Clinton Says Bio-Based Fuels Will Add $20 Billion in Farm Income

August 13, 1999

President Clinton started a process Thursday designed to triple U.S. bio-energy and use of bio-based products for fuels by 2010 and generate as much as $20 billion a year in new farm income. The plan also would reduce greenhouse gas emissions as much as 100 million tons a year, the equivalent of taking more than 70 million cars off the road. Republicans and Democrats hailed the action.

Clinton also wants to accelerate the development of "flexible-fuel vehicles." The plan calls for using renewable resources, such as plants and plant products, to achieve the goals. Ethanol from corn is among the major products that would benefit.

The move is certain to attract more attention in Congress as lawmakers search for ways to improve farm income and mute some of the criticism about environmental problems associated with agriculture. Farmers, too, can be expected to produce the products needed once the research is in place to develop fuels from biomass products.

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Richard Lugar (R-IN) says implementing Clinton's executive order "will have an immediate and positive impact on federal efforts to develop cost-competitive technologies for the production of biofuels and biochemicals from nature's own sustainable supply of biomass."

Lugar says the United States is "only at the beginning of a revolution in biotechnology that will lead to more efficient use of the world's resources, enabling ecologically sustainable growth and development." The Senate Agriculture Committee has approved Lugar's bill to create a research initiative focused on producing biofuels and biochemicals from a wide variety of plants, trees, grasses and agricultural residues.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee, called Clinton's announcement "the future of American agriculture." The action means "new farm income opportunities, greater rural economic development, energy independence and a cleaner environment for us all. Biomass has the potential to be a key component of the future of agriculture."

Noting the "world's finite supply of traditional energy sources," Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) said the country "must press forward with creative, high-tech solutions." Using natural wastes and agricultural resources "that grow right under our noses" is a timely approach to meeting the nation's fuel needs. "Not only would it address environmental shortcomings associated with petroleum-based products, it would stretch the earning power of farmers well into the next century," Grassley added.