NEWS

Biden talks green with industrial reps

04/01/2007

Post and Courier

By Tenisha Waldo

KIAWAH ISLAND - The nation needs to step up its role in containing greenhouse gas and carbon emissions, U.S. Sen. Joe Biden told representatives of the state's manufacturing industry Saturday. It also should invest in alternative energy sources to lessen America's dependence on foreign oil sources, he said.

Biden, D-Del., made his second presidential campaign stop to the state and spoke at the South Carolina Manufacturers Alliance annual meeting. And while he gave a well-oiled speech on foreign policy, he stepped down from the podium to address the state's top manufacturers on a more personal level.

Biden said he thinks carbon emissions should be capped soon and that the nation should invest in new technology to prevent future damage by global warming.

By 2009, every car sold in America should be a "flexible fuel" vehicle, Biden said.

He also said every major domestic oil company should offer ethanol fuel at 10 percent of its gas stations.

Although corn-based ethanol won't free the country of its dependency on foreign oil and domestic farmers would still charge about the same price, he said there needs to be some flexibility in national energy consumption.

About 38 percent of the nation's oil is controlled by leaders at "unstable countries" such as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Biden said.

More domestic self-reliance would mean "about $50 billion of the $350 billion that we use in the balance of payments is going to go into the fields of South Carolina and Iowa and Nebraska, rather than the sands of Saudi Arabia and into the hands of Chavez," Biden said.

Companies will need to put up money now for research and new technology, he said. But if nothing is done at all, the future consequences could cost "a whole heck of a lot more."