Senators call on Obama to promote biofuels

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U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar and seven other senators sent a letter to President Obama Thursday calling on his administration to move urgently in promoting the integration of biofuels into the transportation fuel supply.

In the letter, the senators signaled their concern that the Department of Energy (DOE) has not yet completed testing higher blends of ethanol gasoline, which would allow the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to issue a waiver for gasoline with blends of ethanol higher than 10 percent.

“In the wake of the worst oil spill in our nation’s history, we believe our government should operate with a great sense of urgency to utilize more homegrown biofuels,” the senators wrote in the letter. “We urge you to use all available means to ensure that the DOE’s testing is completed as soon as possible so that both consumers and our biofuels industry are not further harmed by this delay.”

Klobuchar is a member of the Senate Agriculture, Forestry, and Nutrition Committee and the Environment and Public Works Committee. She has worked to increase the development and use of biofuels. In December, Klobuchar wrote to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and called on her to “expedite EPA’s research and review process to authorize the highest blend of ethanol in gasoline that is technically feasible.”

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