Political Quotes

“briefly, what this amendment does is to include research to increase the efficiency of nitrogen fixation from plants. We have a situation where the nitrogen fertilizer of this country is made out of natural gas. It is estimated that 3 to 6 percent of the natural gas produced in the United States is used to produce nitrogen. Farmers use that nitrogen fertilizer and therefore natural gas. If plants could do a better job of fixing ``N'' in the soil, we would save energy and reduce the cost to farmers. This simply says let us include in our research effort research into the fixation of nitrogen. We now have plants that can put nitrogen back into the soil. We have started on this research. We need to move ahead. It is part of the whole renewable energy effort that we need to consider. I thank the chairman and ranking member for supporting the amendment. Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment today that would address the challenge of increased farm input costs due to continued high energy prices.”