MR. AKAKA. Mr. President, I rise today with a profound sense of optimism and appreciation. We have not enacted a comprehensive energy bill since 1992. Many programs need reauthorization and many need revision. Programs and demonstrations must be updated to today's and tomorrow's energy parameters.
I have long said that the nation needs a comprehensive blueprint for an energy policy that will take us in advanced directions, away from dependence on declining reserves of fossil fuel and foreign sources of oil. We need a policy which will reconcile growth and energy conservation in our transportation, manufacturing, utility, and consumer sectors across the nation. We need to bring down the high costs of electricity and gasoline for the country, particularly in my state of Hawaii, and pursue greater energy independence from petroleum products. S. 10, the Energy Policy Act of 2005, provides the best opportunity that I have seen in years.
As a senior member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, I am familiar with cutting-edge technologies and approaches to generating energy. I was closely involved in crafting several parts of this energy bill -- legislation that contains three bills that I have introduced, and a hydrogen title that was crafted with the leadership of Senators Dorgan, Graham, and myself as members of the Senate Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Caucus. I have contributed to comprehensive energy bills in 2002 and in 2003.
I wish to thank both Senators from New Mexico for their leadership and hard work in bridging many regional differences in this comprehensive bill, while still keeping in mind the overall vision for an energy bill. The Energy Committee, under the leadership of Senators Domenici and Bingaman, held a series of structured hearings that were informational briefings from a broad spectrum of industry, environmental groups, non-profits, and small businesses. Senator Domenici and Senator Bingaman are to be commended for keeping an open mind about the potential for new energy sources and a balance of renewable and fossil fuels, science and research and development. In sum, this is a balanced energy bill.
The energy policies that we address in this legislation cover a vast range of authorities and a patchwork of unruly regional alliances. This translates to an enormous challenge, and I appreciate Senator Domenici and Senator Bingaman's hard work and the work of their staffs. I want to compliment them on crafting an energy bill that will help the nation as well as States with special "off-grid" energy needs such as Alaska, my state of Hawaii, and insular territories and commonwealths.
Mr. President, I support this bill and voted for it in our Committee. The bill is well-balanced between renewable energy production, energy efficiency provisions, oil and gas technologies, electricity provisions, and alternate and visionary sources of energy such as hydrogen. The bill invests in the nation's Research and Development for energy technologies, something that we must continue doing to remain leaders in the world, as global demand for energy increases. The last title of the bill, Title Fourteen, provides much-needed incentives for innovative technologies, through loan guarantees for new energy facilities and projects.
I greatly appreciate the inclusion of Title Eight, the Hydrogen Title. I am an original cosponsor of S. 665, the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology Act of 2005, and worked with Senators Dorgan, Graham, and other members of the Hydrogen Caucus to craft this bill, which is included in S. 10. The bill reauthorizes and amends the Spark M. Matsunaga Hydrogen Research, Development, and Demonstration Act of 1990, which has been the basic authority for federal hydrogen programs for the last 20 years. Reauthorization of the Matsunaga Act is badly needed and I have been working toward that goal for several years. The bill provides for robust R&D for hydrogen fuel cells. It includes a provision to enhance sources of renewable fuels and biofuels for hydrogen production among its R&D priorities, which is very important for isolated areas such as Pacific islands and rural areas across the nation.
In addition to the R&D section, the bill includes hydrogen fuel cell demonstration programs for vehicles and for national parks, remote island areas, and on Indian tribal land. The bill authorizes system demonstrations, including distributed energy systems that incorporate renewable hydrogen production and off-grid electricity production. In other words, the bill includes a broad range of hydrogen energy applications that will reach out to rural communities and lower income families, hospitals, military facilities -- not solely vehicle applications and infrastructure. It recognizes the importance of developing hydrogen from renewable sources and demonstration projects for stationary and distributed energy systems in remote areas and islands.
