Senate votes to require ethanol in gasoline
BOISE – Idaho senators voted overwhelmingly Thursday to eventually require that Idaho gasoline include about 10 percent fuel made from corn or straw, with supporters calling the measure a “small step” in weaning America from its dependence on foreign oil.
The Senate voted 27-8 in favor of the package, which now goes to the House.
A similar measure died in a Senate committee last year. Changes this year helped win over lawmakers who had opposed it on grounds it didn’t do enough to help Idaho farmers and could actually hurt summer air quality in some areas.
Ethanol proponents, including President Bush in his January State of the Union speech, argue that using grain alcohol in gasoline will slash emissions of pollutants such as carbon monoxide, provide another market for crops used to make the fuel and reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil sources. Minnesota, Hawaii and Montana have statewide mandates, and other governments including Washington state, Missouri and Wisconsin are considering them.
“This is a national security issue that our whole country faces,” said Sen. Curt McKenzie, R-Nampa, one of the bill’s sponsors.
The measure, promoted by the Idaho Farm Bureau, would require gas for cars to be blended with ethanol just as soon as Idaho has production facilities that can produce at least 30 million gallons of ethanol annually. That amount must be made from Idaho-grown crops, according to the bill, addressing concerns that out-of-state farmers would benefit the most. Bill sponsors say it’ll probably take at least five years to meet that production level.
A separate bill, still to be considered, would lift an existing 2.5 cent state tax break on ethanol-blended fuel once production reaches 30 million gallons.
About 600 million gallons of gas are sold annually in Idaho, according to state figures. That means about 60 million gallons of ethanol would be needed to meet the 10 percent standard, should the bill pass. U.S. ethanol production is at 6.1 billion gallons annually, led by corn-producing states Iowa and Nebraska.
Volatile ethanol fumes released into the air can produce ground-level ozone when combined with high temperatures, sunlight and little wind. Last year, such concerns prompted resistance from Sen. David Langhorst, D-Boise, and Sen. John McGee, R-Caldwell, who feared the process of adding ethanol-blended fuel to storage tanks at service stations would increase ozone pollution in the Boise, Nampa and Caldwell areas.
The new measure requires some service stations – those with storage tanks not equipped with special vapor-recovery systems to recapture ethanol fumes – to sell non-blended fuel between June 15 and Sept. 15, to prevent such pollution.