Cloud Over Clean-Air Rules

On a visit to Iowa on Friday, President Bush had nice things to say about ethanol. We, too, think ethanol’s swell. We agree that it can help reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil and help clean the air. But the administration should not force Californians to use ethanol as a gasoline additive--at an additional cost of 1 to 3 cents a gallon--when the oil companies can produce new gasolines that meet clean-air standards without it.

The Golden State uses about 14 billion gallons of gasoline annually. If Bush forces us to mix our gas with ethanol, an oxygenate, we’d need a minimum of 580 million gallons a year. Ethanol, a.k.a. ethyl alcohol or grain alcohol, is produced primarily by cooking, fermenting and distilling corn and other grains. So making California add ethanol to its gasoline would be a bonanza for Midwest farmers and the ethanol processing industry--and a needless expense to drivers here.

The addition of oxygen makes gasoline burn cleaner, reducing a vehicle’s exhaust pollution. The requirement that gasoline contain oxygenates was added to the Clean Air Act in 1990 and became effective in 1995. There are two available oxygenates: ethanol and methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE). California opted to use MTBE, but the substance began contaminating lakes and water wells. Gov. Gray Davis banned the further use of MTBE beginning Jan. 1, 2003.

Gasoline technology has come a long way since 1990. Today, new fuels are capable of meeting federal air standards--and even tougher California rules--without adding an oxygenate. That’s why the state Air Resources Board recommends California be waived from the federal oxygenate rule. A blue ribbon committee recommended the same thing to the EPA in 1999.

Yet, even as Bush was making cozy with the Iowa farmers, his aides were leaking word that the Environmental Protection Agency will announce as early as today that it is rejecting Gov. Davis’ request that California be exempted from the rule that most of the gasoline sold in the state contain an oxygenate.

We urge the administration to grant California the waiver it seeks. Failing that, Congress should pass legislation sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) to do so. The United States needs to diversify its energy sources and invest in renewable fuels, but not by forcing California to subsidize a Midwest industry by up to $500 million a year. Aside from the added per gallon cost, there is concern that the Midwest would not be able to meet the California demand. What if a drought hammered the corn crop?

There is nothing wrong with ethanol, except its price to Californians. If it’s more effective than what the oil companies are offering Californians, it should be able to succeed on the open market without federal help.