Sitting in the driver's seat of the tax-writing U.S. Senate Finance Committee, I'm steering an effort in Washington to move America closer to energy independence.
As motorists across the country feel the pinch of $2-plus gas, I'm routing Congress towards a national energy plan that puts a premium on conservation, alternative motor fuels and vehicles, and renewable, home-grown clean energy.
In the plainest of terms, the U.S. economy is dangerously dependent on foreign sources of energy. Scarce spare refining capacity and depleting reserves suggest consumers may be in store for record prices being paid for petroleum products. Considering that the transportation sector accounts for about two-thirds of the nation's oil consumption, I'm mapping out opportunities to make it easier for Americans to use alternative motor fuels.
The full Senate in June adopted my bipartisan package of green energy tax incentives as part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Lawmakers intend to hammer out negotiations between the House and Senate versions by this fall.
My green energy package uses the tax code as a vehicle to develop homegrown, non-fossil fuels and alternative vehicles friendly to the environment; ramp up economic development in rural America; reward consumers for choosing bio-fuels at the pump; diversify economic opportunities for American agriculture; trigger capital investment in the research, development and production of green energy in Middle America; and, buffer the United States economy and national security interests from the Middle-East dominated source of fossil fuels.
Specifically, the U.S. Senate gave the green light to a variety of maturing green energy initiatives including tax breaks for electricity produced from wind, biomass (including livestock waste) and geothermal sources; biofuels, including ethanol and biodiesel; and, clean coal technologies.
The Senate also adopted with overwhelming bipartisan support a Renewable Fuels Standard to the overall energy package that would require the annual use of eight billion gallons of biofuels, like ethanol and soydiesel, by 2012.
Iowa is the leading corn-producing state in the country. Expanding the amount of ethanol used in America by 2012 would help Iowa farmers earn more per bushel of corn from the marketplace and less from the Federal Treasury. With two dozen ethanol plants in Iowa up and running and even more on the drawing board, Iowa communities stand to gain big time with a federal law doubling the consumption of renewable fuels like corn-based ethanol and soy diesel.
Consider the capital infusion that will help jump-start struggling rural economies, create jobs and offer local farmers and residents promising investment opportunities. An ethanol manufacturing facility brings a new payroll to town and puts more money in farmers' pockets. That adds up to very good news for the regional economy.
Like the line from the Hollywood movie filmed near Dyersville famously says: "If you build it, they will come." The ethanol boom in Iowa serves as an immeasurable community morale booster, especially those challenged by shuttered storefronts on Main Street, lost manufacturing jobs and empty business parks on the outskirts of town.
The Senate-backed energy bill also gives the green light to Iowa's expanding wind energy business. Home to more than 700 wind turbines, Iowa's economic landscape would continue to benefit from a three-year extension of Section 45 of the tax code. Moreover, the Renewable Portfolio Standard also would require 10 percent of the nation's electricity to be generated from renewable energy sources, such as wind power, by 2020.
As the House and Senate begin talks to iron out difference between their respective versions of this long-awaited national energy policy, I'll continue to work for green energy incentives. Policymakers need to chart a responsible course of action that puts the brakes on America's dependence on imported oil and accelerates efforts to promote conservation, renewable energy and environmentally friendly motor fuels.
