Bill Nelson: “this letter is from the Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, who has promised to commence a feasibility study on converting…”

“this letter is from the Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, who has promised to commence a feasibility study on converting sugar into ethanol and to start it immediately, with an initial meeting of the agricultural economists next week, the July Fourth week. I believe at that point they will and should lay out a baseline of the knowledge we have on this issue. I expect that will occur, and I expect that quite a lot of research on converting sugar into ethanol has already been carried out and that this study should acknowledge this research and build upon it. In other words, don't start the feasibility study from scratch. The Deputy Secretary has also promised me that the Department of Agriculture will issue an interim report in addition to what they had earlier promised, a report that would be concluded by July of next year, 2006. In this letter, the Deputy Secretary says they will issue an interim report by December 15, 2005. The feasibility study is a start, but we can do much more. In every other ethanol program around the world, sugar is included. I urge the conferees on the Energy bill and the administration to make sugar a part of the ethanol program established in that bill. I ask unanimous consent that my letter to the conferees be printed in the Record. There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows: U.S. Senate, Washington, DC, June 30, 2005. Hon. Pete V.…”