Buyer emphasizes energy options

By Rod Rose/The Lebanon Reporter

Lebanon July 02, 2008 12:02 am

— Saying, “it does not make a lot of sense to burn food in our cars,” Congressman Steve Buyer Tuesday said Americans must “think anew” about energy.
A gallon of gas costs 50 cents more now than it did in mid-May, when Buyer introduced “The Main Street USA Energy Security Act of 2008.”
Since then, Buyer and other House Republicans have sponsored a dozen other bills to address the nation’s energy policy.
Most of the bills would take a decade to have an effect on energy prices. One, which targets “boutique” gasoline blends required by individual states to meet clean air standards, could have an immediate impact, Buyer said.
Buyer wants more emphasis on ethanol made from cellulosic sources, rather than corn.
Lebanon Mayor John Lasley, Boone County Commissioner Huck Lewis and Lebanon Police Chief Tom Garoffolo joined Buyer at a news conference Tuesday.
High fuel prices could mean fewer police on the streets next year, Garoffolo said.
Less than 40 percent of the department’s 2008 fuel budget remains, he said. Last year, LPD had only spent 33 percent of its gasoline allotment.
Lasley said the city’s overall cost for fuel is up 20 to 25 percent. “It’s difficult to plan next year’s budget,” he said.
Road construction and maintenance will suffer as the county absorbs a 50-percent increase in its fuel costs for next year, Lewis said. Because road work is tied to gasoline tax revenue, the fewer people who drive ultimately means less money for the highway department, he said.
Lewis said the county may join cities and towns to buy fuel in bulk, paying a discounted price.
Boone County is enjoying a “tremendous economic expansion,” Buyer said, but rising energy costs are blunting that growth.
Buyer also worries that an economic downturn will contribute to an increase in crime. “I do not like the trend in this country,” he said.
Democrats and Republicans have “stark differences” on most energy policies, he said.
He doubts Democrats “will back off” opposition to development of oil shale and tar sands.
Both parties, however, agree that finding alternatives to crude oil is necessary, Buyer said.
“We also want to get the United States into the nuclear business,” he said.
One of the proposed bills would grant up to $100,000 annually for scholarships for students majoring in nuclear science and nuclear engineering.
American technology helped France build a nuclear plant system that now furnishes 90 percent of that nation’s electricity, Buyer said. But 85 percent of the technology for a proposed nuclear plant in South Carolina
Republicans favor increasing sources of clean coal, nuclear, biomass and “unconventional” oil, he said.
The nation’s economic strength, security needs and lower energy prices must be considered together, he said. “We have to wean ourselves from bad actors,” meaning unstable foreign governments.