Thomas Daschle: “I remind my colleagues that California is currently using ethanol in 65 percent of the gasoline that it markets. That…”

“I remind my colleagues that California is currently using ethanol in 65 percent of the gasoline that it markets. That would go up to 80 percent this summer. It has gone up to 80 percent. Four out of five gallons in California will be using ethanol, and the Department of Energy in California has said there has been no disruption, no problems. There has been absolutely nothing they can point to that would be disadvantageous just to the consumer. Why the Senator from California would believe so strongly about a waiver when one certainly is not needed, given current experience, is not an answer I can provide. Methyl tertiary butyl ether, MTBE, is not something many of us were supportive of when we integrated it in the first place. This was something that coal companies and many of the petroleum refiners wanted as an alternative to ethanol. So it was a compromise. Many of us raised questions even then, back in 1991, whether it was going to be advantageous for us. We predicted that there could be some issues involving the use of MTBE, and those predictions were borne out. As the case now has demonstrated, we are phasing out MTBE, as we should. But ethanol has shown itself now for 20 years to be what we said it was.”