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In her tenth term in the U.S. House of Representatives in Northwest Ohio, Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur is a rare leader that focuses on such topics as economic independence and political independence. Congresswoman Kaptur (her website (http://www.house.gov/kaptur/) has recently outlined possibly her largest platform – Energy Independence.

Congresswoman Kaptur’s work with biofuels is not a new initiative. She first introduced the Biofuels Energy Independence Act in October 2001 which would encourage farmers to reserve portions of their feedstock for biofuels, including E85, and guarantee loans for the production, distribution, development, and storage of these biofuels. It was referred to the House Agriculture Committee but a hearing was unable to be scheduled during the last term of the Congress. She has recently reintroduced the bill to the 108^th Congress.

“I have introduced a bill that will create a biofuels independence initiative for our country,” said Kaptur. “It is time for America to erase our key strategic vulnerability, and that is to imported petroleum and the evil politics that it yields globally. The bill that we are introducing today says America is long overdue from sending her Marines around the world in Special Forces to protect the oil highways over the seas. It is time to produce our way to energy independence and create real growth inside this economy.”

The National Farmers Union has additionally supported the bill. Original cosponsors were Maurice Hinchey (D-New York) and Leonard Boswell (D-Iowa). Kaptur will be working to obtain additional cosponsors when members return to session.

After asking Congresswoman Kaptur why she feels this Act is so important, she added, “America has not been serious. Over the decade of the 1980s and 1990s, in spite of four recessions and major oil embargoes, we have continued to import more and more petroleum, which by the year 2050 will indeed be a scarce world resource. Armed forces from throughout the United States have been building airfields in the Middle East. We are being asked to appropriate over $100 billion to defend the Occidental pipeline in the nation of Colombia. And Venezuela teeters as we sit here this evening.

It is time to pay attention to where the oil comes from, and it is time to do something here at home to revive the sagging and critical state of rural America and, at the same time, create jobs from coast to coast.

One of the most important and neglected areas that we can do something about, if we are serious, is to create the kind of umbrella across our country, as we did with the National Rural Electrification Administration and the National Telephone Administration. We can do the same with the National Biofuels Corporation, so that from coast to coast, where acres can be turned to productive use and move farmers from farming for a government check by going to their mailbox, to farming the marketplace and producing new, renewable clean fuels for America, we will have a win-win-win across every State in this Union. There are other answers to our energy crisis: cleaning up coal in the Coal Belt that lies between Pennsylvania and Illinois, which has more BTUs under the ground than the entire Middle East. Why can we not see it? Why can we not, a nation that can clean up chemical weapons in Pine Bluff, not find a way to clean up coal? We are not serious.

It should be interesting also for people to know that with every billion dollars of trade deficit that we rack up, that we cannot pay for here at home because of our imports, we have to bond our indebtedness. Today, the United States of America is in hock to about twelve nations around the world, including those very same oil kingdoms, but also nations like China. Not exactly a democratic state."

Kaptur feels it is unfortunate that E85 is not available in northwestern Ohio and feels the fuel needs to be more widespread. “I believe it is a practical, efficient, renewable fuel that can be used to replace 25% of our oil now—thus reducing our dependence on foreign governments and preparing us for the future.”

The NEVC could not state it better than the Congresswoman. . . “So I say, think about it, America. Take a look at our Energy Independence Act, H.R. 130. Think about making America energy independent in ten years. It is time. And it is time to bring our troops home, not conducting any wars for oil on any continent.”

The National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition applauds Congresswoman Kaptur’s vision and recognition that this nation must ultimately address our growing dependence on the use of imported petroleum.