Kaptur Touts Biofuels at Pentagon Conference

KAPTUR TOUTS BIOFUELS AT PENTAGON CONFERENCE

U.S. Representative Marcy Kaptur says biodiesel and biofuels can assist in national security because "America's chief strategic vulnerability is our dependence on imported fuel from some of the most repressive kingdoms and nations in the world."

Congresswoman Kaptur, a member of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, spoke at a recent conference on bio-based products at the Pentagon.

Also attending were Secretary Gordon England of the United States Air Force, Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns, U.S. Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) and U.S. Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa).

The Pentagon-sponsored conference supports the Defense Department's "green procurement" program and Section 9002 of the farm bill, which directs federal agencies to establish procurement preference programs for biobased products.

Congresswoman Kaptur, a longtime supporter of ethanol, said the Midwestern states "have a better idea" when it comes to supplying America's energy needs.

"We have a big job to do, and there could be no more important department of the United States than the Department of Defense," Congresswoman Kaptur said, working together with the Department of Agriculture.

"Our country expects great things of us. And the challenge to us: will we deliver it and meet the test of a new age and new millennium?"

http://www.kaptur.house.gov/PressRelease.aspx?NewsID=1566