On May 25, 2005, the Senate Energy Committee voted to add a requirement that ethanol production for fuel purposes be increased to 8 billion gallons per year by 2012 in the United States. Additionally, the measure would require that at least 250 million gallons of annual ethanol production would be from woody biomass such as plants, grasses, agricultural residues and small trees, beginning in 2013.

The House of Representative passed a similar measure earlier, but set the goal at 5 million gallons per year. Proponents claimed the measure would reduce dependence on foreign oil supplies and hold down prices at the pump. Opponents argued that the figure would have little, if any, impact on imports and would raise the cost of fuel at the pump by 2.4 cents per gallon.

Production milestones would be: 4 billion gallons in 2006, 4.7 billion in 2007, 5.4 billion in 2008, 6.1 billion in 2009, 6.8 billion in 2010, 7.4 billion in 2011 and 8 billion in 2012.