Secure Fence Act of 2006
SECURE FENCE ACT OF 2006 -- (Senate - September 26, 2006)
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ENERGY INDEPENDENCE FOR AMERICA
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, as we wind down this legislative session in this last week, we have a lot of work to do on the agenda. We have bills dealing with port security, Homeland Security appropriations, Defense appropriations, and border security, which is the subject of discussion right now, the Secure Fence Act of 2006, and those are probably going to be the things on which we can find consensus. We can add to that the issue of how we deal with detainees and continue to acquire high-value intelligence that will enable us to prevent future terrorist attacks. That legislation is coming down the pike, too. So we have a lot of things to vote on in the last few days before the election. And the assumption, of course, is that we will probably come back in after the election to wrap up some of the outstanding issues.
There are other pieces of legislation that could be dealt with in this period--legislation that is without controversy, legislation that has been acted on by the House of Representatives and on which there is broad bipartisan agreement. It seems to me, at least at this point in the legislative session, that in order to get these bills through, it is going to take considerable agreement on both sides of the political aisle, with enough critical mass behind them to get them through.
I have a bill that fits into that category. I have come to the Senate floor on a couple occasions to speak about it. It has been cleared by the House of Representatives by a vote of 355 to 9. Now it is sitting here, and Senator Salazar from Colorado and I have a substitute amendment to that, and as soon as it is picked up and the Senate passes it, it goes back to the House. The House has indicated that if we send it back, they will pass it. Then we can put it on the President's desk.
The bill has to do with an issue that I think is on the minds of a lot of Americans--energy independence. It is a fairly straightforward issue. As I have explained previously on the floor, it has to do with closing the gap in the distribution system between the production of ethanol, the supply of renewable energy in this country, and the demand for it, the ultimate consumer of renewable energy.
Right now, as you know, in the last year we passed an energy bill which required, for the first time ever, certain use of ethanol in this country--7.5 billion gallons by 2012. We are ramping up to that level now. In South Dakota, we already have 11 ethanol plants. We have three under construction, and in a short period we will be at a billion gallons a year--just in South Dakota. If you add to that the production underway in the Chair's home State of Minnesota and other States in the Midwest, there is a tremendous amount of ethanol that is in the pipeline. We have now a requirement that States around the country have to meet that 7.5 billion. I think we also have a very robust demand for it because people in this country realize that if we are going to get serious about energy independence, we have to begin shifting away from some of the types of energy that we get from other places around the world. This is American energy, homegrown energy, renewable energy. We can raise it every year. We have a corn crop every year that can be converted into gallons of ethanol. We have other types of biomass materials that, raised in places such as the Midwest, are on the cusp in terms of the technology that will soon be available. One is switch grass. There is a research project at South Dakota State University right now looking at the probability in the near future of having the essential ingredients and processes that will enable us to make ethanol out of switch grass, something that is in abundance in the upper Midwest.
This movement toward renewable energy, American-grown energy, is long overdue. People are demanding that we begin to move in that direction. We have a renewable fuel standard, as a result of the Energy bill that passed, which is a great success for moving in that direction. We have, as I said, a lot of production now that is currently on line, with additional plants under construction. What we are missing is the method by which that ethanol or other renewable fuels--bioenergy--is distributed to consumers in this country.
Right now, we have about 180,000 filling stations in America, and only about 800 of those make available E85 or other alternative fuels. If you do the math on that, that is 1 filling station for every 10,000 cars that are currently capable of using E85 or some other form of alternative energy. The Auto Alliance--and probably Members of this Chamber have seen them--has run ads in some of the publications in town saying that today there are 9 1/2 million cars on the road that can use alternative sources of energy. ``Flex-fuel vehicles'' is how we refer to them in most cases. If you look at the 9 1/2 million cars already on the road and those currently in production, the car manufacturers are gearing up to come up with more vehicles that can run on alternative sources of energy, primarily 85.
We have an enormous opportunity out there, a great potential for increasing usage of ethanol and renewable fuels, thereby lessening our dependence upon foreign sources of energy, which has implications for our economy, for our national security, and foreign policy.
This is a win-win. This is flatout a no-brainer for America and for the Senate. Yet we have a hold--a secret hold--by someone on the Democratic side that is preventing this bill from moving forward.
Mr. President, I understand the traditions and the rules of the Senate allow for that sort of thing to happen, but whoever it is--and I have my suspicions about who it is--who has a hold on the bill, I wish they would come forward and defend that hold. This is a noncontroversial piece of legislation which has broad bipartisan support, has passed the House with a 355-to-9 vote, and is ready for action in the Senate. But as of right now, it is being held up by someone on the other side. Again, I don't know who that is. I would like to know who that is and have the opportunity to visit with them to find out what their objection is.
The reality is that this is a piece of legislation which makes so much sense for our economy and, as I said, for our need for energy independence, to have American energy so we can get away from our dependence on foreign sources of energy. It is good for the environment. There are so many benefits to moving this legislation forward. Again, it is heading in a direction that gets us away from dependence upon foreign energy and more energy independence in this country.
I come to the floor to urge my colleagues--it has been cleared on the Republican side. It is ready for action in the House. It is teed up to go there; we have talked with our colleagues in the House. It passed once there.
The amendment Senator Salazar and I have offered, the substitute amendment, is a modification of that bill, but it keeps in place the basic concept of the bill. Very simply, in terms of explanation, it provides up to a $30,000 cash incentive for fuel retailers to install pumps that would provide E85 or other types of energy. The average cost to install that pump is somewhere between $40,000 and $200,000, depending on where you are in the country. We believe the convenience stores and the gas stations across this country would take advantage of this if it were in place. It would do something about this ratio I just mentioned where we have 1 filling station for every 10,000 cars in this country that are capable of running on E85 or some other form of alternative energy.
Again, I commend this to my colleagues in the hopes that we can move ahead. We have a few days left this week before everybody heads home for the elections. We don't know what will happen with the elections. This is legislation which, as I said, is broadly supported on a bipartisan, bicameral basis and has the support of the auto manufacturers across the country and the National Association of Convenience Stores. I submitted letters previously for the RECORD expressing the support of the entire ethanol industry and environmental groups. I think it has been cleared on the Republican side, and I hope that whoever on the Democratic side who has placed a hold on the bill will make that known so we can discuss what the objection is and, hopefully, clear it for action so we can get something meaningful done about the issue of energy security before Congress goes home for the elections.
Mr. President, I raise the issue again, and I urge and ask and request that my colleagues work together to accomplish what I think is a very important objective before we leave for the election; that is, moving America in the direction of lessening our dependence upon foreign energy, becoming energy independent, and helping to address the issue of high gas prices in this country. This bill would do that. I simply ask my colleagues to work with me to get that done.
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