Lugar, RFA Like Clinton’s Fuels’ Stance

March 31, 2000

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Richard Lugar (R-IN) and the Renewable Fuels Association are two strong advocates of President Clinton’s call for the country to develop alternative fuels. Lugar said the president sounded lot like him.

Lugar said that when Clinton noted researchers "are close to cracking the biofuels conversion problem," he was addressing the goal of Lugar’s sustainable fuels bill that was approved by the Senate Feb. 29. "President Clinton urged the Congress to do more. I would hope that he will join me in urging passage of the House version of the biofuels bill in the next few weeks."

The Lugar bill would fund research and development needed to bring to market an affordable form of biomass ethanol that could replace a substantial portion of the U.S. gasoline supply now refined from Middle East oil.

Eric Vaughn, president of the RFA, said the country has "the strongest alternative fuels program in the world today due to the growth of the domestic ethanol industry." In January ethanol production was a record, and "we expect those records to continue." Ethanol production can double in two years, Vaughn added.