Chuck Schumer: “Well, let me answer my friend. The cost of ethanol varies greatly depending on what region of the country the ethanol is…”

“Well, let me answer my friend. The cost of ethanol varies greatly depending on what region of the country the ethanol is produced in. What makes it so expensive for New Yorkers is not the cost of actually making it in Iowa or Illinois or Kansas. What makes it so expensive is there is no cheap way to get it from the cornfields of Iowa to the gas stations of New York and, as a result, the cost of transporting the ethanol. Sure, it can be made out there. We don't have many ethanol plants in New York. They have to put on it barges. They have to ship it slowly down the Mississippi. They have to unload it onto boats. The boats have to go round the gulf coast, go around Key West, up the east coast. They have to dock in New York City. It then has to be loaded onto trucks and sent to gas stations--a lengthy and expensive process. Let me say in all seriousness to my good friend from Iowa, I have talked to some of the major refiners in the Northeast. They are able to meet the clean air standard more cheaply and better without ethanol than with it. And by our requiring them to put the ethanol in the gasoline is the only reason they do it. If we didn't require them but kept the clean air standard, we would have gasoline that is just as clean but a lot cheaper for constituents. I want to help your corn farmers, but I don't want the housewife who drives the kids to school or the salesman who has to go door to door to be subsidizing your corn farmers. Let the whole government do it.”