[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 16]
[House]
[Pages 22920-22921]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


[[Page 22920]]

                BIOFUELS ENERGY INDEPENDENCE ACT OF 2001

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, this week, while our troops are in the field 
in the Middle East and Central Asia, President of the United States 
George Bush issued an executive order to expand the United States' 
Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and I emphasize the words ``petroleum 
reserve,'' to maximize, as the President said, long-term protection 
against oil supply disruptions. And again I emphasize the word ``oil.''
  With all due respect to the President, at this time in our country's 
history, I think he is moving in exactly the wrong direction. The 
Strategic Petroleum Reserve's name should be changed to the Strategic 
Fuels Reserve. And in lieu of what is happening, we should begin to 
move our country in a new, nonpetroleum direction. We have to go beyond 
the petroleum age.
  Under the President's executive order, our Energy Secretary, Spencer 
Abraham, was ordered to increase the current reserve from its level of 
545 million barrels, because it is not filled up, to 700 million 
barrels, calling the reserve an important element of our Nation's 
energy security. Indeed, having a strategic fuels reserve is in the 
Nation's security interests. However, the President needs to think 
about moving America toward energy independence, not keeping us wedded 
to the petroleum age.
  And let me just reference this chart. If we look back to the 1980s, 
the amount of petroleum that is used annually has slowly been rising. 
The share of petroleum that comes from foreign nations has been rising 
until this year, and last year we will be over half. One-fifth of it 
comes from the oil-producing nations of the Middle East, one-fifth; and 
the rest from places like Nigeria, not exactly known for its love of 
democracy, and other points on the globe.
  I think that the President is half-right. The President is right to 
try to assure energy security here at home, but the way he is doing it 
is wrong.
  Now, some Americans have gotten the right message. In fact, this week 
in Maryland, and I would like to enter into the Record a story from the 
Washington Post, a mom-and-pop Chevron station in Laurel, Maryland, 
became the first station in that State, and only the second one in the 
mid-Atlantic region of our country, to offer E85, a mixture of gasoline 
and alcohol fuel distilled from corn or other grains. They understand 
we have to move America beyond the petroleum age, using ethanol as one 
of the most important new fuels of the future.
  In this article they talk about aiming to reduce petroleum 
consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by boosting the use of ethanol 
fuels; and they are selling the gasoline up there in Maryland for $1.33 
a gallon and they figure, if nothing else, it will bring more consumers 
to the part of the business that turns a profit.
  Arianna Huffington wrote a story in the L.A. Times today. She also 
got the right message. She has a can-do spirit for America. She 
basically says, ``We can all make simple adjustments to wean our 
country from our dependence on foreign oil.'' She says, ``In practice, 
what are we really being asked to do in this war as individual 
Americans? We are being asked to shop till we drop, we are being asked 
to eat out, and to visit Disneyland.
  ``Given our ability to play hardball with nations that harbor 
terrorists is going to be seriously compromised by our foreign oil 
habit, shouldn't we be doing everything we can to reduce that 
dependence starting, say,'' she says, maybe yesterday? ``America cannot 
go on consuming 25 percent of the world's oil while being only 5 
percent of the global population.''
  Then, in The New York Times this week, Thomas Friedman says the 
predicament the free world faces is due to oil money and the fact that 
we are so wedded to those systems; and, in fact, oil being the major 
reason for those economies of the Middle East even being able to 
survive.
  The New York Times a month ago had an editorial and I quote, entitled 
``Reconsidering Saudi Arabia. Washington's embrace of the Saudi royal 
family dates back to the era of Franklin Roosevelt. It has always been 
primarily about oil.''
  And then Seymour Hersh, in the October 22 issue of The New Yorker, 
says the following: `` `The United States is hostage to the stability 
of the Saudi system,' a prominent Middle Eastern oil man reported to 
me. `The war was declared by bin Laden, but there are thousands of bin 
Ladens. The fabulous military machine America has is completely useless 
to the enemy you face.' ''
  The article goes on, ``The Saudi regime,'' he says, `` `will explode 
in time. If they do a similar operation in Saudi Arabia has they did in 
New York, the price of oil will go up to $100 a barrel, more than four 
times what we pay today.' ''
  I commend to my colleagues our bill, H.R. 3099, which asks that the 
President exchange 2,100,000 barrels from the current petroleum reserve 
and convert it to the purchase of ethanol and biofuels in order to move 
America toward energy independence. It is time.
  Mr. Speaker, I submit for the Record the article entitled ``Hoping to 
Fuel Demand With Supply,'' which I referred to earlier:

               [From the Washington Post, Nov. 15, 2001]

                   Hoping to Fuel Demand With Supply

                           (By Anita Huslin)

