August 9, 2006

Sebelius calls for increased use of renewable energy
Governor addresses American Coalition for Ethanol in Kansas City

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – America’s energy challenge is to shift to renewable sources of energy, Governor Kathleen Sebelius said today in a speech to the American Coalition for Ethanol’s annual meeting.

Sebelius, who chairs the Governors’ Ethanol Coalition, said the nation’s security, economy and environment are all at stake.

“Our nation, our economy, and our very way of life are all affected on a daily basis by events on the other side of the world that we’re now linked to by a string of pipelines and supertankers.  America’s security and its prosperity are chained to increasingly unstable sources of energy,” Sebelius warned.

“Last year, nearly 60 percent of the oil our country used was imported. America’s energy challenge is to break those chains, freeing ourselves from our dependence on foreign supplies of fossil fuels and charting a new path for our nation,” she continued.

Sebelius said unrest in oil producing nations has driven up prices, a situation made worse as a result of problems with BP’s pipelines in Alaska.  These issues show how tight the global energy market is, further demonstrating the importance of increased biofuels production.

In addition to the economic and security impacts of a reliance on fossil fuels, Sebelius said the threat of global warming only increases the need for a shift to renewable energy sources such as biofuels and wind power – both of which Kansas is well-positioned to produce.

“In addition to being the breadbasket of the world, we’re also well on the way to being the nation’s filling station thanks to our production of ethanol,” Sebelius said, pointing to the fact that by December production in Kansas will have doubled in just the past four years.

Kansas also has the opportunity to be a major producer of electricity from wind farms, with the state ranked 3rd in the nation for its wind power potential.

To address the economic, security and environmental challenges facing the nation, Sebelius has signed onto the 25x’25 initiative, which aims to have 25 percent of the nation’s energy coming from renewable sources by 2025.

The Kansas departments of Agriculture and Commerce are both working to bring more biofuels production facilities to Kansas, while the Kansas Energy Council is working on ways to encourage more wind power production, with an emphasis on small, community-based facilities.

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