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Guest Commentary: June 4, 2001
Immediate Relief Needed for Energy Consumers
The Honorable Jerry Costello
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For months now, people in our area and all over the country have been upset with the ever-increasing cost of gasoline, and rightfully so. At a time when we are facing one of the most serious energy shortages in history I am especially interested in President Bush's plan for a national energy policy. I have strongly supported a long range energy policy for our country.
I believe the President's energy plan has many good points including a $2 billion coal initiative and increased use of reformulated gasolines using ethanol. However, I believe his proposal can be improved upon.
For example, we have the ability now, to use reformulated gasoline in a much greater capacity. In addition, Congress needs to ensure the President's new Clean Coal Power Initiative is adequately funded. Coal, which we have an abundance of in Southwestern Illinois, is an excellent alternative use of fuel. I think the President's coal initiative is a great idea that can be expanded to include incentives for new and improved clean coal technologies. We can and should use this abundant resource in an environmentally sound way. Coal usage will greatly reduce our dependance on foreign oil and avoid a band-aid approach, like drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Excluding California and Hawaii, my home state of Illinois is faced with the highest gas prices in the country. Cutting gas prices now is essential! This can be done in a variety of ways: opening marginal use wells, producing more ethanol and ensuring oil companies are not making record breaking profits from increased gas pricing.
I have also started hearing from many farmers who want to hear more about the role ethanol will play in the President's plan. I was very disappointed to learn that Vice President Cheney does not believe alternative fuels are a viable option right now. Cheney stated "Years down the road alternative fuels may become a great deal more plentiful. But we are not yet in any position to stake our economy and our own way of life on that possibility." We can and should use alternative fuels now! In 2000 alone the ethanol industry expanded production by 155 million gallons and is on course to increase by an additional 400 million gallons in 2001. Each day more than 5 million gallons of ethanol are blended into about 65 million gallons of gasoline -- adding critical volume to a tight gasoline market and reducing the pressure on price. Ethanol is far less expensive than MTBE -- refiners could replace $1.50 of MTBE with 50 cents of ethanol.
I hope Congress will ensure improvements are made to the President's plan that will allow for immediate relief and assure our constituents that we will not continue the upward spiral of higher gas prices or greater dependance on foreign oil year after year.
Note: This column has been adapted from a speech Rep. Costello delivered on the floor of the House, May 25, 2001.
 How to contact Rep. Jerry Costello (D-IL)
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