Thomas Daschle: “Ten years ago I joined with two distinguished colleagues, then-Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole and Senator Tom Harkin…”

“Ten years ago I joined with two distinguished colleagues, then-Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole and Senator Tom Harkin, to introduce the reformulated gasoline (RFG) provision of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. The RFG provision, with its minimum oxygen standard, was adopted in the Senate by the overwhelming vote of 69 to 30 and eventually signed into law by President George Bush. I am proud to say that this program has resulted in substantial improvement in air quality around the country. It also has stimulated increased production and use of renewable ethanol and other oxygenates needed to meet the minimum oxygen standard. Unfortunately, an unanticipated development involving the petroleum-based oxygenate MTBE requires us to re-examine the many benefits of the RFG program. The detection of MTBE in ground water around the country has generated considerable debate in recent months over how to deal with this fuel additive and the oxygen requirement of the reformulated gasoline program. The resolution of this debate will have significant consequences for the environment, for farmers and for the rural economy.”