After their first week in session, many Iowa legislators are anxious to add fuel to the state’s growing ethanol industry, while also prodding along other forms of renewable energy. State Representative Dolores Mertz is chair of the Iowa House Agriculture Committee and says she sees lawmakers taking action on more incentives for renewable fuels of all kinds.
Mertz, a Democrat from Ottosen, says "Not only ethanol and biodiesel but biomass, cellulose, wind energy. We have to really promote those things." She says it’s somewhat ironic that many of the bills promoting agriculture and renewable fuels may not originate in the House ag committee.
Mertz says "A lot of those will come out of the environmental protection committee more so than they will ag but we have to work together to get those things done." She says she believes renewable fuels incentives bills will ultimately end up in the House Ag Committee, adding, the real challenge will be getting them funded.