From the Road: Journal Entries from the Campaign Trail

Energy Independence Starts Here
2006-06-26

Grand Island, June 26 -- In a major rally today, more than 60 Kleeb for Congress supporters turned out to hear Scott call for aggressive steps to break our dependence on foreign oil and transition to American-made fuels like ethanol.

Scott Addresses Media

"When it comes to energy independence, the future starts right here in Nebraska," Scott told the crowd. Scott stood between two farm trucks: one filled with the Nebraska corn used to make ethanol, another a brand new Ford F150 "flex fuel" truck. Flex fuel vehicles can run on 85 percent ethanol fuel, instead of the 10 percent ethanol "Super Unleaded" commonly sold today.

Scott emphasized that the current energy crisis is the result of decades of over-reliance on oil as the end all be all for American energy. We’ve known for years that this oil economy wasn’t sustainable, Scott said. But our political leaders -- many whom have close ties to big oil -- have been too slow to act.

"My opponent, Adrian Smith, has taken nearly $400,000 from a special interest group that opposes incentives for ethanol production and calls them a waste of money," Scott said. "Today he is having a fundraiser withVice President Dick Cheney -- a man who has arguably done more to entrench the power of big oil in Washington than any other politician in history.

"I have a very different approach," Scott continued. "I think ethanol is the future not just for Nebraska, but for the United States.

"In 2002, the United States pumped more than $100 billion into foreign countries to pay for oil. The time has come to redirect that massive investment into the rural communities of the American Heartland, so we can reinvigorate our farm economy, create a new generation of high paying jobs outside of the major cities, stabilize the price of fuel, and diminish the likelihood that the United States will become embroiled in Middle Eastern wars in order to preserve our access to petroleum."

Scott reiterated his earlier call -- in reaction to Adrian Smith’s statement that the "market" alone would magically solve the energy crisis -- for aggressive new targets for alternative energy production in the United States. He called for expanding the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) to 12 billion gallons per year by 2012, and said Congress should commit to making all vehicles sold in the U.S. flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs) by 2017.

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