More ethanol fuel means cleaner air
Date: 21-Mar-00
Country: USA
"Good Afternoon. I am pleased to be here today with my good friend,
Carol Browner. As Administrator Browner made clear, these legislative
principles are good news for the environment, good news for farmers,
good news for our energy security, and good news for consumers.
"By establishing a national renewable fuel average that maintains our
current level of use and encourages substantial new growth in the years
to come, we will increase farm income, create jobs in rural America,
improve our energy security, and help protect the environment. We also
believe that this will result over the next decade in a dramatic
increase in the amount of ethanol used in America's transportation fuel.
"Farm income will rise because of increased demand for corn. Rural
income will rise as farm income increases, and new jobs will be created
by new ethanol plants. And we will have greater energy security because
we are replacing oil imports with domestic sources of renewable energy.
"The ethanol industry has grown from 100 million gallons in 1981 to
almost 1.5 billion gallons in 1999. Over 5 percent of our domestic
corn
production, or 550 million bushels of corn, is used every year to
produce
ethanol. We can and will do better than that, and let me tell you why.
"Even as the ethanol industry has grown, it has had a history of being
hampered by uncertainty. Today, the uncertainty stems from not knowing
whether Congress will remove the oxygenate standard in the reformulated
gasoline programme, as a blue ribbon panel of experts and other
interests are advocating.
"Our proposal offers stability and certainty to ethanol supporters and I
count myself among the strongest by preserving ethanol's role in the
market and providing for substantial future growth. Ethanol will
continue to play an important role in ensuring that we maintain our air
quality gains. And even more ethanol would be required to meet the
national renewable fuel average, which would start at the current level
and encourage substantial new production in the future.
"In fact, as part of the Administration's Bioenergy/Bioproducts
Initiative, and to increase demand for agricultural commodities under
our Farm Safety Net proposal, I have directed USDA's Commodity Credit
Corporation to provide up to $100 million in fiscal year 2000 and up to
$150 million in 2001 and 2002 in incentive payments to ethanol and other
bioenergy producers to expand production of biobased fuels. "I want to
close with 2 important points: "First, there is much discussion within
the ethanol community about the best way to proceed in light of the need
to reduce significantly the role of MTBE in our fuel supply. I think we
need to look at the current challenge as an opportunity, and these
principles provide a comprehensive, pro-active solution that will
provide an even stronger framework for continued growth in ethanol and
other renewable fuels. "Several groups, including the National Farmers
Union and Governors' Ethanol Coalition, a bipartisan group of 22
governors, has endorsed in concept an approach similar to our
principles, as have many of the small, farmer-owned ethanol
cooperatives. "Second, these principles need to be understood as working
together. This Administration has a strong history of promoting the use
of ethanol and other renewable fuels, and the legislative principles
we've announced today are consistent with President Clinton's goal of
tripling the use of energy from biobased products like crops and trees
by 2010. "This Administration, in short, is not going to take or support
any action that undermines the continued growth of ethanol and other
renewable fuels as we proceed into the 21st century. "I have been a
strong advocate for ethanol and renewable fuels virtually my entire life
in public service, and I look forward to its continued growth under the
renewable fuel standard we are proposing today."