[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 157 (Wednesday, October 17, 2007)]
[House]
[Page H11697]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  CLEAN, SUSTAINABLE, RENEWABLE FUEL PRODUCED IN AMERICA BY AMERICANS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from South Dakota (Ms. Herseth Sandlin) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Ms. HERSETH SANDLIN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to talk about 
energy, about where this Nation's energy should come from, and what 
form it should take. In my view, the answer is clear. Our energy should 
come from America, produced in America, by Americans, with the profits 
staying here at home. It should be clean, sustainable and renewable. 
These should be the overriding considerations for the energy policy 
that we are seeking to implement in this Congress. If we accept these 
criteria, and I think the American people already have, then an 
important part of the solution becomes clear. We must greatly increase 
our capacity to produce, distribute and utilize biofuels.
  Just yesterday, the price of a barrel of oil hit yet another all-time 
high, more than $88 per barrel. A few years ago, this development would 
have been shocking. Yet no one was surprised by the news. We have 
become accustomed to oil prices shattering records every few weeks, and 
$100 oil seems to be a virtual certainty in the near future. Even 
without all the other problems, geopolitical, environmental, supply, 
that flow from our addiction to oil, its price volatility alone 
dictates that we must move in a bold new direction.
  Yet since peaking at $3.20 a gallon in late May, gas prices at the 
pump have declined to an average of about $2.76 a gallon nationwide for 
regular unleaded. What accounts for this? A significant factor in 
bringing retail gas prices down for American families is ethanol. 
According to an article earlier this week in CNN.com, ``Gasoline prices 
have been held down in part by rising supplies of ethanol, which has 
been coming down in price in recent weeks. Ethanol production jumped 34 
percent to 13.1 million barrels a month in July, the latest month for 
which data is available, from July 2006.''
  Even the Wall Street Journal, whose editorial board arguably has been 
biased against and relentless in its disparagement of ethanol, stated 
in a September 21 article that despite recent record-high petroleum 
prices, there is ``another reason for steady gasoline prices: the use 
of ethanol as an additive to gasoline is on the rise. While crude 
prices have soared, ethanol prices have dropped as much as 30 percent 
in recent months. Ethanol costs more than 60 cents a gallon less than 
gasoline, and gasoline suppliers can offset some of the rise in crude-
oil prices by blending their gasoline with small amounts of the cheaper 
fuel.''
  The facts are clear: Ethanol is cleaner and less polluting than 
gasoline. It is grown right here at home with the benefits flowing to 
rural communities rather than foreign governments who may or may not be 
friendly. It is renewable and it is sustainable. Finally, it is cheaper 
than gasoline and helping to keep costs down at the pump for American 
consumers.
  Yet, despite its obvious benefits, since corn farmers started 
producing this product 30 years ago, opponents of the industry, 
primarily Big Oil and its mouthpieces, have never stopped trying to 
undermine it. For many years, ``energy balance'' was the opponents' 
rallying cry. They claimed that ethanol took more units of energy to 
make than it yielded when it was burned. If that was ever true, it 
hasn't been the case in at least the last decade, and countless 
reputable studies have confirmed that fact. With remarkable increases 
in corn yields and ethanol efficiency in recent years, there is no 
question that there is a tremendous net energy gain in the production 
of corn-based ethanol. Yet even the most biased naysayer can no longer 
make that argument with a straight face, and that red herring seems 
finally to be dead.
  Industry opponents now have a new angle of attack, and we are again 
being told that the sky is about to fall. The new argument? Americans 
will go hungry because demand for corn is rising. While we are using 
more corn for energy than we ever have before and demand for that 
product has risen, we have seen only modest increases in food prices, 
and those are attributable to many factors. Just yesterday, Acting 
Agriculture Secretary Chuck Connor indicated he expects food prices to 
increase next year at a moderate rate, in line with where they have 
been in recent years. Because increases in food costs in the country 
have been well below the rate of inflation for many years, this bodes 
well for consumers. He also explained that there were many significant 
factors affecting the cost of food today, including disappointing wheat 
yields around the world and high energy costs.
  Finally, as the farmers in my State have repeatedly told me, there is 
one truism about American agriculture: The cure for high prices is high 
prices. In other words, when the value of a certain commodity goes up, 
farmers will rush to produce more of it. And this year has been as 
clear a demonstration of that as we have ever had in agriculture. 
Futures prices for corn were high this spring, and farmers took that 
into consideration when making their planting decisions. According to 
just-released USDA estimates, corn production for this year is forecast 
at 13.3 billion bushels, 26 percent above 2006. When it's in the bin, 
the 2007 corn crop would be the largest on record, with more acres 
harvested than any year since 1933.
  These facts clearly indicate that American farmers have the ability 
to produce enough corn to meet the needs of U.S. consumers, for both 
food and energy. This is a winning formula for consumers, for 
agriculture and the environment and will propel us toward our ultimate 
goal: Producing clean, sustainable, renewable fuel in America, by 
Americans, with the profits staying here at home.

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