Illinois Representative Pushes for Vote on Bush's Energy Bill
May 26--By Elizabeth Donald, Belleville News-Democrat, Ill. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Citing rising gas prices, U.S. Rep. John Shimkus on Tuesday asked for the U.S. Senate to allow a vote on the president's energy bill.
"We should be concerned, because this will sap strength out of the
economic recovery," Shimkus said.
The bill includes several controversial measures, including tax breaks for
companies that develop ethanol and biodiesel products, clean-coal initiatives
and a liability protection for producers of the gasoline additive MTBE.
Shimkus said the MTBE factor doesn't protect companies from negligence; only
from lawsuits alleging they created a faulty product.
"You cannot go after an industry for making a faulty product when the
federal government told them to make it," Shimkus said.
Some senators want to pass an "energy-light" bill, Shimkus said --
one that removes the tax credits and MTBE protection. If they did, he said he
would sign it.
Shimkus cited the importance of alternative fuels, such as ethanol, to
alleviating gas prices and their effect on the economy.
"Most people understand our over-reliance on petroleum," Shimkus
said. "As we become less dependent ... we have more leverage."
The problem isn't just with foreign oil -- it's with the U.S. ability to
process it. "We haven't built a new refinery in 30 years in this
country," he said. "We're not less dependent on foreign (processing);
we're more dependent."
The East Coast blackout last year, the rise in natural gas prices last
summer, and now gasoline at $2 a gallon -- all of this calls for passage of the
energy bill, Shimkus said.
"All it needs is for the Senate to allow a vote on the Senate
floor," he said. "I don't know what the next crisis will be."
Shimkus said he has been more involved with the energy bill than any other
piece of legislation. He is the only agriculture congressman on the committee,
he said -- the rest are from oil-producing states.
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin held a news conference Monday in Dupo on the topic of
gasoline prices. He said the key lies in more fuel-efficient cars, noting that
the average car now gets only 21 miles per gallon. He said he offered
legislation last year to require more fuel-efficient cars, which failed.
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