Statements
and Speeches
Hearing
on Energy Policy
April
23, 2002
By
Henry A. Waxman
Last year, the
Bush Administration made a decision which will cost Californians
dearly.
Faced with over
10,000 MTBE contaminated sites in California, Governor Davis decided
in 1999 to phase out the use of this terribly polluting fuel additive.
To facilitate the phase out, the state of California requested a
waiver of the federal oxygenate requirement for reformulated gasoline.
This waiver
would have allowed the state to maintain the cleanest fuel standards
in the country while shielding California consumers from gasoline
price shocks. Without the waiver, California's air quality and economy
would suffer as massive amounts of ethanol were needlessly imported
to comply with the oxygenate requirement.
EPA's technical
staff examined the facts and found that a waiver was warranted.
Unfortunately,
the White House reversed EPA's decision after meeting with special
interests. As a result of the Bush Administration's decision, the
Governor has had to delay the ban on MTBE to avoid dramatic price
increases at the pump. This means California groundwater will continue
to face the threat of contamination. And California consumers and
refiners will continue to face massive uncertainties.
The President's
decision is truly remarkable, because it appears to be bad for consumers,
bad for the environment, and bad for California's refining industry.
So who benefits
from this bad decision?
It has been
widely reported that the ethanol industry lobbied against the California
waiver. The ethanol industry believed this would give the industry
a new, guaranteed market in California.
Other special
interests may also have played a role in the Administration's decision.
Lobbying disclosure documents and press reports provide evidence
that companies involved in the MTBE industry -- such as Enron --
also lobbied against the California waiver. Enron and other MTBE
companies took the cynical approach that without the California
waiver, California would have to delay their MTBE ban. Sadly, they
have turned out to be right.
To better understand
the extent to which Enron or other companies in the MTBE industry
influenced this decision, I am writing today to Vice President Cheney,
the Department of Energy, the U.S. EPA, and OMB Director Mitch Daniels.
I ask that these letters be made part of the record.
I expect considerable
discussion today regarding legislation in the Senate designed to
ban MTBE and replace it with a renewable fuels standard. I am interested
in hearing the views of the witnesses on this legislation. We should
be taking a thoughtful approach to this legislation to ensure that
we don't create new problems in trying to solve existing ones.
Ultimately,
decisions about our fuel supply need to be made based on the best
science. Our goals are clear: minimize air pollution, reduce dependence
on foreign oil, and keep costs down. Good science can help us achieve
these goals.
I look forward
to today's hearing. I hope the testimony will help shed light on
these important issues.
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