Mr. President, I am pleased to join my Illinois colleague, Senator Fitzgerald, as a cosponsor to his legislation banning MTBE. MTBE water contamination has been found throughout the United States. With every day that passes, more water is being contaminated.
The Senate last August soundly passed a resolution calling for an MTBE ban.
So, in the face of damaging, irresponsible inaction by the Clinton administration, it is time we put some force to our Senate position.
Mr. President, how long must Americans suffer this dilatory charade by the Clinton administration, the petroleum industry and particularly the California officials who have asked that the Clean Air Act be gutted?
I have intentionally held my fire until after the California primary, because I would not want anyone to misconstrue my motives as an attempt to undermine Vice President Gore's political ambitions.
But today, it's time to take the gloves off.
President Clinton, Vice President Gore, and EPA's Carol Browner, have been dragging their feet too long. They gave the oil and MTBE industry everything they wanted.
At the request of Big Oil, they threw out regulations proposed by President Bush which would have - by some estimates - tripled and even quadruped ethanol production.
Instead, the Clinton Administration approved regulations that guaranteed a virtual MTBE monopoly of the reformulated gasoline market.
This decision by the Clinton Administration opened the door, wide open, for the petroleum companies to contaminate our water.
With egg on its face, with this environmental disaster on its hands, the Clinton Administration continues to delay and duck its leadership responsibilities.
A replacement for MTBE exists today, but most oil companies refuse to use it.
EPA's Carol Browner has been told time and time again in every imaginable way how MTBE can be replaced, and in California TOTALLY replaced TODAY.
But she, as with other Clinton/Gore officials, always comes up with an excuse, a reason for delay, another hurdle. Last week, she asked Iowa's Governor Vilsack for more information – information that EPA already has. The new hurdle she is creating is the question: Is there enough of this alternative?
Mr. President, enough for what? To replace ALL MTBE today? Or, tomorrow? This is insulting. It's incredible!
The following will illustrate my point.
Mr. President, imagine the following:
Brush fires sweep to the city's edge, devouring home after home. Panicked citizens call 911, but the fire engines remain silent.
"Why won't you come to our rescue!?" scream the homeowners.
Answers the fire chief: "We don't have enough water to save the whole city.
And until we can save ALL......we will save NONE!"
Absurd? Of course!
Yet, an equally absurd and dangerous line has been drawn by most California big oil companies and their political apologists. In the face of the largest environmental crisis of this generation - MTBE water contamination - Californians are being held hostage, forced to buy water-contaminating, MTBE-laced gasoline, even though, a superior MTBE replacement is available... THIS VERY DAY. Not tomorrow, not next year, but today.
California Governor Davis' so called "ban" allows MTBE to be sold -" full bore, business-as-usual" - until the end of 2002.
Worse yet, California legislators dropped the deadline altogether.
But why the wait?
Well, we're told there is not enough of this MTBE alternative, and thus, the illogical "decree" imposed: "No MTBE will be removed, until ALL MTBE can be removed!"
And with every day that passes, more of our water is contaminated. A mere cup of MTBE renders undrinkable 5 million gallons of water. CBS' "60-Minutes" reported California already has identified 10,000 groundwater sites contaminated with MTBE, and that "one internal study conducted by Chevron found that MTBE has contaminated groundwater at 80 percent of the 400 sites the company tested."
Yet Big Oil holds you hostage, forcing you to buy MTBE-laced gasoline until either the Clinton/Gore Administration or Congress guts one of the most successful Clean Air Act programs: the Reformulated Gasoline oxygenate requirement.
Big Oil is hoping that gullible bureaucrats and politicians conclude that MTBE is not the real problem, but instead, the real problem is the oxygenate requirement.
Get rid of the oxygenate requirement, and "presto", MTBE disappears!
Iowans aren't buying that line. Iowa has no oxygenate requirement, yet MTBE has been found in 29 percent of our water supplies tested.
Mr. President, let it be clear....let there be absolutely no misunderstanding Iowa's water, and the water in every Senator's state, was contaminated by Big Oil, and NOT the Clean Air Act.
Big Oil did everything it could, to persuade Clinton/Gore appointees and judges in our courts to guarantee that MTBE, monopolized the Clean Air Act's oxygenate market.
Our colleagues need to understand that nearly 500 million gallons of MTBE are sold every year throughout the United States as an "octane enhancer" in markets outside the Clean Air Act jurisdiction.
So I ask, how will gutting the Clean Air Act's oxygenate requirement protect the rest of America's water?
That's pretty simply: it won't.
We need to ban MTBE, NOT the Clean Air Act!
So, what is the superior MTBE replacement, that is available today?
