Bemidji Pioneer: “Franken touts energy proposals”

The Bemidji Pioneer covered some of Franken’s recent tour through northern Minnesota:

Rural Minnesota can play a key role in an energy economy, providing needed jobs and cutting dependence on foreign oil, says Al Franken.

…

Wind, biofuels, developing cellulostic energy, biomass “can really mean jobs and economic development — and young people staying in rural Minnesota,” he said.

A Texas study shows that young people stayed and took jobs in a small town with wind farms, Franken said.

“If you travel around Minnesota, you discover that towns are struggling with losing their young people because there aren’t jobs and opportunities that keep them there,” he said.

…

Specifically, Franken would offer:

• Make a research and development tax credit permanent.
• Develop Minnesota natural resources, such as permanent production tax credits for wind and solar and tax incentives to invest in biofuels such as cellulostic ethanol, biomass and biodiesel.
• Invest in research at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council, the Environmental Protection Agency and at research universities.
• Create new or upgrade existing transmission systems to transport alternative renewable fuels to the marketplace.
• Establish alternative fuel access points for electric, ethanol and LNG vehicles, with Minnesota already the nation’s leader in the number of E-85 gas pumps.
• Encourage the creation of more locally owned biofuels refineries, with a subsidy for every gallon of gas from a refinery with more than 25 percent local investment.
• Increase funding by $500 million for the low-income Weatherization Assistance Program.
• Retrofit foreclosed homes with energy efficiency measures.
• Create tax incentives for green buildings and make all federal buildings built after this year “carbon neutral.”
• Provide incentives for the purchase of advanced alternative fuel vehicles or retrofitting existing vehicles with advanced fuel engines.