First district congressional candidate Mike Whalen is pushing renewable energy on the campaign trail. Whalen is a republican from Davenport who says he has goals for renewable energy in Iowa. He says he would take a proactive entrepreneurial attitude toward renewable energy and go out and work with retailers to help them become outlets for E-85 and biodiesel.
Whalen says one goal is to go from no E-85 fueling stations in the first district to 60 stations by 2011. He says he want to increase the federal infrastructure tax credit of 30-percent for new upgrades for retailers to 50-percent. He says if we take a proactive approach, we can get the infrastructure in place a lot quicker. Whalen says projections indicate we’ll produce 400-million gallons of biodiesel in Iowa by 2010. He says Iowa should shoot for one-billion gallons by 2010.
Whalen says Iowa has a big part of the answer for renewable fuels in our own soybean and corn fields. He says its not just about economic security –it’s a matter of personal security. Whalen says he also wants to increase the number of vehicles in Iowa that can burn E-85 or biodiesel to one out of five in the next five years.