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February 25, 2003

Area lawmakers want ethanol used

By Mary Yeater Rathbun

MADISON -- Rep. Steve Freese, R-Dodgeville, and Sen. Dale Schultz, R-Richland Center, have introduced companion bills requiring all automotive gasoline sold in Wisconsin to contain 10 percent ethanol by 2008.

Increased ethanol use in Wisconsin gasoline would cut pollution and give the state's struggling farm economy a sharp boost, according to Freese, who has been an ethanol supporter since 1993. That year he first introduced legislation requiring ethanol in gasoline sold in Wisconsin. He reintroduced that bill in the 1995 session and then redrafted it right after the 2001 election for submittal to this legislature.

Freese said the bill is timely now as the state searches for ways to spur economic growth and develop value-added agriculture.

The primary reason to use ethanol is for cleaner air, Schulz said. Ethanol, a renewable energy source derived from biomass materials such as corn, is blended with gasoline and can lower carbon monoxide emissions by 30 percent and carbon dioxide by 27 percent, according to Freese.

Ethanol can also boost octane, clean a car's fuel system and act as a gasoline antifreeze, Freese said. It can also reduce reliance on foreign oil (more than 100,000 barrels a day), add millions to state tax receipts and increase farm incomes by $4.5 billion annually nationwide.

Schultz said, because of ethanol's potential role in cleaning the air, exciting talks are currently underway nationwide. California has recently banned methyl tertiary butyl ether, the petroleum-based gasoline additive and competitor of ethanol that also aids in cleaner burning fuel. A total of 25 states have banned MTBE, according to Freese staffer Kurt Simatic. Schultz said it is very likely the movement will spread across the country.

"Maybe we are even going to be looking at an MTBE ban in Wisconsin," he said, as the environmental consequences of MTBE use are making themselves felt in Wisconsin.

In Spring Green, MTBE from a major gas leak at Kohler Petroleum north of the village has contaminated the water table, according to village president Todd Miller. However, he added, the MTBE levels have not gotten as high as the village officials feared they might, so they are not having to drill a new municipal well.

"So, there is a huge new market for ethanol," Schultz said. "Wisconsin needs to get in on it and we can site plants, " he added.

Schultz will travel to Washington, D.C. next week with the Transportation Development Association to lobby national legislators and federal transportation officials. "Normally, I would spend all of my time saying we need more money to help us smooth out our situation but, this time around, I will be asking them to consider being part of the effort to make ethanol competitive with gasoline in the highway transportation mix," he said.

Schultz said perhaps taking the federal ethanol subsidy out of the general fund, as part of a farm support, instead of out of transportation funds, would help get ethanol parity with gasoline. He said he needs to make the federal officials realize how important ethanol is to corn producers

However, ethanol is not just important to farmers, Schultz said. It is important in job creation for non-farmers, he said. "When you consider that a 100-million-gallon ethanol production facility will create 2,250 local jobs for a single community, it's time that we expand the ethanol market here in Wisconsin and around the country," Freese said, citing statistics from the United States Department of Agriculture. This number encompasses people not directly employed by the ethanol plant, such as local contractors who assist with plant maintenance, truck drivers, people employed in motels and restaurants who serve people who come to visit the plant, farm implement dealers and fertilizer salesmen.

He added the total probably includes more than just the people who work at the plant. Badger Ethanol in Monroe produces 40 million gallons of ethanol per year and employs 34 people.

Freese's bill, Assembly Bill 33, has been referred to the Assembly Rural Affairs Committee, which Freese is on. Schultz's bill, Senate Bill 13, is in the Agriculture, Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee, which Schultz chairs.

Schultz said he already has plans to bring the Ag committee to Monroe to tour Badger Ethanol. He added the enzyme used in the Monroe plant is made in Beloit and Sen. Judy Robson, D-Beloit, is interested in this connection and thus there is the possibility of bipartisan support for these ideas. Robson is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Ag committee.

"This measure also has bipartisan support in the Assembly and it is encouraging to see both parties take an interest in ways to improve the farm economy and our environment," Freese said.
 

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