US lawmakers offer resolution setting 25% renewable goal by 2025

Washington (Platts)--7Jun2006

A bipartisan group of US legislators Wednesday said it would press
Congress to pass a non-binding resolution directing that the country obtain by
2025 25% of its energy from renewable sources, which are low sources of
greenhouse gas emissions.

Dubbed by the sponsors as "25x25," the resolution follows a similar
tactic by the leaders Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to build
support for greenhouse gas trading legislation.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, Republican-Iowa, and
House Agriculture Committee Chairman Bob Goodlate, Republican-Virginia, are
leading 13 cosponsors from the Senate and 16 from the House on the effort.

Grassley told reporters that the resolution, rather than binding
legislation, is an important step "to start with, because two or three
committees have jurisdiction" over renewable energy issues. Still, passage of
the non-binding measure will influence the work of the Senate Agriculture
Committee and others, said Grassley--a major proponent of corn-based ethanol.
He expects Senate to promote further use of ethanol in this year's farm bill.

Grassley said $3/gallon gasoline costs are driving support in Congress
for the measure. Consumers are "hit several times" with high fuels costs
because they "ripple through the economy," the senator added.

All the sponsors of the measure mentioned the national security benefits
of using renewable fuels to reduce dependence on imported oil.

Goodlate said the 25x25 goal is critical because oil markets have never
been less certain as "militants, fundamentalists and reactionaries happen to
sit on the world's most important oil reserves."

Representative Mark Udall, Democrat-Colorado, and chairman of the House
Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Caucus, said the goal would create
thousands of jobs in the agriculture industry. "The road to energy
independence is right through rural America," he said.

---Marty Coyne, martin_coyne@platts.com

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