       For nearly a decade, state and federal governments have 
     been buying fleets of vehicles capable of running on a 
     cleaner-burning mixture of gasoline and ethanol.
       Few of the vehicles, however, have ever had a drop in their 
     tanks because the blend is available at just 101 fuel 
     stations nationwide--most of them in the Midwest.
       Yesterday, a mom-and-pop Chevron in Laurel became the first 
     fuel station in Maryland and only the second in the mid-
     Atlantic region to offer E85, a mixture of gasoline and an 
     alcohol fuel distilled from corn and other grains. The blend 
     has been touted as an alternative to foreign oil and as being 
     gentler on the environment, though the environmental claim 
     has been debated.
       Maryland Energy Administration officials hope to open E85 
     pumps in Annapolis, Gaithersburg and Baltimore in the next 
     year.
       At a pump festooned with red, white and blue flags, beaming 
     auto manufacturing representatives and farmers applauded as 
     the first state vehicle--a standard-issue white Ford Taurus--
     was filled with the blend of 85 percent ethanol, 15 percent 
     gasoline.
       ``If you want people to use the fuel, you've got to provide 
     the stations where they can buy it,'' said Richard F. Pecora, 
     deputy secretary of the Maryland General Services 
     Administration.
       Aiming to reduce petroleum consumption and greenhouse gas 
     emissions by boosting the use of alternative fuels, the 
     federal Energy Policy Act of 1992 required that vehicles 
     capable of running on alternative fuels make up 75 percent of 
     state government fleets.
       Under a U.S. program to encourage development of such 
     vehicles, auto manufacturers have received credits for 
     producing ethanol-burning cars, trucks and sport-utility 
     vehicles. Those credits allow the companies to build more 
     vehicles that get lower average gas mileage. But because 
     ethanol fuel is sold in just 20 states and, consequently, 
     many alternative fuel vehicles are burning regular gasoline, 
     the program has actually increased pollution, a U.S. 
     Department of Transportation draft study concluded this year.
       ``Given the slow rate of growth in the alternative fuel 
     infrastructure, it does not appear likely that any energy 
     conservation and environmental benefits will be realized 
     through .  .  . 2008 unless strong financial incentives are 
     put in place,'' the report said.
       After talking for more than a year with oil companies, none 
     of which expressed any great interest in opening an E85 pump 
     in Maryland, officials came upon Kevin Falls' Chevron Service 
     Center.
       It's a modest two-bay repair and fuel station just up the 
     road from Fort Meade and the National Security 
     Administration, two federal installations with growing fleets 
     of alternative fuel vehicles. Officials lined up a U.S. 
     Energy Department grant that would cover the cost of 
     installing the pump, so Falls agreed.
       He is selling E85 for the same price as premium gasoline--
     $1.33 a gallon--and figures that if nothing else, it will 
     bring more customers to the part of his business that turns a 
     profit.
       ``The more people you get at the pump, the more jobs we get 
     in the [repair] bays,'' Falls said. ``I figure this'll only 
     help with that.''
       Jobs are what farmers from the Maryland Grain Producers 
     Association see in Falls's E85 pump. They tout the fuel as a 
     way to boost demand for corn, soybeans, and other grains. 
     ``It's going to mean money in our

[[Page 22921]]

     pockets with an increase in grain prices,'' said Donnie 
     Tennyson, association president.
       The group is looking into building the East Coast's first 
     ethanol production plant in Maryland, in the same way it has 
     been done in the Midwest. There, farmers have raised money to 
     build and operate plants that convert their corn, soybeans 
     and other crops into ethanol, which is then mixed with 
     gasoline and sold at service stations primarily in Illinois, 
     Iowa and Minnesota.
       Officials estimate that as many as half a million vehicles 
     in the Washington region can run on an ethanol fuel mix. Only 
     one other station in the region sells E85--the Navy Annex 
     Citgo in Alexandria, near the Pentagon.
       With the opening of the E85 pump in Laurel, local auto 
     dealerships said they will begin notifying customers who have 
     bought alternative fuel vehicles. They also said their 
     salespeople will make the fuel option part of their pitch.
       ``If you have the motivation and the fuel, we have the 
     vehicles,'' said Michael Paritee, manager of alternative 
     fuels and government sales for General Motors. Several of its 
     vehicles--including the 5.3-liter Suburban, Tahoe, Yukon and 
     Yukon XLS and S-10 pickups--can run on E85.
       There is some debate over the environmental benefits of 
     E85. Advocates tout its ability to reduce carbon monoxide 
     emissions, but opponents note that when ethanol is blended 
     with gasoline, the fuel evaporates at a higher rate, 
     producing smog. Environmentalists also say distilling corn 
     starch into ethanol is an energy-intensive process, often 
     involving coal.
       Even so, local groups welcomed the opening of the Laurel 
     pump.
       ``I'd like to think that 10 years from now our farmers will 
     be growing a lot of our energy,'' said Michael Heller, of the 
     Chesapeake Bay Foundation. ``Not just corn and barley, but 
     warm-season grasses that can soak up nutrient pollution, then 
     be harvested and turned into fuel.''

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