I 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 388 
To provide for a Biofuels Feedstocks Energy Reserve, and to authorize 
the Secretary of Agriculture to make and guarantee loans for the produc-
tion, distribution, development, and storage of biofuels. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 26, 2005 
Ms. KAPTUR (for herself, Mr. ABERCROMBIE, Mr. BROWN of Ohio, Mr. FIL-
NER, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. HINCHEY, Mr. KILDEE, Mr. OBERSTAR, Mr. 
RYAN of Ohio, and Mr. STRICKLAND) introduced the following bill; which 
was referred to the Committee on Agriculture 
A BILL 
To provide for a Biofuels Feedstocks Energy Reserve, and 
to authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to make and 
guarantee loans for the production, distribution, develop-
ment, and storage of biofuels. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Biofuels Energy Inde-
pendence Act of 2005’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds as follows:
(1) The over reliance of the United States on 
imported petroleum creates a major strategic vulner-
ability for the Nation, with nearly half of the energy 
supply of the United States dependent on foreign 
sources. 
(2) From the economically damaging Arab oil 
embargoes of 1973–74 and 1979 to the recession 
precipitated by rising oil prices which began in 1999, 
the economic stability of the United States has too 
often been shaken by economic forces outside its 
borders. 
(3) Increasing fuel prices have been a particular 
hardship on small, independent businessmen, par-
ticularly truckers and farmers, who have no choice 
but to pay ever-increasing fuel bills while absorbing 
these higher costs in today’s economic environment, 
(4) This Act would shift America’s dependence 
away from foreign petroleum as an energy source to-
ward alternative, renewable, domestic agricultural 
sources. Its aim is to convert the current petroleum 
trade deficit to a trade balance by replacing foreign 
sources of supply with steady increases of biobased 
fuels through domestic production. 
(5) Today, there are nearly 140,000,000 cars 
and 85,000,000 trucks on our highways. Of this
amount, approximately 3,300,000 cars and trucks 
already on our highways will run on 85 percent eth-
anol (E–85), and this number is increasing. For the 
2005 model year, there are 20 different models of 
vehicles capable of running on E–85. Yet given this 
market, the alternative fuel is used less than 1 per-
cent of the time given that of the more than 
187,000 retail locations selling motor fuel in the 
United States, only 400 stations across 38 States 
sell E–85. 
(6) Biodiesel production is also dramatically in-
creasing, going from 5,000,000 gallons in 2001 to 
nearly 25,000,000 gallons in 2003. Daimler-Chrysler 
has also announced its intentions to initially fuel the 
Diesel Jeep Liberty with a 5 percent biodiesel blend, 
the first time a vehicle has been explicitly fueled 
with an alternative fuel as it rolls off the production 
line. 
(7) Currently the United States annually con-
sumes about 7,171,885,000 barrels of petroleum. 
(164,000,000,000 gallons of vehicle fuels and 
5,600,00,000 gallons of heating oil.) In 2002, 62 
percent of these fuels were imported, part of a total 
$358,200,000,000 trade deficit with the rest of the 
world. Since 1983, the United States importation of
petroleum and its derivatives has more than tripled, 
rising from 1,215,225,000 barrels in 1983 to 
4,476,501,000 barrels in 2003. 
(8) Further Strategic Petroleum Reserve policy 
should encourage domestic production to the great-
est extent possible. Currently, the Strategic Petro-
leum Reserve holds 670,700,000 barrels (out of a 
potential 727,000,000 barrels), sufficient to cushion 
the United States from wild price swings for a pe-
riod of 53 days. None of the fuel in this Reserve is 
bio-based. In fact, 92.2 percent of the Strategic Pe-
troleum Reserve has been purchased from foreign 
sources—41.9 percent from Mexico, 24 percent from 
the United Kingdom, and over 20 percent from 
OPEC nations. 
(9) Strategic Petroleum Reserve policy also 
should encourage the development of alternatives to 
the Nation’s reliance on petroleum such as biomass 
fuels. 
(10) As a first step in diversification, the Stra-
tegic Petroleum Reserve should exchange 2,100,000 
barrels from our current reserves for 32,000,000 
gallons of ethanol and biodiesel, which would com-
prise less than 2 percent of the United States mar-
ket, but yield a doubling of ethanol products.