It's ethanol, which is nothing more than grain alcohol, although it can be made from Californian rice straw, Idaho potato waste, Florida sugar cane, North Dakota sugar beets, New York municipal waste, Washington wood and paper waste, and a host of other biodegradable waste products.
Ethanol is not only good for your air, but if it did get into water, your only big decision would be whether to add some ice and tonic to your drink. Now, as my colleagues know, I'm a tee-totaler, so I won't pretend to advise you on proper cocktail mixes.
Today, there is enough ethanol in storage, and from what can be produced from idle ethanol facilities to displace all the MTBE California uses in a whole year. And it's available today, not tomorrow, not 2002. And more facilities are in the works.
But no, Big Oil proclaims: "There's not enough ethanol." Translation: "We don't control ethanol, farmers do. So, we don't want to use it."
Big Oil argues: "Ethanol is too difficult to transport."
Translation: "We would rather import Middle East MTBE from half way across the world, than transport ethanol from America's Midwest."
Big Oil whines: "Keeping the oxygenate requirement will give ethanol a monopoly.
Now, Mr. President, that is a whale of a tale, and hard to translate into sensible English!
Since it takes half of much ethanol as MTBE to produce a gallon of reformulated gasoline, Big Oil will reap a 6.2 percent increase in the amount of plain gasoline used for RFG.
So, how in the world does boosting - by a whopping 6.2 percent - gasoline's share of the RFG market constitute a "monopoly" for ethanol?
Currently, MTBE constitutes 3 percent of our total transportation fuel market.
Ethanol, if it replaces all MTBE, would therefore, gain a 1.5 percent share. Let's see. A 1.5 percent market share - if it's ethanol - is defined as a monopoly share. But, a 3 percent market share - -if it's MTBE - is not a monopoly.
Mr. President, I've got it!
Here's the translation of Big Oil's babble: "Market share, as small as 1.5 percent, if not controlled by Big Oil, shall henceforth be legally defined as a monopoly."
"Market share at any level - 3 percent to 100 percent - if it's controlled by Big Oil is never to be defined as a monopoly."
Mr. President, it's such a bizarre proposition that ethanol at 1.5 percent of the market equals a monopoly.
Big Oil claims: "Ethanol is too expensive."
Translation: "We prefer our cozy relationship with OPEC that allows us to price-gouge Americans, rather than sell at HALF the PRICE an oxygenate controlled by American farmers and ethanol producers.
Did you catch that?
If not, brace yourself. Sit down and set aside your cup of hot coffee or any other dangerous object that might be held in your hands.
The March 7, 2000 West Coast spot wholesale prices for gasoline was $1.27 per gallon. MTBE sold for just over $1.17 per gallon. But ethanol, came in right at $1.17 per gallon. Now, remember, it takes TWICE as much MTBE than ethanol to meet the Clean Air Act's oxygenate requirement.
In other words, at those March 7th prices oxygenates made from ethanol cost petroleum marketers HALF as much as would an oxygenate made from MTBE. So, even though Big Oil has at its disposal, an oxygenate alternative to MTBE that costs half as much, and that will protect our water supplies, Big Oil, with the help of the Clinton Administration, continues to hold hostage the people of California and other Americans who are forced to use MTBE.
Last summer, I asked President Clinton to announce that he deny California's request to waive the oxygenate requirement. And I asked him to announce that he would veto any legislation that would provide such a waiver.
His silence, and that of Vice President Gore, and the rest of his administration....has been deafening. American farmers are suffering the worst prices in a generation. If farmers are allowed to replace MTBE with ethanol, farm income will jump $1 billion per year.
That's one BILLION dollars a year.
But "no," increasing farm income through the market place - both domestic and foreign - is of no interest to the Clinton/Gore administration. And protecting our water supplies, from further MTBE contamination???
No, that's not a concern of this Administration either. It seems, unfortunately, that the only thing on the collective mind of the Clinton/Gore administration is legacy, partisan politics, and November elections.
Mr. President, to repeat, MTBE is the problem, not the Clean Air Act.
The answer is so simple and clear: Ban MTBE, but don't gut the Clean Air Act's oxygenate requirement. Let American farmers fill this void.
And let them fill it today.
It will boost farm income by $1 billion per year.
It will help lessen our reliance upon foreign oil, and the whims of OPEC.
It will keep our air clean.
And it will protect our water supplies.
Ethanol. It's that simple. It's just good, good, good.
I know I'm probably wasting my breath, but I'll make the plea one more time.
President Clinton, reject the waiver request today.
And declare that you will veto any legislation that would allow a waiver of the oxygenate requirement. I assure you, if you do that, the water polluting MTBE will be replaced as fast as our farmers can deliver the ethanol.
Do it today, President Clinton. Today.