5/01 It could very well be that New Jersey will be the first state in the Mid-Atlantic to construct an ethanol plant.
The state’s agricultural leadership has thoroughly researched that prospect and a March 30 meeting at the Columbus Grange Hall, convened by the New Jersey Farm Bureau, drew a large group of enthusiastic corn producers not only from New Jersey but from neighboring states as well.
Envisioned as a 10 million gallon-a-year plant that would utilize 4 million bushels of corn, the manufacturing facility would offer a number of economic advantages to the state’s growers, and to the state’s economy as well, in addition to its highly touted environmental and energy contributions.
But for corn-based ethanol to achieve its full promise and potential as an alternative fuel, it must be allowed, under federal law, to take the place of MTBE, the petroleum oxygenate now in high disfavor.
Congress has before it legislation which would ban MTBE nationwide because of its environmental and health hazards. In that event, will the oxygenate rule be dropped from the provisions of the Clean Air Act or will the environmentally friendly corn-based ethanol be allowed to take its place?
The Renewable Fuels Association, which is leading the charge to rid the energy industry of MTBE and preserve the oxygenate rule, has stated that “Congress should not reward the disastrous decision of the oil industry to utilize MTBE as the oxygenate of choice in RFG (reformulated gasoline) by allowing them to increase pollution. While some are clamoring to abandon the oxygen requirement, we continue to believe it provides unique environmental benefits, including emissions reductions in exhaust hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and fine particulates that could not be achieved without oxygenates.”
Ethanol is the only commercially available oxygenate alternative to MTBE. If the Environmental Protection Agency is looking for a “safe” biofuel gasoline additive, it’s ethanol.
But obviously, ethanol’s future is riding on these congressional deliberations. And so, no doubt, is the fate of New Jersey’s proposed ethanol manufacturing plant.
We find it hard to believe that Congress, recently sharply reminded of our national dependence on foreign oil (and thus MTBE), would not take this opportunity not only to reduce that dependence but to assure all Americans of its oft-pledged allegiance to clean air.
(But we’ve been fooled before.)