Marcy Kaptur: “I stand in strong support of it and urge my colleagues to think as this bill moves forward how America can, in fact, be…”

“I stand in strong support of it and urge my colleagues to think as this bill moves forward how America can, in fact, be energy independent. We are two-thirds dependent on foreign sources of supply, and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve offers us a temporary cushion here at home. I think, as the bill moves forward in the other body and as compromises are reached, I would urge my colleagues to consider swapping a portion of the oil that is in the reserve for ethanol and biodiesel, or even as new fuel is purchased and there is currently a gap in the reserve of several million barrels, to consider looking at ethanol as one of the ways in which America can become more self-sufficient in fuel production and usage. I would recommend a level of about 300 million gallons of ethanol and 100 million of biodiesel. Both of these are at competitive prices now if one looks at the market. And even if all of that were purchased and stored on farm, we would still only be looking at 1 to 2 percent of the entire fuel reserve being comprised of these biobased fuels. In terms of what is happening in rural America today, this is absolutely a way forward for our country.”