Rales Releases Energy Plan to Reduce Oil Consumption by Four Million Barrels a Day by 2016
Bethesda, MD – Josh Rales, Democratic candidate for the US Senate seat being vacated by Senator Sarbanes, today announced his energy plan to decrease America's dependence on foreign oil, which is threatening our economy, our national security and our environment. Speaking at the Society of Automotive Engineering's garage at the University of Maryland, Rales told reporters, "Special interests have controlled our energy policy for too long. And for too long, the leadership in Washington has been complacent and out of touch. Gas prices are skyrocketing, which hits working families and seniors on fixed incomes the hardest. America needs new ideas, new leadership and a new willingness to break our addiction to oil. That is what this plan is all about. The goal of reducing our dependence on foreign oil by four million barrels per day is aggressive, but that is the only way that we are going to make the changes that are necessary to reduce the ongoing threat to our economic, national and environmental security. There is no single answer to solving our energy problems, however it is crucial that we act now. We need leadership, vision, cooperation, compromise, and innovation. We don't know what the future holds, but we do know that we need a plan that will put us on the path to securing a sustainable future."
The plan calls for increasing mileage requirements for the U.S. auto fleet to 45 miles per gallon by 2016, requiring all new cars and light trucks to be flex-fuel capable by 2009 and increasing the Renewable Fuel Standard for ethanol to 1.35 million barrels per day by 2016. The plan also calls for investing an additional $45 billion in Federal research and development on clean coal and synfuel technologies over the next ten years to push us further toward energy independence.
Today's tour at the University of Maryland was the first of several events scheduled this week by the Rales campaign to mark the release of the plan.
The plan can be found at: http://www.ralesforsenate.org/issues/energy.html.