Dianne Feinstein: “I send to the desk to be printed in the Record an editorial from the Sacramento Bee entitled ``Highway Robbery,'' which…”

“I send to the desk to be printed in the Record an editorial from the Sacramento Bee entitled ``Highway Robbery,'' which essentially characterizes what this does to the highway trust fund, how it hurts the country, how energy experts show that producing ethanol from corn requires more energy than the fuel produces, and that the ethanol mandate would make the country more fossil fuel dependent, not less. Here's another piece of the ethanol idiocy in Washington: Not only will Californians soon have to pay more for gasoline laced with corn liquor, but as a result, we'll have less money to alleviate congestion on our roads. Blame this nonsense on Senator Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and President Bush. They are pushing a provision for the Senate energy bill that would require gasoline producers to use rising amounts of ethanol. Ethanol is mostly made from corn in states that Bush would dearly like to win in the next election. The measure would eliminate the current requirement in the Clear Air Act that smoggy areas use gasoline containing an oxygen additive--either ethanol or MTBE. But then it goes ahead to require that refineries triple their purchases of ethanol for gasoline by 2012.”