Barbara Boxer: “I am very delighted to offer this amendment on behalf of myself, Senator Lugar, and Senator Cantwell. I think it is…”

“I am very delighted to offer this amendment on behalf of myself, Senator Lugar, and Senator Cantwell. I think it is quite a pro-ethanol amendment because what we are trying to do here is encourage the development of ethanol that is produced from agricultural residues. This amendment will, in fact, promote the production of agricultural residue ethanol. I want to tell my colleagues why this is important. I believe that biomass ethanol derived from agricultural residue could be a significant source of ethanol in California and also throughout the United States. Every State has agricultural waste, including those producing corn. I hope my colleagues who have the production of corn, wheat, sugarcane, rice, barley, beets, or oats in their States will realize this amendment is very important to them. I also believe the use of agricultural residue ethanol will make it easier for many of our States--certainly for California--to meet an ethanol mandate without price spikes and gasoline shortages as it increases the flexibility that the country has to meet this mandate.”