Marcy Kaptur: “during debate on this bill, it had been my fervent hope to offer an amendment to help America address her primary…”

“during debate on this bill, it had been my fervent hope to offer an amendment to help America address her primary strategic vulnerability, and that is our over dependence on imported foreign oil. Nearly two-thirds of the energy that the U.S. uses is imported, most from the Middle Eastern monarchies that comprise OPEC. They yank a chain around our necks at whim. Headlines in my local Ohio newspapers tell the story of gas prices soaring; the New York Times this week reported on rising prices coast to coast, some price hikes among the highest in U.S. history. Yet this bill, which has within its authority the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, does absolutely nothing to remedy the current situation, nor put America on a saner path to the future. I have been urging the Clinton Administration and the leadership of this Congress to release some of the Reserve to help dampen price hikes here at home. At the same time, my amendment would place more emphasis on promoting renewable biofuels by directing the Departments of Interior and Energy to swap some of the current oil reserves and purchase 300,000,000 gallons of ethanol and 100,000,000 million gallons of biodiesel as a boost to a more self-sufficient future for America. Biofuels are competitively priced and hold significant promise as one major solution to move America toward energy self sufficiency.”