Below is Sen. Grassley's email to some Iowans about his support for the
Senate Energy Bill passed last week. I thought you should be aware of it. We
are considering how we might want to respond.

Lyle Krewson


------ Forwarded Message
From: "Michelle Kenyon Brown" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: "Michelle Kenyon Brown" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2003 14:32:12 -0500
To: "Lyle Krewson" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Fw: from Grassley

Did you get this email? He doesn't mention the RES, but does mention the tax
credit for wind and for electricity to come from animal waste!

----- Original Message -----
From: "Sen. Grassley - IA" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, August 05, 2003 2:01 PM

Dear Ms. Kenyon:

I would like to take this opportunity to continue our dialogue about our
nation's energy security.  You may be pleased to know that last week,
the Senate passed a comprehensive energy security bill to reduce our
nation's dangerous reliance on foreign sources of energy.  The bill is
identical to the energy bill that the Senate passed during the last
Congress.

I was pleased to support this critical legislation, which the Senate
adopted by an overwhelming and bipartisan vote of 84 to 14.

First, this legislation includes an energy tax package, which I
co-authored as the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, to
encourage the expanded use of alternative and renewable energy sources.
This package extends the tax credits for electricity produced from wind
and biomass for five years; it provides a production tax credit for
electricity produced from swine and bovine waste; it creates an income
tax credit for soybean-derived biodiesel; it makes farmer cooperatives
that produce ethanol eligible for the small ethanol producer tax credit;
and it establishes a production tax credit to encourage the use of
highly-efficient appliances.

The Energy Policy Act also creates a renewable fuels standard (RFS),
which will triple the use of renewable fuels over the next ten years to
about 3 percent of our nation's total transportation fuel supply.  In
addition to phasing out the use of the toxic fuel additive MTBE, which
has polluted lakes and rivers in areas where it is used, this provision
will require 5 billion gallons of renewables, such as safe,
clean-burning ethanol and biodiesel, to be used in the United States by
2012.  According to an economic analysis by AUS Consultants, over the
next decade, the RFS could create as many as 214,000 American jobs
throughout the entire economy, increase net farm income by nearly $6
billion per year, displace nearly 1.6 billion barrels of oil, and expand
household income by an additional $51.7 billion.

The energy bill passed by the Senate will now go to a House-Senate
conference committee, of which I will be a member, to reconcile
differences with the energy bill passed by the House of Representatives
in April.

As a nation, we have become far too reliant on sources of energy from
unstable regions of the world.  The recent crisis in the Mid-East, and
the resulting spike in energy costs, has underscored this critical
shortcoming in our national and economic security.  The bill passed by
the Senate is a major victory for Iowa's consumers, Iowa's farmers, and
the environment for future generations of Americans.



------ End of Forwarded Message

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
To view the Sierra Club List Terms & Conditions, see:
 http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/terms.asp