Sen. Lieberman plans biofuel PHEV bill: legislative breakthrough
Oct 8, 2005 (From the CalCars-News archive)

This is by far the most specific and far-reaching proposal to date.

-- Press release followed by news story un this posting
-- permanent link for this message is
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/calcars-news/message/169

-- Speech excerpts, outline of plan and full text of speech in next posting:
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/calcars-news/message/170


PRESS RELEASE
http://lieberman.senate.gov/newsroom/release.cfm?id=247140
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 7, 2005
Contact: Casey Aden-Wansbury Phone: 202.224.4041

Lieberman Unveils Plan to Break America’s Dependence on Foreign Oil
Senator delivers Georgetown’s Loewy Memorial Lecture in Science, Technology
and International Affairs at Georgetown University

WASHINGTON – Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT) today unveiled a package of
legislative proposals to help America break its dangerous dependence on
foreign oil that threatens the nation’s security, economy and environment.
Before an audience of professors, students and academics, Lieberman
delivered Georgetown’s Loewy Memorial Lecture in Science, Technology and
International Affairs at Georgetown University.

“What we are seeing is more than just a temporary drain on our budgets – a
passing inconvenience and temporary increase in costs” Lieberman said. “I
fear that we are literally watching the slow but steady erosion of
America’s power and independence as a nation – our economic and military
power and our political independence. We’re burning it up in our engines
and spewing it from our tailpipes because of our absolute dependence on oil
to fuel our cars and trucks.”

“The bill I will propose puts our nation’s transportation system on a new
road where the tanks are filled with more home-grown fuel …We will push
harder for more and quicker production and commercialization of biomass
based fuels…The bill would also create a program to guarantee that filling
stations had the pumps to provide the fuel to keep pace with the growing
alternative-fuel fleet produced by the mandate.”

Lieberman’s proposal will mandate 10 million barrels in oil-savings in 20
years and will also mandate the mass-production of cars that can burn any
combination of gasoline and alternative fuels or, alternatively, cars
powered by efficient hybrid engines. In addition, the bill will include:

• An aggressive strategy for pushing the development and mass marketing of
hybrid technologies, including hybrids that give drivers the option to plug
them in at night;

• A program to ensure an adequate number of alternative fuel retail outlets;

• For the first time, fuel-efficiency standards for trucks;

• Standards to ensure fuel efficient replacement tires are offered for cars
and trucks;

• Financial support for retooling manufacturing facilities for advanced
technology and alternative fuel cars and trucks.

“Our present energy and transportation systems were born at the end of the
19th and the beginning of the 20th Centuries with the twin discoveries of
oil extraction and the internal combustion engine,” Lieberman said. “Those
systems have served us well – bringing growth to our nation and the world.
But it is now the 21st Century and its time to move on. The era of big oil
is over. It’s time to kick start our entire infrastructure – from the
refinery to the tailpipe – and build this new era of energy independence.”

The full text of the speech is available at
http://lieberman.senate.gov/newsroom/release.cfm?id=247129

An outline of the legislative plan is available at:
http://lieberman.senate.gov/documents/bills/051006gtownspchsum.pdf

NEWS STORY
http://www.newbritainherald.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15352706&BRD=1641&PAG=461&d\
ept_id=10110&rfi=6

Lieberman calls for end to big oil, dependence on foreign oil
By JOSEPH STRAW, Journal Register News Service
New Britain Herald 10/08/2005

WASHINGTON -- Declaring that "the era of big oil is over," U.S. Sen. Joseph
I. Lieberman, D-Conn., said Friday the country must act quickly to end its
dependence on foreign oil or jeopardize its status as a world superpower.

Lieberman announced plans for legislation that would mandate the phasing in
of traditional hybrid and second-generation "plug-in" hybrid cars, and
would require a dramatic transition from fossil to ethanol fuels made from
domestic biomass like corn.

"We are one well-coordinated terrorist attack or natural disaster away from
a monstrous spike in the price of oil that could go to $100 a barrel,"
Lieberman said.

"All that, and much more, should make us worry," Lieberman said.

Shifts in world politics, or even wars not involving the United States,
could compromise oil markets and the supply, leaving the United States
"like a pitiful giant, like Gulliver ..tied down by smaller countries."

Unless the United States changes course, Lieberman said, "We will have
given them the ropes and help them tie us down."

The speech delivered to students and faculty at Georgetown University was
touted by Lieberman’s office as a "major" address on energy independence
strategy.

The event came just hours before the House of Representatives voted 212-210
on a controversial bill that would ease restrictions on domestic oil
refinement capacity in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Lieberman declined to say where he would fall should the legislation come
to a vote in the Senate, but expressed doubt about addressing the problem
with increased production.

Katrina and Rita, which compromised U.S. refinement and fuel transmission
capacity, pushing gasoline costs to more than $3 per gallon nationwide,
with astronomic hikes in the cost of home heating oil expected this winter.

Lieberman, who has sought with varying degrees of success to pass
environmental reforms in the Senate, cited a "rising bipartisan desire" in
Congress to act in the wake of the storms.

Federal subsidies for ethanol production, pushed by legislators from the
farm-heavy Great Plains states, were a critical sticking point in federal
energy policy legislation that passed this summer.

Lieberman’s legislation could draw heavy support from those states,
countering the muscle of oil-producing states. Lieberman is courting Sen.
Sam Brownback, R-Kan., as a possible Republican co-sponsor, as well as Sen.
Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.

Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., a possible presidential candidate in 2008, is
another possible co-sponsor, Lieberman said.

As planned, Lieberman’s bill would set the goal of cutting motor vehicle
fossil fuel consumption in half over 20 years.

The bill would require that within three years 10 percent of all cars sold
in the United States are either hybrids or use alternative fuel, with that
requirement rising to half after seven years.

Lieberman cited successful implementation of alternative fuel requirements
in Brazil as evidence that reform is possible, and can succeed.

Lieberman likened America’s critical oil dependence and inaction to the
nation’s longtime awareness that a major hurricane would ravage New Orleans.

He called our foreign oil dependence "the most significant failure of
American leadership in recent times," arguing that market forces have
created the current predicament, and cannot be counted on to fix it.

Officials at the Washington office of the National Petrochemical and
Refiners Association did not respond to calls Friday requesting comment.

Deron Lovaas of the Natural Resources Defense Council was on hand Friday
for Lieberman’s speech, which he called "inspiring."

"I’m hopeful that this means we’ll actually see some progress in terms of
weaning ourselves from oil," said Lovaas, director of the NRDC’s vehicle
campaign.