Congress Calls for Meeting with President
and Others to
Discuss Ethanol
In a letter to President Clinton, 46 Senators and Representatives have requested
a meeting with the President and the heads of the Energy and
Agriculture Departments and the EPA to discuss ethanol, MTBE and the federal reformulated gasoline program. Expressing concern that MTBE has been detected in 80
percent of the drinking water wells tested in reformulated gasoline areas, the
members pointed to the success of the Chicago ethanol-reformulated gasoline program, which
has experienced no adverse water contamination. "The Illinois EPA has called the
ethanol reformulated gasoline program an unprecedented success, with no problems in consumer
acceptance, price or water contamination," the letter states.
Fearing the EPA will grant California a waiver from the
oxygenate requirement, the members noted that the technical basis for the waiver
request is tenuous at best and likely to subject to judicial review. "But the
damage that could be caused by this Administration agreeing that renewable fuel
ethanol somehow results in more pollution than 100 percent hydrocarbon gasoline
would be damaging to the future of this important domestic industry," they said.
"We can protect precious water supplies by removing MTBE from
gasoline, preserve the clean air benefits of oxygenates and the reformulated
gasoline program, and provide a much-needed economic stimulus to rural America.
But we must act now," they said. The letter was signed by:
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LaHood (IL)
Terry
(NE)
Manzullo (IL)
Evans (IL)
Schakowsky (IL)
Leach (IA)
Boswell
(IA)
Weller (IL)
Shimkus (IL)
Hastert (IL)
Barrett (NE)
Minge (MN)
Gutknecht (MN)
Luther (MN)
Grams (MN)
Thune
(ND)
Jackson (IL)
Blunt (MO)
Grassley (IA)
Danner (MO)
Harkin (IA)
Costello (IL)
Porter (IL) |
Latham (IA)
Durbin (IL)
Gutierrez (IL)
Biggert (IL)
Blagojevich
(IL)
Bereuter (NE)
Lipinski (IL)
Phelps (IL)
Hyde (IL)
Fitzgerald (IL)
Skelton (MO)
Hulshof (MO)
Nussle (IA)
Ramstad (MN)
Oberstar (MN)
Talent (MO)
Wellstone (MN)
Emerson (MO)
Vento (MN)
Davis (IL)
Dorgan (ND)
Ewing (IL)
Rush (IL)
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