Mark Dayton: “earlier today, the chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Senator Chambliss, and the ranking member, Senator…”

“earlier today, the chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Senator Chambliss, and the ranking member, Senator Harkin of Iowa, held a very important hearing on the biofuels industry. I hope it will be the first and not the last because biofuels, specifically ethanol and biodiesel, are real, viable, here- and-now alternatives to the ever-increasing cost of gasoline and diesel fuels. We are in the midst of another price crisis for the gasoline, diesel, and oil upon which our citizens, our industries, and our lifestyles and our entire national economy depend. Most Americans want their fuel prices to be lower, but they do not want to change their fuels in order to make them so. People say, understandably: Solve our energy problems right now, but don't make us do anything differently. That is why I respectfully disagree with people who say: We do not have a national energy policy. We do. And it is to maintain the status quo for as long as possible. That is actually a rational policy because our existing energy sources, over 95 percent of which are oil and oil-derived products, coal, natural gas, and nuclear, have been and, in most cases, continue to be cheaper, more available, more convenient, and certainly more familiar than any of their alternatives. The sources of supplies, their production, transportation, distribution systems, and retail networks are all well established and well protected by everyone who profits from them.…”