production side of it, the supply side of it, can meet the demand; the demand being, of course, the renewable fuels standard we passed last year, as well as Americans' appetite for using renewable fuels and moving increasingly away from our dependence upon foreign sources of energy.
It makes perfect sense. We have an energy crisis in our country. People have reacted with extreme intensity toward $3-a-gallon gasoline. They want to see us take steps that will make America energy independent, that will provide American energy to meet the demands that we have out there in the marketplace, to continue to drive our economy, to provide fuel for those who travel long distances.
I will say, in my State of South Dakota, we are a predominantly agricultural State. We are a State that relies heavily upon tourism. We drive long distances. We are a big user of fuels to get to where we need to go, to get to our destinations--whether it is part of our economy to get to jobs, the marketplace, whether it is farmers in the field or ranchers, or whether it is, again, tourism, which is an important component in our State's economy.
For all these very obvious reasons, we need policies that will make renewable fuels more available to more people in this country. Today, as I said, there is a point in that distribution system that has been closed off. We have the
production over here, the ethanol plants under construction, and those that are already fully operating that are producing more and more ethanol. And we have, again, the demand side, consumers who want to use renewable energy. And we have the renewable fuels standard we passed last summer as part of our policy. There is now a requirement for many of our States to get in compliance with that policy.
What we are missing right now is at the fuel retailer level. This is an opportunity to address that, to do something that is meaningful about lessening our dependence upon foreign sources of energy, about using more American energy, and meeting what is a very serious need in our economy.
So, again, I would refer people to the letters I have included in the RECORD. We have auto manufacturers in this country that are increasingly--you see more and more production of E-85, or what they call flex-fuel vehicles, those vehicles that can use E-85. I have to say, our bill does not preclude other alternative sources of energy from the pumps being installed, from them offering other energy other than E-85.
But I think it is fair to say there is a growing demand in this country for E-85. There are more and more flex-fuel cars being manufactured in America today, as evident from the letter from the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. But all the car companies in this country are building more and more cars that are flex-fuel vehicles that could use E-85.
The simple fact is, they cannot get access to the fuel because it does not exist, because we do not have the number of pumps that are necessary out there to provide people in this country who want to use renewable energy and want to use E-85 the opportunity to do that.
In my State of South Dakota, we have E-85 pumps installed in most of the cities across the State. Where that has been true, the cost of E-85 is somewhere from 50 cents a gallon less to up to $1 a gallon less, in places such as Aberdeen, SD.
But the simple reality is, we could do a lot to help ease the pressure on fuel prices in this country. We could do a lot to lessen our dependence upon foreign sources of energy. We could do a lot to meet the demand that American consumers have for using renewable energy. But today we have this gap in the distribution system, and we need to address that.
This is such a straightforward piece of legislation. It is so clear and obvious that it is supported--broadly supported--with, as I said, a big bipartisan vote of 355 to 9 coming out of the House of Representatives. We have holds on it in the Senate. I do not know what those holds are. The rules of the Senate, obviously, preclude us from knowing who has holds on bills. I, urge and plead with my colleagues on the other side who are holding up this legislation to release those holds.
It is important. This is noncontroversial. It is broadly supported. It is very necessary if we are going to follow through on the commitment we made last summer in the renewable fuels standard we passed in the Energy bill to increase the use of renewable energy in this country.
We have the production out there. These plants are coming on line. We have car manufacturers that are making flex-fuel vehicles. We have a renewable fuels standard in place that requires usage of a certain amount of ethanol, renewable or E-85. We have consumers who I believe are very conscious of, again, lessening our dependence upon foreign sources of energy and supporting American-grown energy.
For all those reasons, this bill makes so much sense. I am at a loss to explain why anybody would put a hold on it. I understand there are lots of cross pressures in an election year, but I hope that will not get in the way of doing what is right for the country, following through on the commitment that was made last year in the Energy bill in the renewable fuels standard, to put in place the distribution system, the mechanism whereby people can have access to renewable energy, to ethanol, E-85, other types of alternative fuels that would be made available under this legislation by allowing these fuel retailers to install the pumps that are necessary to deliver it to the American people.
Again, as I said, I have a letter from the National Association of Convenience Stores which represents all the fuel retailers across the country. It is important this legislation move, that it not get bogged down, and it move before Congress adjourns at the end of next week for the elections this year.
I know my colleague from Colorado is here. He has been a great advocate and supporter of this legislation. I enjoyed very much the opportunity to work with him on this legislation. I think he is as frustrated as I am at some of the secret holds that have been put on this bill. But, again, I would urge my colleagues in this Chamber, and those on the other side who have been obstructing and stopping this from moving forward, to release those holds.
There may be other issues associated with this legislation that I am not aware of, but the reality is that this bill, on the merits, is broadly supported in both Chambers by both parties. It is a necessary part of our energy policy in this country. It is high time, for the good of the American people, that we get it passed.
The Senator from Colorado is here. I am sure he wants to take some time to speak to this issue. But I appreciate his support and hard work to get it to where we are today. I know he shares my interest in getting the holds released and being able to proceed forward.
So, Mr. President, I yield back my time to allow the Senator from Colorado to be heard.
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