Barack Obama Introduces BioFuels Security Act

Prospective presidential candidate and Illinois Democrat Senator Barack Obama along with Richard Lugar (R-IN) and Tom Harkin (D-IA) introduced the BioFuels Security Act, which would require the United States to use 60 billion gallons of ethanol and biodiesel a year by 2030.

Sens. Obama (D., Ill.) and Jim Bunning (R., Ky.) introduced the Coal-to-Liquid Fuels Promotion Act of 2007, a comprehensive bill that extends tax incentives, creates planning assistance and develops Department of Defense support for the domestic coal-to-liquid industry and authorize the Department of Energy to administer loan guarantees and other incentives for the development of the industry

The triumvirate introduced the Fuel Security and Consumer Choice Act in 2006, which would require all U.S. marketed vehicles to be manufactured as Flexible Fuel Vehicles (FFVs) within ten years. FFVs can use both regular gasoline and E-85 renewable fuel (motor fuel with 85 percent ethanol content). The bill would require 10 percent of vehicles sold in the U.S. be FFVs within 18 months of passage.

They also introduced the American Fuels Act of 2006 (S. 2446), which would increase the production of cellulosic biomass ethanol (CBE) to 250 million gallons by 2012, create an Alternative Diesel Standard that will require 2 billion gallons of alternatives diesels be mixed into the 40 billion gallon annual national diesel pool by 2015, provide a short-term, 35 cents per gallon tax credit for E85 fuel and provide automakers with a $100 tax credit for every E85-capable Flexible Fuel Vehicle (FFV) produced, and require that only clean buses be eligible for federal cost sharing, among other provisions.