WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Citing delays in reconciling energy legislation passed by both chambers of Congress earlier this year, two Democratic senators on Thursday unveiled a stand-alone bill to require 18 billion gallons of renewable fuels to be blended with U.S. gasoline supply by 2016.
Sen. Barack Obama, Illinois Democrat and 2008 presidential candidate, and Sen. Tom Harkin, Iowa Democrat and chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, offered a bill that would raise the U.S. renewable fuel standard to 18 billion gallons by 2016, including 3 billion gallons from advanced biofuels like cellulosic ethanol.
Corn prices are at record levels mostly due to stellar growth in demand for ethanol. Iowa and Illinois lead the nation in corn production.
The ethanol measure could be tacked on to a farm bill that the Senate is preparing to debate in coming weeks.
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Noelle dEstries
Noelle d'Estries, an early GO employee who took on the varied roles of Community Manager, green celebrity blogger, and more. She currently runs worstcookever.com GO entered Noelle's life in February 2007 while she was burning tires in her backyard. A phone call from the green gods at GO, burnt out the fires. Now, Noelle happily wears her GO sweatshirt while eating organic veggies and asking for paper, not plastic. A regular at the local farmer's market, Noelle shuns raking leaves and lawn maintenance, while making gourmet foods constantly. When not staring at her computer screen, she spends time with her equally attractive dog, Tessa, cat, Tim and lover Paul. She currently holds all three point records at RIT and could eat avocados and drink wine for the rest of her life.
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