News release posted June 24, 2010

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and seven other senators sent a letter to President Obama today calling on his administration to move urgently in promoting the integration of biofuels into our transportation fuel supply. In the letter, the senators signaled their concern that the DOE has not yet completed testing higher blends of ethanol gasoline, which would allow the U.S. EPA to issue a waiver for gasoline with blends of ethanol higher than 10 percent.

"In the wake of the worst oil spill in our nation's history, we believe our government should operate with a great sense of urgency to utilize more homegrown biofuels," the senators wrote in the letter. "We urge you to use all available means to ensure that the DOE's testing is completed as soon as possible so that both consumers and our biofuels industry are not further harmed by this delay."

The other senators that signed the letter include Tom Harkin of Iowa, Tim Johnson of South Dakota, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Richard Durbin of Illinois, Evan Bayh of Indiana and Al Franken of Minnesota.

In December, Klobuchar wrote to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and called on her to "expedite EPA's research and review process to authorize the highest blend of ethanol in gasoline that is technically feasible." She has also sponsored numerous bills in the Senate to expand domestically-produced biofuels, including the Farm-to-Fuel Investment Act and the Ethanol and Biodiesel Education and Expansion Acts.

SOURCE: Klobuchar