Political Quotes

“today, I, along with several other Senators, will be meeting with EPA Administrator McCarthy concerning a proposal from EPA to waive the renewable fuel standard, or RFS. If the proposed rule is made final, it would undermine one of the biggest policy tools we have to support energy independence, to lower greenhouse gas emissions, and stabilize our rural economy. The renewable fuel standard was created in 2002 to drive growth in the biofuels industry. Why is that so important? When biofuels are contributing to our domestic fuel supply, we use less petroleum-based energy. Gasoline blended with ethanol burns more cleanly, so cars are generating less greenhouse gas; And with a steady, predictable market for biofuels, there is now a healthy biofuels industry that supports hundreds of thousands of jobs. Each year the Environmental Protection Agency sets volume standards for renewable fuels that requires refiners to blend certain levels of biofuels into the fuel supply. RFS levels have been steadily increasing by law since Congress updated the renewable fuels effort in 2007. The renewable fuel standard has worked well. The United States needs to be less reliant on other countries for its energy. Growth in the use of biofuels--particularly corn-based ethanol--is one of the few, meaningful steps we have taken. And it is working. Last year, we used 13.3 billion gallons of ethanol to displace 465 million barrels of oil. That is 12 percent of the total U.S.…”