Senator Clinton Calls for Investing in Renewable Energy

The Strategic Energy Fund will move America toward the goal of producing 20 percent of electricity from renewable sources by 2020 by extending the production tax credit for generating electricity from wind and other renewable sources for 10 years.

It calls for more efficient vehicles on the road by doubling the consumer tax breaks for hybrids, clean diesel, and other advanced vehicles, and creating a tax incentive for fleet owners to purchase more efficient vehicles.

The proposal would speed the development of cellulosic ethanol by providing loan guarantees for the first billion gallons of commercial production capacity, and providing $1 billion for research.

To speed infrastructure conversion, it calls for increasing the availability of "E85" fuel pumps to 50 percent of gas stations by 2015 by providing gas station owners with a 50% tax credit for the cost of installing pumps.

And, by creating a $9 billion "Advanced Research Projects Agency," the legislation seeks to accelerate energy research.

At a speech at the National Press Club last Tuesday, where the Senator called for the "Strategic Energy Fund" to help America reach the goal of reducing oil imports by 50 percent by 2025, she pinpointed the nation's impasse between energy and national security:

"Our present system of energy is weakening our national security, hurting our pocketbooks, violating our common values and threatening our children's future. Right now, instead of national security dictating our energy policy, our failed energy policy dictates our national security," said Senator Clinton.

The proposed legislation also places a temporary fee on major oil company profits that exceed a 2000-2004 profit baseline. The fee would be in place for two years, and companies could offset their fee by investing in refinery capacity, ethanol production, or electricity generation from wind and other renewable sources. In addition, the proposal eliminates oil company tax breaks that the companies have said they don't need, and ensures that oil companies pay their fair share of royalties for drilling on public lands.