energy

Energy Efficient Vehicles

Increasing transportation costs burden businesses and families alike. The price of a gallon of gasoline has increased over 100 per cent in the past 5 years, and 60 per cent of the oil we use is bought from other nations. Any increase in fuel economy would clearly decrease our dependence on foreign oil, as well as our susceptibility to their instability or desire to disrupt our economy.

The last time Congress increased the fuel economy of our vehicles was in 1975 in response to the OPEC oil embargo. This embargo came at a time when the U.S. imported about 28 percent of its annual oil consumed. And it hit America hard. Suddenly Americans had to ration gasoline -- sales were maxed at 10 gallons per sale, gasoline stations voluntarily closed on Sundays, and people waited in lines to fuel up. I am determined to take action now to prevent the 1970s energy crisis from repeating itself. The single most important way to protect our economy and improve our national security is to significantly raise fuel economy standards to reduce our demand for oil. We must take steps now to insulate ourselves from an impending crisis in the future.

Clean and Renewable Energy

Clean, renewable energy paired with advancing new technology means jobs and economic growth for Illinois and for America. With the abundance of renewable energy resources -- including the sun, wind, and earth -- the technical potential of major renewable technologies could actually provide more than five times the electricity this country needs. Moreover, clean, renewable energy will create jobs and income in rural areas. I strongly support the use of large utility-scale wind turbines; each one that goes on line generates over $1.5 million in economic activity. Each turbine also provides about $5,000 in lease payments per year for 20 years or more to a farmer, rancher or other landowner. We have over 100 Megawatts of wind energy in Illinois already, and I am committed to working to expand this promising resource.

Clean renewable energy also saves consumers money. I support a national 15 per cent renewable standard which would save consumers $16.3 billion on their electricity and natural gas bills by 2030. Additionally, this standard will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 200 million metric tons per year by 2020-- a reduction of seven percent below "business-as-usual levels." Increasing renewable energy will reduce the risks to the economy posed by over-reliance on a single source of new power supplies, such as natural gas. I will continue to work to diversify our energy infrastructure, and to provide environmental benefits, fuel diversity, national security, and economic development benefits to all citizens.

Clean Coal Technology and FutureGen

About half of all electricity generation in the U.S. uses coal. Since coal is a significant part of our energy supply, we need to figure out how to use it more efficiently, so that we can generate more energy with fewer carbon dioxide emissions.

I am dedicated to finding cleaner ways to generate electricity using coal. For instance, new combined cycle plants produce both electricity and heat, generating two products from every ton of coal used.

FutureGen is a promising federal energy project for downstate Illinois, designed to utilize our country's abundant coal resources with near-zero emissions. Instead of burning coal, FutureGen will gasify the coal and burn the gas to produce electricity, a much more efficient process. This next-generation coal-fired power plant will be the cleanest fossil fuel-fired power plant in the world.

FutureGen also promises to demonstrate carbon capture and storage technology. The carbon dioxide generated from the plant can be separated from the other gasses in the emissions and stored deep underground in porous rocks. Geologists tell us that some areas of the country will be able to permanently store millions of tons of carbon dioxide in deep rocks. FutureGen will help prove this technology.