Thomas Daschle: “California is forced to have a certain standard, meeting the clean air requirements passed in the law of 1991. That is a…”

“California is forced to have a certain standard, meeting the clean air requirements passed in the law of 1991. That is a requirement that the whole country is forced to live with. You have to meet that clean air requirement. What California has chosen to do--wisely, in my opinion--is to use ethanol to accommodate the goals and requirements set up for the entire Nation with regard to cleaning up the air that many of us voted overwhelmingly to do in the early 1990s. Here is the key issue. This isn't some ethanol advocacy group that said this. This isn't a group of us here in the Senate that have said this but the California Energy Commission, having studied very carefully the utilization and the acquisition of ethanol to meet these clean air requirements, said in January of this year that 'the integration of ethanol is progressing without one major problem . . . no shortages, no transportation delays, no logistical problems associated with the increased use of ethanol in the State.'”