BEND, Ore. -- Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) visited Bend, Ore., Tuesday to join other officials in promoting a renewable energy action plan and to tell that filling up your gas tank helps fuel terrorism, reported KTVZ-TV.
When you're at a gasoline station in Central Oregon, you are paying a terror tax, and that's exactly what our dependence on foreign oil is, Wyden told attendees of the Business Alliance for Sustainable Energy (BASE) Summit.
Wyden asked business leaders to join the partnership between him, Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) [image-nocss] and Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski, who spoke to the group on Monday. Their plan calls for adopting standards for biodiesel and ethanol by the year 2010.
Wyden criticized the Bush administration's claim that America is going to be just as dependent on foreign oil 20 years from now as we are today. That is unacceptable to me, to have that level of dependency on foreign oil, the senator said. And I think it's unacceptable to the American people.
Wyden said that as part of the effort to change the nation's energy policy, Oregon ideally is the green energy capital of the United States.
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