Gilbert Unveils Biofuels Policy, Calls For State Investment To Make Texas Energy Independent

WOODVILLE-Hank Gilbert, the Texas Democratic Party’s nominee for Agriculture Commissioner, on Tuesday released his biofuels policy for the Texas Department of Agriculture on the first leg of a three-day, 13-city tour to highlight Texas’ potential to become a leading player in biofuels thanks to agricultural diversity.

“Texas has the potential to become a major biofuels producer,” Gilbert said. “There are crops-like cassava-which we can grow in areas of West Texas where nothing else is being grown right now that can produce alternative fuels and not increase the cost of the foods we bring to our family’s dinner table,” Gilbert said.  “Too, land near the Gulf Coast in South East Texas is perfect land on which we can grow sugar cane to use to manufacture fuels,” Gilbert continued.

Under Gilbert’s plan, entitled the Field to Pump Biofuels Initiative, the Texas Department of Agriculture would utilize funding from the Texas Agricultural Infrastructure & Economic Development Fund (proposed by Gilbert under his previously released reform plan for the agency), to provide start-up funding to agricultural producers to help grow new, non-foodstock biofuel crops and to refiners to help develop refining capacity for those products.

“The state would also help assist agricultural producers to help establish new cooperatives which would allow them to seek funding from outside sources to grow, market, transport-and even refine-their biofuel crops,” he continued.

Gilbert also noted that biofuels made from cassava and sugar cane will result in less pollution, cleaner air, and even additional money for farmers-should a market develop for the sale of carbon credits.

###

Click here to View/Download Gilbert’s Biofuels Policy

While Gilbert Talks About Issues & Reform, Incumbent Staples Focuses On Gay Marriage

Says If Opponent Put As Much Energy Into TDA As Fighting Gay Marriage, Agency Might Be In Better Shape

TYLER-Hank Gilbert, the Texas Democratic Party’s nominee for Texas Agriculture Commissioner, Monday called on incumbent commissioner Todd Staples to focus on issues of importance to the race rather than his attempts to score political points by focusing on issues over which the Department of Agriculture has no control.

Gilbert’s comments were in response to an Athens Daily Review article from this weekend in which Staples addressed the Proposition 8 decision in California.

“I’ve spent the last two weeks on the campaign trail talking about real reform for the Texas Department of Agriculture-from weights and measures to funding to increase agribusiness in Texas to protecting Texans from eminent domain abuses,” Gilbert said.

“My opponent, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to be focused much on agriculture at all. He’s kind of like a kitten playing with a ball of yarn. If you hold an anchovy over his head, he forgets all about that ball of yarn; it is kind of how Todd Staples is with this issue,” Gilbert continued.

Gilbert pointed out that the Agriculture Commissioner has no authority or power over the Texas Family Code with respect to marriage and that Staples is misleading voters about his role in the law’s passing in order to, presumably, excite ultra-conservatives. “People elect their Agriculture Commissioner to do something about agriculture, not to serve as the state’s de facto bedroom police,” he said.

“Perhaps if Todd Staples put some of the energy he’s put into fighting gay marriage into actually reforming the Texas Department of Agriculture, consumers might not find gas pumps and grocery store scales with expired inspections as frequently as they do,” Gilbert continued. “Maybe if Todd Staples wasn’t so focused on gay marriage, some of the food safety debacles that have happened on his watch wouldn’t have happened,” Gilbert said.

Gilbert also called out Staples for misleading Texans about his role in the passage of HJR 6, the legislation that resulted in the constitutional amendment outlawing gay marriage.

“Todd Staples didn’t write HJR 6 in the 2005 session of the Texas Legislature. Warren Chisum and four other House members are listed as ‘author’ of the bill and more than a dozen House members are listed as co-authors,” Gilbert said. “Staples sponsored it, but he didn’t author it,” Gilbert said. “There is a difference, and Todd Staples spent enough time in the Legislature he should know it.

Gilbert also said it was time for Staples to stop beating up on gay and lesbian Texans.

“Isn’t it time for Todd Staples to stop beating up on gay and lesbian Texans whose taxes have paid his salary as a career politician for years? Staples has done more than enough to make miserable the lives of people who’ve never done anything to him, and it’s not protecting marriage, it’s just being mean to the citizens of this state, and their families-who do nothing but work hard everyday. Maybe Staples could learn something from them,” Gilbert said.

RESOURCES: Athens Daily Review Article, Legislative History of HJR 6 (2005)