Increasingly concerned about the cost of oil and the risks
associated with importing it, bipartisan groups of House and Senate
lawmakers have filed bills seeking to give biofuels and alternative
fuel vehicles a prominent place on American highways.
The lawmakers, hounded by constituents over high gasoline prices,
want to reduce oil demand by lessening the transportation sector's
gasoline use -- and thus the US need for crude -- by boosting
production of fuel-efficient cars and ethanol. Ideally, they want to
make vehicles, which account for nearly two-thirds of US oil demand,
reliant on the electricity grid, rather than imported fuels.
In a sign of changing times, five Republican senators who in June
opposed mandating a reduction in imports have joined five Democrats
to support a bill (S. 2025) that would require the White House to
reduce oil demand 2.5-mil b/d by 2016 and 10-mil b/d by 2031. The
bill would give automakers incentives to retool their factories and
require that half of their production be alternative fuel vehicles
within a decade. It would also direct the government to lower its
oil demand 30% in 12 years.
Taken together, lawmakers said, this would push the
transportation sector toward renewable fuels and get more cars on
the road that run on electricity, which could improve gasoline fuel
economy 100-500 miles per gallon. They pointed to Brazil's 30-year
development of ethanol, which has been so successful that the South
American country soon will no longer import oil.
A similar bill was introduced in the House by Representatives
Jack Kingston (Republican, Georgia), and Eliot Engel (Democrat, New
York). The House and Senate measures are based on proposals by the
Set America Free
coalition, which is comprised of security hawks and renewable energy
proponents.
The senators -- Evan Bayh (Democrat, Indiana), Sam Brownback
(Republican, Kansas), Norm Coleman (Republican, Minnesota), Lindsey
Graham (Republican, South Carolina), Joseph Lieberman (Democrat,
Connecticut), Richard Lugar (Republican, Indiana), Bill Nelson
(Democrat, Florida), Barack Obama (Democrat, Illinois), Ken Salazar
(Democrat, Colorado), and Jeff Sessions (Republican, Alabama) --
said they were motivated by constituents seeking action on gasoline
prices but also because of the 50% growth in world oil demand
expected by 2030; vulnerabilities highlighted by the recent
hurricanes; the US trade deficit inflated largely by the purchase of
foreign crude; and the economic harm and security risk of growing
oil imports.
In recent months experts warned Congress that US imports are
funding Islamic terrorists and leave the American economy at risk of
a shock should a terrorist damage a major production facility, such
as one of Saudi Arabia's largest. "We're one well-orchestrated
terrorist attack or political upheaval away" from $100/bbl oil,
Lieberman said. There is also concern that world oil production will
peak in the not-too-distant future.
The
energy bill signed into
law by President Bush in August requires 7.5-bil gallons of ethanol
in gasoline by 2012. During debate on the bill, the Senate,
encouraged by the White House, rejected a proposal from Senator
Maria Cantwell (Democrat, Washington), that would have required cuts
of 1-mil b/d by 2015 and 7.6-mil b/d by 2025. Separate proposals
sought an increase in fuel economy standards.
Drawing a distinction between Cantwell's oil savings amendment
and their new bill, senators said times had changed. "That amendment
at the time ... by a number of people was seen as more of a partisan
bomb being thrown...," Brownback said. "What we do here is we set
objectives and we set ways and means of ... getting this done."
The senators said seeing near $70 oil and damage to the country's
energy hub required Congress to go beyond the Energy Policy Act,
something they argued could be done with off-the-shelf technologies.
"Without eliminating oil imports or abandoning our cars, we can
offset a significant portion of demand for oil by giving American
consumers a real choice of automotive fuel," Lugar said.
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Pete
Domenici (Republican, New Mexico), a chief author of that law, is
developing follow-on legislation for action next year that aims to
improve prospects for new oil refineries, a priority of Bush's,
encourage new offshore drilling and increase energy efficiency. That
may well be the vehicle for some of the new proposals; in the past,
Domenici has incorporated others' language in his energy bill.
Lieberman said he hoped Domenici would hold a hearing on S. 2025.
Separately,
Commerce, Science and Transportation
Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (Republican, Alaska) has
said he will pursue a bill to prohibit gasoline price gouging.
Created: Dec 21, 2005
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