Senator Obama praises ethanol plant in Pekin
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Printable FormatPEKIN DAILY TIMES
By Jason Carson Wilson
PEKIN -- U.S. Sen. Barack Obama sent a message to Congress from Aventine Renewable Energy's plant.
Obama visited the nation's second-largest ethanol producer Monday.
Obama urged increasing ethanol production and reducing the nation's dependence on foreign oil.
"For too long now we've relied too heavily on foreign oil to fuel our energy needs in this country, and for too long politicians have just passed the buck or gotten themselves bogged down in partisanship over what to do about it," he said in a release.
He said he hopes to incorporate support for both ethanol and biodiesel into an upcoming energy bill.
The 2004 Energy Bill -- H.R. 4503 -- passed through the House and went to the Senate in June, according to the U.S. Committee on Energy and Natural Resource's Web site.
The freshman Democrat says higher ethanol production targets should be broken out of the bill, which has repeatedly stalled over disputes about drilling and liability for water supplies contaminated by the gasoline additive MTBE.
Obama said he also supports related technologies.
"I'm a big supporter of biodiesel," Obama said in a Monday afternoon interview.
He said investing in biodiesel will, in the long term, help make the economy stronger.
Obama said government support has often helped new establish new technologies. He cited the railroad and Internet.
"It's not until the government has given it a shot in the arm that they really take off," he said.
Boosting ethanol production has broad, bipartisan congressional support, but has been "held hostage" by other concerns in the energy bill, Obama said.
"Now is the opportunity to get this done -- not only for the future of our farmers, the future of our economy and the future of our environment, but to make our country a place that is independent and innovative enough to control its own energy future," Obama said.
Illinois Biodiesel Systems LLC, has been trying to find funding to build a $40 million 15,000-square foot plant at Riverway Business Park. Pekin Director of Economic Development Kim Uhlig has said that because the biodiesel field is such a new technology, lending institutions are stricter on loans to fund them. State and federal funding is available, but that funding comes after a plant is built with private resources and the plant is producing a predetermined amount of biodiesel fuel -- not for the construction process.
Obama is a member of the Senate Energy and Public Works Committee, which is scheduled to begin debate Wednesday on whether to break ethanol out of the energy bill and how high to set targets for ethanol production.
The nation's ethanol production is expected to top 4 billion gallons this year, and some supporters have advocated doubling that by 2012. They say raising production could ultimately boost corn prices by 25 cents a bushel, which would pump an extra $375 million a year into the Illinois farm economy.
Though he has not settled on a production goal, Obama said boosting the nation's ethanol output is a "no-brainer" that would spawn new plants, create jobs and save $4 billion a year in imported oil and gasoline costs.
Roger Bushue, Aventine director of human resources and business alignment, said Obama pledged to work with Congress to provide more ethanol.
Bushue confirmed Obama's intent to develop a comprehensive plan to make the nation more energy independent.
"He feels it's a bipartisan issue," he said.
"One out of every six rows of corn is being used for ethanol production," he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.