EMERSON: EPA RULE `STALLING'

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A new federal regulation expected to be announced Thursday that drastically restricts the role of ethanol in a new smog-reducing gasoline formula is a regulatory "stalling tactic," U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson, R-Mo., said Tuesday.

Emerson was responding to wire service reports that he says suggest the Clinton administration backed off its initial plan to completely exclude ethanol from the formula.

The new formula to be proposed mandates that 30 percent of the reformulated fuel market be based on renewable fuels, but that rule only has a six-month lifespan.

"...Administration officials must have scurried to come up with something to appease the firestorm in the corn-growing community," Emerson said.

"Now, they've apparently written the regulation in such a way to buy more time before having the gauntlet entirely fall on corn growers and ethanol producers."

Ethanol, which uses corn in its formulation, is a replenishable resource. Its use is viewed as a boon to corn-producing states and a way of reducing dependence on foreign oil.

The regulation is part of the new Clean Air Act requirements being announced by the Environmental Protection Agency. Emerson pointed out that there is no guarantee that ethanol will be included in the final Clean Air package.

"If these professional environmentalists get their way, as it evident in the overall rule, corn-based ethanol could have a short fate under the new proposal," he said.

The overall EPA plan to be proposed harks back to the initial formula negotiated in 1991. That formula effectively excluded ethanol. The new plans gives ethanol and renewable fuels a six-month lifespan in the package.

In 1992, Emerson successfully led the fight to have the Bush administration add ethanol in the new fuel mix.

He is the ranking Republican on the House Agriculture General Commodities Subcommittee.

"With this decision, the Clinton administration is succumbing to the interests of environmental elitists who want to close down businesses on Main Street, put people out of work, and drastically alter the American way of life," he said.