Blunt and McCaskill sound off on gas prices

High gas prices are on the minds of both Missouri Senators this week.

A bill co-sponsored by Senator Roy Blunt was on the Senate flood Wednesday to address expanded oil production and other issues.

Blunt says one area of concern is refineries taking time to customize production under the Clean Air Act rather than working on bulk oil refining.

"It really impacts supply whenever you have to make all these special blends of fuels in the summertime for the 19 or 20 or two dozen cities that are under some Clean Air requirements right now. Until we changed the law a little bit a few years ago all of them had to have a unique blend of fuel that had to be produced just for them," Blunt said.

Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill says alternative fuels is her focus – with a caveat.

"Incentivizing alternatives to oil petroleum is a very good idea," McCaskill said. "I do think we have to be careful that doesn’t turn into an entitlement program. Incentivizing the beginning of a market is much different than an entitlement program that goes on for decades and decades and decades. So we do need to look to the future and figure out at what point and time do we need to wean that market off of the tax dollars that they have received."

The Senate this voted down a McCaskill proposal that would have dropped tax credits for the largest of the oil companies.

Kirk Wayman, KXCV

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Biomass conference held in St. Louis

ST. LOUIS, MO (ST. LOUIS PUBLIC RADIO) - Representatives of the biomass energy industry have gathered in St. Louis this week.

They're here to discuss technologies for turning everything from crop residues to municipal trash into liquid fuels, heat, and electricity.

Tim Portz is the program director for BBI international, the company organizing the international biomass conference.

He says it's not going to be easy for the biomass industry to gain a foothold in the marketplace of already established U.S. energy producers.

"So if we really want to get serious about energy independence, creating local jobs, and reducing the carbon emissions component of producing this energy, then we have to get together and we have to push for policy in Washington, DC, and at our state level," Portz said.

Participants toured some of those local biomass facilities.

One is at Anheuser-Busch. The company puts organic-rich wastewater from the beer-making process into a big, air-tight vessel, where microbes turn the organic matter into methane gas.

"The methane is piped to boilers at the facility, and the boilers are presumably boiling the mash as part of their cooking process and their beer-making process," Portz said. "So their waste streams power their beer-making process."

Participants also visited a biomass gas production company and a landfill that captures methane to heat a nearby school and power an asphalt plant.

The conference runs through this Thursday at America's Center.

Véronique LaCapra, St. Louis Public Radio

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