Mr. President, I am pleased that the bill contains my request for an energy study in Hawaii. I thank Senators Domenici and Bingaman for including my bill, S. 436, the Hawaii Energy Study bill. Hawaii is uniquely dependent on crude oil for its energy sources. Before we invest in a different energy mix and infrastructure, we need to make transparent all the dynamics between fuels, generating electricity, and the consequences of the directions we choose.
The bill directs the Secretary of Energy to assess the short- and long-term prospects of oil supply disruptions and price volatility and their impacts on Hawaii, and to assess the economic relationship between oil-fired generation of electricity from residual fuel and refined products consumed for transportation needs of Hawaii. In Hawaii, the costs of gasoline, electricity, and jet fuel are intertwined in an intricate relationship, because they all come from the same feedstock, and changes in the use of one can potentially drive consumer prices up or down.
Mr. President, although we approved an ethanol Title yesterday, I would like to add a few words on the topic of the ethanol mandate. First, I would like to extend my appreciation to Senators Talent and Johnson, and their staff, who have shown great leadership in working with Committee members to understand the challenges that States face with a federal ethanol mandate. I am particularly sensitive to States' needs with respect to renewable fuels and renewable energy. In Hawaii and other remote areas we lack the ability to produce ethanol. We would like to have that ability to free us from importing ethanol and the rising price of crude oil.
Hawaii has had the highest gasoline prices in the nation over the last ten years! We also have a State mandate to use ethanol, enacted last year and due to go into effect in spring of 2006. Our State ethanol mandate is driven by the desire to increase the use of biomass, increase the renewable content in our transportation fuels, and decrease the imports of crude oil to Hawaii. These are all good goals. Our sugar interests and ethanol producers are struggling to put facilities into place to produce ethanol because we need to meet our State mandate.
This is why Senator Inouye and I greatly appreciate the inclusion of cellulosic and sugar cane - to - ethanol provisions in this bill. The demonstration provisions will greatly assist us in reaching our ethanol goals in the State. We also need a loan guarantee program to help our producers. The loan guarantee program in the amendment we adopted is more restrictive than the one approved and reported by the Energy Committee. Hawaii's ethanol facilities are projected to produce between 7 and 15 million gallons of ethanol and the market in Hawaii is about 45 million gallons. Hawaii has an independent market and a State requirement for ethanol. Our plants will be smaller than in other States and would greatly benefit from a loan guarantee program for smaller producers. This is very important to my State and I look forward to working with my colleagues to further address this issue in conference.
In other Titles of the energy bill, I am pleased that Title Six, Nuclear Matters, includes provisions of a bill I introduced earlier this year, S. 979, to require the Department of Energy to provide for a facility for the safe storage of greater-than-class-C radioactive waste. Radioactive sealed sources, which can be used to create a "dirty bomb," are all around us and pose a great risk. The Administration must take action to ensure the control and safe disposal of those sources.
The energy bill also includes S. 711, a bill I introduced with Senator Murkowski to reauthorize the methane hydrates program at the Department of Energy. Hydrates are important -- the U.S. has enormous hydrate resources, perhaps as much as a quarter of the world's gas hydrates. As increased demand draws down natural gas reserves, we must look to additional sources, such as hydrates, for the future. The bill includes a robust methane hydrates program that includes the recommendations of the National Research Council's study on the program and future of methane hydrates.
Mr. President, we still have much work ahead of us. The bill does not include fuel economy standards which significantly increase the fuel efficiency of automobiles and are a vital component of a comprehensive energy policy. The American people want to spend less money on gasoline, be less dependent on foreign oil, address the issue of climate change, and breathe cleaner air. Strong fuel economy standards help provide some solutions. Also the bill does not address the growing emissions of carbon dioxide, which are radically changing the world around us. I am hopeful we will address these matters on the floor and I look forward to the debate.
Again, I appreciate and commend my colleagues Senators Domenici and Bingaman on the bipartisan nature of this bill and the process by which it was developed. I ask that the full text of my statement be printed in the Record.
