 |
| Sen.
Jim Talent (R-Mo.) speaks with the media about the importance
of the 8-billion-gallon Renewable Fuels Standard in the energy
bill at the Mobil On the Run gas station in Chesterfield, Mo.,
on Wednesday. The energy bill will be discussed in a House and
Senate conference next week. |
Sen.
Talent Promotes RFS and Ethanol in Visit to Chesterfield, Mo., NCGA
Notes (7-7-05)
Senator Jim
Talent (R-Mo.) visited the Mobil On the Run gas station in Chesterfield,
Mo. on Wednesday to express his support for the Renewable Fuels
Standard (RFS) in the energy bill, the National Corn Growers Association
(NCGA) notes.
Talent is stopping
in several Missouri communities to promote the RFS and ethanol ahead
of the upcoming House and Senate energy bill conference. He also
visited Kansas City, Springfield, Jackson, Palmyra, Kirksville and
St. Joseph. He met with the St. Louis media on Wednesday.
“(Renewable
fuels) is in one sense, the future,” said Talent. “We’ve
all wanted, for decades, fuels that were renewable, that would reduce
our dependence on foreign oil and help create jobs that were good
for the environment. And that future is here.”
Talent introduced
the 8-billion-gallon RFS amendment in the energy bill, along with
cosponsors Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), Ken Salazar (D-Colo.) and
Tim Johnson (D-S.D.). The amendment was adopted as part of the Senate’s
energy bill.
“The thing
we have to do is hold these renewable provisions in the energy bill
as we go through conference,” Talent said. “I’m
confident that we’re going to come out with a bill that is
very robust on renewables.”
Talent also
is hopeful that the conference realizes the 5-billion-gallon RFS
offered by the House isn’t good enough for our nation.
“That’s
not enough. That really will not grow as a percentage of the total
fuel supply,” he said. “That’s not going to be
any growth at all. We need a much stronger standard than that.”
Talent also
promoted E85 at the station. He and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) proposed
an amendment that would encourage gas stations to offer E85 as an
option.
“There
are several million cars on the road today that can use an E85 blend,
but we don’t have enough stations pumping it,” Talent
said. “So one of the things I did in the highway bill, along
with Senator Barack Obama from Illinois, was put a little tax credit
provision in to help station owners switch some of their pumps to
E85.
“That
market is there. We just need more stations pumping it. We only
have about 16 in Missouri now, and we can use a lot more of that.”