Thomas Daschle: “this amendment is based on a misconception. The misconception is that somehow there is a mandate to begin with. There is…”

“this amendment is based on a misconception. The misconception is that somehow there is a mandate to begin with. There is no mandate for the States under this bill. There is a requirement that refiners find a way to reach the goals that we set out in the legislation overall, both in energy as well as the ethanol itself, but there is no requirement that States meet some standard with regard to utilization of ethanol. And there is also an option for the States to opt out if they find the circumstances described by the distinguished Senator from Arizona would ever come about. States have the right to opt out, even though there is no particular mandate to opt into the program to begin with. This is a refiners obligation, not a State obligation.”