U.S. Flag and Missouri State Flag Kit Bond, Sixth Generation Missourian
 

BOND JOINS FARMERS AND AGRICULTURE OFFICIALS FOR ENERGY ROUNDTABLE

Contact: Rob Ostrander or Shana Stribling 202.224.5721
Monday, May 15, 2006

JEFFERSON CITY, MO - U.S. Senator Kit Bond today joined farmers and agriculture officials for an Energy Roundtable in Jefferson City. Bond stressed the need for a national energy policy that promotes both conservation and production.

“A comprehensive energy policy is necessary to address the high cost of energy, provide additional opportunities for energy production and U.S. jobs, and reduce our growing dependence on foreign oil,” said Bond. “Missouri farmers haven taken the lead on developing innovative processing facilities to capture more of the value of their products at home. I will continue to fight for policies and opportunities to strengthen and expand Missouri's agriculture industry."

Bond thanked the roundtable’s sponsors, the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition, for hosting this important discussion as the nation faces an energy crisis. Bond said that the past year’s record prices for crude oil, natural gas, gasoline and diesel fuel due to the growing global demand for oil and natural gas has only been made worse by recent geo-political events in Iran, Iraq and Venezuela. Also, much of the nation’s energy infrastructure was devastated by hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

The nation’s energy supplies are not keeping up with demand, said Bond. More oil and natural gas are being imported then ever, and very little is being done to develop domestic sources of energy or expand energy infrastructure. In order to solve these problems, the nation needs a strong and comprehensive energy policy, said Bond. In addition to strong conservation measures, America desperately needs to increase domestic supplies of energy as well as develop alternative and renewable sources of energy.

While the focus is on ‘pain at the pump’, there is some good news in the energy arena when it comes to renewable fuels, said Bond. Thanks to Senator Jim Talent, the Energy bill signed into law includes a strong renewable fuels provision, which allows for the production of 7.5 billion gallons of renewable fuels by 2012. This will allow for increased production and use of ethanol and bio-diesel and decreased dependence on foreign oil, said Bond.

Missouri farmers and businesses are part of this increased production, said Bond. Currently Missouri has 3 ethanol plants in operation and another five in the construction and planning stages. Missouri’s plants join the 97 ethanol bio-refineries nationwide, which have the capacity to produce nearly 4.5 billion gallons annually. Also, 35 new ethanol refineries and nine expansions are underway, with a combined annual capacity of more than an additional 2.2 billion gallons per year.

While increased production of renewable fuels, such as ethanol, is an important success, Bond detailed the number of failures to develop additional alternative energy sources: no new nuclear power plants or refineries have been built since the 1970s, there has been no new oil exploration above the Arctic circle in Alaska; no new wind power has been created miles off the ocean-front homes of Cape Cod, and there has been no off shore development miles off the Florida and California coasts. Bond emphasized that the United States must repeal this established energy policy, “NIMBY,” – not in my backyard – to create a comprehensive policy in the nation’s best interest.

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