Tom Harkin: “I beg to differ. The blue-ribbon panel's conclusions support the Senator's resolution. What we are talking about is…”

“I beg to differ. The blue-ribbon panel's conclusions support the Senator's resolution. What we are talking about is phasing out MTBE, and encouraging the use of ethanol--an oxygenate that reduces air pollution and at the same time does not contaminate water supplies or adversely affect health. That is what we are talking about. I was responding to the point of the Senator from Oklahoma about what the blue-ribbon panel was saying. They were clearly saying that we ought to substantially reduce or eliminate the use of MTBE. They want to make sure we have a fuel supply that is not a health hazard to our people. That is what they are saying. That is really the issue before us. It is a health issue, pure and simple. Again, I find it astounding that people can argue and say: We have a lot of MTBE out there; forget that it is a possible human carcinogen; forget that it is highly polluting; let's go ahead and keep using it because, quite frankly, we don't have anything to replace it with right now. That is the sort of argument that is being used.”