03/14/06 Decreasing dependency on foreign oil

Decreasing dependency on foreign oil. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. Bio energy is on the top of many lawmakers agendas and has become one of today's hottest topics. But how can we decrease our dependency on foreign oil. Former CIA Director James Woolsey thinks that it is possible to replace half the country's gasoline by keeping it simple and improving gas mileage standards. Woolsey was the featured speaker recently at the sixth annual Harvesting Clean Energy Conference. He is the current chairman of the Advisory Board of the Clean Fuels Foundation and serves on the National Commission on Energy Policy. By keeping it simple Woolsey suggests that we turn to a resource that doesn't demand a complete overhaul of the existing infrastructure. Washington State Congressman Doc Hastings believes that biofuels needs to be a part of the plan. HASTINGS: I think that it is in our best interest, clearly, to diversify our energy portfolio if you will and certainly biofuels needs to be a part of that. Ag Secretary Mike Johanns sees a bright future for biofuels. JOHANNS: In the future we may have the opportunity to not only provide for agricultural power needs, but also to provide power back into the grid. I do believe the day will come when our agriculture and forest lands provide much of our nations energy. North Central Indiana was recently chosen as the site for the U.S. largest biodiesel plant. It not only has Indiana farmers talking it is just the latest sign of the growing U.S. trend toward renewable fuels. The new biodiesel plant hopes to be online for the 2007 harvest season. During Woolsey's speech, he presented a bleak view of how precarious our dependency of world oils is. A single blow, like the attack on an oil processing facility in Saudi Arabia last month could cause the energy balance to come crashing down. If the terrorists had not been stopped, they may have disrupted the production for three quarters of the Saudi oil exports. According to Woolsey, that would put about 6 million barrels of oil a day off line for well over a year and send prices to well over $100 a barrel. Hastings echoes that notion on a local basis. HASTINGS: When you concentrate your refinery capabilities and your oil production capabilities in one geographic area, you are subject to disruption when you have storms like Katrina. Hastings adds that when Congress passed the energy bill last August it included a number of incentives for the production of biofuels. I'm Greg Martin and that's today's Line On Agriculture on the Northwest Ag Information Network.