James M. Talent: “I rise briefly to continue the conversation my friend from South Dakota started about the importance of renewable fuels.…”

“I rise briefly to continue the conversation my friend from South Dakota started about the importance of renewable fuels. I thank him for his work on the amendment that is going to be offered that I hope will not only be a bipartisan amendment--I know it is going to be that--I hope it becomes virtually a consensus amendment. It ought to be that for the reasons my friend from South Dakota said. I am going to discuss them for a few minutes myself. I also join him in congratulating the chairman of the Energy Committee in bringing out a very strong Energy bill, a bill that is designed, in its entirety, to be a pro-energy bill, a proproduction bill, but also a proconservation bill and a pro-environment bill. I believe very strongly that it is not a question of ``energy or conservation or the environment,'' but a question of ``energy and conservation and the environment.'' The American people want all three, and they can have all three. I believe the bill is a long step toward giving them all three. The renewable fuels standard which is part of the bill, and will be part of an amendment that is offered by the Senator from New Mexico, is an important part of the bill. We all know that America has been importing more and more oil from foreign countries. In 1999, America was importing over 55 percent of its oil and petroleum products. Just 2 years later, our dependency had increased to over 59 percent.…”