SENATOR HUTCHISON DISCUSSES THE ENERGY INDEPENDENCE AND SECURITY ACT OF 2007

I will begin by saying that I think there are some very good provisions in this bill. This Congress is taking a major step by increasing the CAFE standards. This increase calls for a 35-mile-per-gallon standard in every car by 2020. This is a huge conservation victory. In fact, it is a 40-percent increase from our current standard. I am also pleased that we have included the measures to increase energy efficiency in Federal buildings. The Federal Government should be a leader in promoting and adopting efficiency. We are addressing new technologies and emerging science in environmental areas such as carbon sequestration. We were able to remove the onerous tax provisions that would have made America only more dependent upon foreign sources of energy and made high prices even higher.

However, I do remain concerned with the renewable fuel standard. The proposal before us will increase the renewable fuel standard from the current requirement of 7.5 billion gallons by 2012 to 36 billion gallons by 2022. This renewable fuel standard is noble in its objective, but it is a reckless way to draft this legislation, and here is why. It does not have a safety valve to address shortfalls in feedstocks which will be required to meet the renewable fuel standards mandate.

I have been working with Texas livestock producers and food processors for months to try to create a safety valve that would have, in conjunction with the waiver provision currently in the bill, a prospective protection from harming these industries. I believe the existing waiver provision and the safety valve could function and coexist without resulting in market uncertainty for the RFS increase.

I believe livestock and poultry producers and food processors are going to face uncertainty under these mandates. For this reason, I have worked with these industries and my colleagues in the Senate to strike a balance to provide some level of prospective analysis and relief if experts conclude that there will be a shortfall that leads to price spikes in items such as corn, cereal, chicken, and beef. Unfortunately, this bill does not contain this safety valve, and I am very concerned that we are going to have problems down the road and millions of Americans are going to pay higher grocery bills because of unanticipated events, such as droughts or floods, which impact crop yields.

I have tried to be reasonable in creating this safety valve, and we must watch this closely if we pass this bill, and I think we will. We must give relief to the livestock producers and the consumers in this country if, in fact, we cannot produce this mandate that is in this bill.

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