January 23, 2001

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) has urged President Bush to make sure that California does not get its requested waiver from the nation's reformulated gasoline program and that ethanol has "the role it deserves" in the California market. In a letter to the new President, Harkin, who is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee, said, "I am concerned that in its review of California's waiver request, EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) may be influenced by arguments that are impermissible under the law," Harkin said. "The obvious solution to this problem is to replace MTBE with ethanol."

Harkin said there is no question that the oil companies' use of MTBE has created major water contamination problems in many locations around the United States, but that fact is not a valid reason for waiving the RFG oxygen content requirement. Air quality is the only permissible basis for a waiver under the law. Citing water contamination in support of the waiver sets up a false choice between producing cleaner-burning gasoline and protecting water supplies, Harkin said. It is a false choice because it ignores the obvious solution: replacing toxic MTBE in gasoline with ethanol, says Harkin.

"The very same petroleum industry that brought us MTBE is now seeking to eliminate the oxygen content requirement for cleaner gasoline because that MTBE has contaminated water," Harkin said. "It takes real audacity to push for the waiver of a clean air requirement after poisoning water supplies around the country. Fortunately, the Clean Air Act does not allow a waiver on this basis."

Harkin also said that it would be impermissible for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to consider granting the waiver based on misinformation about whether enough ethanol can be produced, transported and distributed to supply the demand, and the costs of doing so, if ethanol replaces MTBE in California RFG markets.

He asked USDA to study these issues. USDA determined that over a reasonable phase-in period, which is contemplated, enough ethanol can be produced and transported to replace MTBE with ethanol in the entire U.S. RFG market, not just in California.

"The exaggerated claims that the use of ethanol will lead to fuel shortages and price spikes are simply unfounded. In any case, the arguments about price and availability of ethanol, even if there were any validity to them, are not permissible grounds for a waiver under the statute because they have nothing to do with meeting air quality standards," Harkin said.