President
Bush Re-emphasizes Need for Comprehensive Energy Policy, Notes NCGA
(2-3-05)
The National
Corn Growers Association (NCGA) today commended President George
W. Bush for addressing the increasing need for reliable supplies
of affordable, environmentally responsible energy such as ethanol
during Wednesday’s annual State of the Union address.
Bush said a
comprehensive energy strategy focused on conservation and alternative
energy sources is linked to strong economic growth. He also said
his budget plan, scheduled to be submitted next week, includes funding
to support renewable energy. “My budget provides strong funding
for leading-edge technology -- from hydrogen-fueled cars, to clean
coal, to renewable sources such as ethanol,” he said.
In his first
term, Bush submitted a comprehensive energy plan that included a
similar emphasis on renewable energy, but Congress failed to approve
the plan. On Wednesday, he called on lawmakers to put partisan politics
aside and act on comprehensive energy legislation that benefits
all consumers. “Four years of debate is enough -- I urge Congress
to pass legislation that makes America more secure and less dependent
on foreign energy," Bush said.
NCGA was encouraged
by the president’s remarks, but corn growers won’t be
satisfied until Congress approves a comprehensive energy bill containing
a Renewable Fuels Standard for ethanol, according to NCGA President
Leon Corzine.
“In a
very clear statement, President Bush declared for all to hear that
the time for action on an energy policy is now,” said Corzine,
an Illinois corn farmer. “Oil is near $50 a barrel. Gasoline
has reached, and in parts of the country exceeded, the $2-per-gallon
mark. Natural gas prices are at an all-time high. All of this has
happened and yet we still have not seen an updated energy policy.”
According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the U.S.
accounts for 26 percent of the world's oil consumption, but only
produces 10 percent of the world's oil and hold’s 2 percent
of the world's oil reserves. The growing U.S. thirst for oil and
natural gas will increasingly draw on foreign imports over the next
20 years, with EIA estimating as much as 68 percent of U.S. oil
demand by 2010 will be imported.
“These
figures emphasize Bush’s remark that renewable fuels and a
comprehensive energy policy are essential to expanding our economy,
adding new jobs and for our country’s energy stability,”
Corzine said. “Building the ethanol market will do just that
and much more. Ethanol has already created more than 200,000 direct
and indirect jobs, reduced gasoline prices, cut crude oil imports,
increased farm income and reduced greenhouse gas emissions, but
we have only just tapped the possibilities of what we can do with
corn.”
Corzine also
noted that an energy policy that includes a Renewable Fuels Standard
has been NCGA’s top legislative priority for the past four
years. “This issue has been debated more than any other issue
including appropriations in the past two sessions of Congress. Hundreds
of corn growers have walked the halls of Congress many times over
the past four years explaining the benefits of an energy bill.”
During the past
week, members of NCGA’s Public Policy Action Team, Research
and Development Action Team and state corn grower organizations
visited their legislators to emphasize the message a comprehensive
energy policy is important not only to agriculture, but to the entire
nation.