January 9, 2001

The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) is continuing to press President Clinton to direct the Environmental Protection Agency to deny California's request for a waiver that would exempt the state from the oxygen requirement of the federal reformulated gasoline (RFG) program.

Fearing the outgoing Clinton Administration is preparing a last minute political favor for California that could scuttle a key market for ethanol, a coalition of the NCGA and the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) issued statements at a joint press conference on Sunday at the AFBF convention in Orlando, Fla.

"California's waiver request poses a serious threat to water and air quality and to agriculture," said NCGA President Lee Klein, a farmer from Battle Creek, Neb. "If we were dealing with a normal EPA regulatory process, this regulation would have little chance of appearing within the next 30 days. But these are not normal times. During the closing days of an Administration, we have to be very vigilant to prevent 'midnight rules.'"

The NCGA has become even more vocal and visible on California waiver issue in recent weeks. Twice in December Klein sent letters to President Clinton voicing the concerns of its 32,000 members and the more than 300,000 check-off paying farmers. Just after Christmas Klein journeyed to Washington to meet with White House staff to discuss the importance of ethanol and the implications of the California waiver.

In his statement at Sunday's AFBF press conference, Klein pointed out that the California waiver request is fundamentally flawed and cannot pass the scrutiny of a full legislative or regulatory process. "California's waiver request isn't motivated by any legitimate concern related to the air quality impacts of oxygenates. Instead, it's prompted by a desire to accelerate the removal of MTBE in gasoline. That's a worthy goal, one that corn growers support by urging that ethanol replace MTBE," he said.

In his remarks, Klein noted there are already adequate supplies of ethanol to meet the needs of the California market; that USDA recently announced a program to commit 300 million over the next two years to help expand the ethanol market and the waiver request itself has caused uncertainty that has stalled investments in new ethanol plants.

Klein emphasized that granting this waiver would not only undermine air and water quality but would also cause irreparable harm to farm economies that depend upon the value-added benefits of ethanol production. "Furthermore, it harms the Clinton Administration's objective of further developing renewable energy technologies and feedstocks," he said.

"Again, we ask that the California waiver be denied and that instead, agriculture, the energy industry and state and federal government agencies together be given the opportunity to find science-based solutions that serve the environment and the economy," he concluded.