America Needs to Invest in Domestic Alternative Energy Sources (Sen. John Thune)

As oil approaches $100 a barrel, America needs to decide if we are going to send our energy dollars to rogue leaders like Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, or use these funds to encourage family farmers across the country to grow crops that can be converted to ethanol. Rather than funding the hostile regimes of those opposing our interests, it is time for America to invest in domestic alternative energy sources.

Breaking this nation’s dependence on foreign sources of energy is absolutely critical and achievable. America has the resources, the will and the need to produce more of our energy here at home.

This is why I have introduced a bipartisan amendment to the 2007 Farm Bill to establish a higher renewable fuels standard. The amendment requires that gasoline sold in the US contains a minimum volume of renewable fuel. Renewable fuel has been  a success story for rural America and our agricultural sector but we need to do more.

My amendment would create a guaranteed market for America’s ethanol producers, which would strengthen our nation’s rural economies and displace billions of barrels of imported crude oil. Furthermore it would require that 21 billion of the 36 billion gallons mandated in the amendment will come from advanced biofuels like cellulosic ethanol.

Opening the ethanol market beyond corn gives more areas across the country an opportunity to contribute in making our great country more energy independent.