1.This Act may be cited as
the Ethanol Infrastructure Expansion
Act of 2006
.
2.Congress finds that—
(1)it is in the
national interest to make greater use of ethanol in transportation
fuels;
(2)ethanol is a
clean, renewable fuel that provides public health benefits in the form of
reduced emissions, including reduced greenhouse gas emissions that cause
climate change;
(3)ethanol use
provides economic gains to agricultural producers, biofuels producers, and
rural areas;
(4)ethanol use
benefits the national security of the United States by displacing the use of
petroleum, much of which is imported from foreign countries that are hostile to
the United States;
(5)ethanol can
reduce prices at the pump for motoring consumers by extending fuel supplies and
due to the competitive cost of ethanol relative to conventional
gasoline;
(6)ethanol faces
shipping challenges in pipelines that transport other liquid transportation
fuels;
(7)currently ethanol
is efficiently shipped by rail tanker cars, barges, and trucks, all of which
could, as ethanol production expands, encounter capacity limits due to
competing use demands for the rail tanker cars, barges, and trucks;
(8)as the United
States ethanol market expands in the coming years there is likely to be a need
for dedicated ethanol pipelines to transport ethanol from the Midwest, where
ethanol generally is produced, to the Eastern and Western United States;
(9)as of the date of
enactment of this Act, dedicated ethanol pipelines do not exist in the United
States and will be challenging to construct, at least initially;
(10)Brazil has
already shown that ethanol can be shipped effectively via pipeline; and
(11)having an
ethanol pipeline study completed in the very near term is important because the
construction of 1 or more dedicated ethanol pipelines would take at least
several years to complete.
3.In this Act, the
term Secretary means the Secretary of Energy.
4.
(a)The Secretary, in coordination with the Secretary of
Agriculture and the Secretary of Transportation, shall spend up to $1,000,000
to fund feasibility studies for the construction of dedicated ethanol
pipelines.
(b)
(1)The Secretary shall—
(A)through a
competitive solicitation process, select 1 or more firms having capabilities in
the planning, development, and construction of dedicated ethanol pipelines to
carry out the feasibility studies described in subsection (a); or
(B)carry out the
feasibility studies in conjunction with such firms.
(2)
(A)If the Secretary elects to select 1 or more firms under
paragraph (1)(A), the Secretary shall award funding under this section not
later than 120 days after the date of enactment of this Act.
(B)As
a condition of receiving funds under this section, a recipient of funding shall
agree to submit to the Secretary a completed feasibility study not later than
360 days after the date of enactment of this Act.
(c)Feasibility studies funded under this Act shall include
consideration of—
(1)existing or
potential barriers to dedicated ethanol pipelines, including technical, siting,
financing, and regulatory barriers;
(2)market risk,
including throughput risk, and ways of mitigating the risk;
(3)regulatory,
financing, and siting options that would mitigate risk in these areas and help
ensure the construction of 1 or more dedicated ethanol pipelines;
(4)financial
incentives that may be necessary for the construction of dedicated ethanol
pipelines, including the return on equity that sponsors of the first dedicated
ethanol pipelines will require to invest in the pipelines;
(5)ethanol
production of 20,000,000,000, 30,000,000,000, and 40,000,000,000 gallons per
year by 2020; and
(6)such other
factors that the Secretary considers to be appropriate.
(d)If
a recipient of funding under this section requests confidential treatment for
critical energy infrastructure information or commercially-sensitive data
contained in a feasibility study submitted by the recipient under subsection
(b)(2)(B), the Secretary shall offer to enter into a confidentiality agreement
with the recipient to maintain the confidentiality of the submitted
information.
(e)The Secretary shall—
(1)review the
feasibility studies submitted under subsection (b)(2)(B) or carried out under
subsection (b)(1)(B); and
(2)not later than 15
months after the date of enactment of this Act, submit to Congress a report
that includes—
(A)information about
the potential benefits of constructing 1 or more dedicated ethanol pipelines;
and
(B)recommendations
for legislation that could help provide for the construction of dedicated
ethanol pipelines.
5.There is authorized to be appropriated to
the Secretary to carry out this Act $1,000,000 for fiscal year 2008, to remain
available until expended.