I want to thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this timely hearing on this very important topic.  As you know I have long been an advocate of biobased renewable fuels.  I am especially interested in ethanol and switchgrass as fuels which can raise rural income levels and help increase U.S. energy security, and I am pleased that these fine witnesses are here with us to talk about the importance of biobased fuels.  You and I both know the importance of biobased fuels to rural America and the nation as a whole.  This hearing should furnish us and our colleagues with a reminder of why investment in renewable fuels is so critical at this time.

 Recently the Secretary of Agriculture visited the small town of Centerville, Iowa to witness a part of the future.  In nearby fields, farmers had planted hundreds of acres of switchgrass as part of a biomass energy project.  Here farmers, local power utilities, researchers and the federal government have joined in a partnership to prove that electricity can be generated economically from biomass.  This pilot project will convert switchgrass to electricity in a coal fired power plant, and is another step toward the development of home-grown energy supplies in Iowa.

 The next step is the development of biomass energy systems which utilize hydrogen fuel cell to produce electricity.  I call this concept electrofarming and it has many advantages over the coal-fired biomass system.  For example, hydrogen fuel cells produce no emissions, only water and electricity.  Fuels cells are more efficient than turbines, even at lower power levels.  Farms could use electrofarming systems to provide the energy for their farm and sell the excess to the power grid, leading to higher rural incomes and more decentralized power production.  What we need now is a commitment from the Administration to help to develop an electrofarming demonstration project.

 That is the future.  Ethanol is the present and the future. The ethanol industry provides a tremendous opportunity to supply energy to Americans.  Although the U.S. ethanol industry currently has the capacity to produce about 1.6 billion gallons annually, that is only a fraction of the potential energy resources that can drawn from the American agriculture sector.  In a report on energy R&D strategies for reducing greenhouse gases released last week by the President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), a panel of industry experts and scientists suggested a need for biofuel production capacity by 2030 of 19 billion gallons in this country alone.

 Ethanol has a greater impact than merely providing energy for our nation.  It also provides increased income for our rural citizens.  A recent report by John Urbanchuk sponsored by the National Corn Growers, suggests that over 100,000 jobs are created directly and indirectly by the ethanol sector, generating more than $2.0 billion annually in additional farm income.  If we attain the goals suggested in the PCAST report, those numbers could increase by a factor of at least ten.

 In addition to the energy benefit, ethanol could represent a tremendous income opportunity for rural America.  An increasing share of the country's ethanol productive capacity is held by small- and medium-sized producers, many of which are operated by farmer-owned cooperatives.  This trend suggests that much of the income from expanded production would go to those we most want to help, our family farmers.  As technology is refined and cultivation of more energy crops are devoted to this purpose, more and more farmers will share in this bounty, across the country.

The environmental gains from this increased use of bio-based fuels could also be considerable.  When biomass is used for the generation of energy, there are low lifecycle CO2 emissions from its use, especially for the energy crops currently being studied in pilot projects sponsored by the Department of Energy.  The perennial grasses or short rotation woody crops like poplars have the added benefit of helping to manage erosion problems in vulnerable soils, as witnessed in those fields around Centerville.

Finally, these biobased fuels could play a significant role in allowing us to better control our energy security.  Mr. Chairman, this topic has long been of intense interest to you, and I share your concerns.  The recent tensions in the Middle East over the renewed grandstanding by Saddam Hussein underline the political instability of that region, the world's largest exporter of petroleum products.  Clearly, we need to do more at home to reduce our reliance on imported energy supplies.  I believe our energy future could be growing in the fields of Iowa and Indiana  We cannot remind our colleagues of that fact too often.  I look forward to an interesting and informative hearing.