Time for One More Salute to Bob Dole – As an Early Ethanol Pioneer He Laid the Foundation for Modern Biofuels

by Doug Durante (Clean Fuels Development Coalition/Biofuels Digest) ... When Bob Dole agreed to co-sponsor an amendment with Tom Daschle, a Democrat from South Dakota, it set in motion a series of events that became the building blocks for the modern ethanol industry. If we sketched out a family tree of biofuels today—including biochemicals and a range of bio-products, it would branch back to that amendment he and Tom Daschle crafted.

What they did was establish a year-round oxygen standard in federal reformulated gasoline. An oxygen standard was already recognized for its ability to increase combustion and reduce tailpipe emissions. Oxygenates—primarily ethanol- had been used successfully in carbon monoxide (CO) programs throughout the country and were part of the Mobile Source provisions in the CAAA. CO was generally a cold weather, wintertime program and the oxygen requirements were seasonal. Ten percent ethanol blends raised oxygen and while extremely effective, it failed to provide enough demand to warrant year round use and to help expand ethanol production.

RFG on the other hand was generally viewed as a summertime issue designed to reduce urban smog, or ground level ozone. What Senator Daschle proposed was to persuade his colleagues that if oxygenates were reducing carbon monoxide and other tailpipe emissions, why wouldn’t you want to get those benefits year round? Those same particulates and CO that oxygenates had proven to reduce during the winter were a big part of the soup that makes up smog, so it made sense. As the debate in the Senate developed, it also became obvious these oxygenates were also octane enhancers and could play a key role in replacing lead. The legislation took the next step of not only requiring oxygen but it established its own endangerment finding with regard to the octane enhancers refiners were using and therefore required EPA to reduce those toxics over time.

At that time getting Bob Dole to weigh on any legislation was significant, to say the least. As Senate Minority Leader he could bring considerable support to any measure and did. Senator Daschle brought this idea for year round oxygen to Dole and he signed on. The result was an historic 69-31 vote in the Senate. For us old timers thinking back to the vote on March 29, 1990 it brings back memories of a time when the Congress put partisan differences aside and got things done. And this particular amendment to the Clean Air Act transcended party politics, Republicans and Democrats alike were all over it despite staunch petroleum industry opposition. This bipartisanship extended to the House as well with Democrat Bill Richardson and Republican Edward Madigan co-sponsoring a House version.

The Daschle-Dole amendment was so far ahead of its time that it is shocking to realize that in more than 30 years we have failed to truly embrace what they accurately termed at the time as “Clean Octane”. Reading the Congressional Record of that debate and how they schooled their colleagues on the dangers of aromatics, benzene, ozone formation, and the benefits of oxygenates makes you want to stand up and cheer. But then you want to sit down and cry realizing little has been done and many of the health threats they identified remain as prevalent as ever.

He was an Ethanol Guy

Senator Dole made no apologies for his support of ethanol. As the U.S. was blind to the dangers of our dependence on imported oil he fought to establish and keep the tax credit that allowed ethanol to compete in the market. The oil embargoes of the 1970’s served as a wake-up call to the American public that we were at the mercy of foreign oil suppliers. A homegrown solution like ethanol could give us a hedge against imports and also address a farm crisis that demanded we find new markets for our agriculture products. While we were working on the policy pieces inside the Capitol, outside on the grounds people like Bill Holmberg and the VanderGriend brothers were demonstrating how a still worked and that we could make our own fuel.

By 2005 the methanol based ether MTBE was on its way out and ethanol was king of the hill. As the only oxygenate available, it was the petroleum industry that wanted flexibility to blend or not blend ethanol. Mr. Dole had left the Senate by then but in the spirit of bipartisanship of the Daschle-Dole clean octane amendment, Daschle enlisted Republican Richard Lugar of Indiana to join him in creating the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). The success of ethanol as a fuel additive born out of the year round oxygen standard is what made the notion of an RFS feasible. It was that oxygen provision that proved ethanol was a valuable, quality product. It could be produced economically, it showed we can provide both feed and fuel, and that we could drive down the price of oil. Oil companies had to admit it, automakers eventually endorsed it, and the pollution reductions were tangible. The RFS was the natural evolution of ethanol and we all know what a game changer the RFS was. It seemed like before the ink was dry on the first RFS, it was expanded. It opened the doorway to not just fuel but bio products, bio chemicals, and processes that are changing our world. To whatever degree advanced biofuels succeed they need to know their origins.

The only regret as we look at what Senator Dole helped put in motion is the fact that the very health hazards he and Tom Daschle identified and tried to fix remain incomplete. Their legislation condemning benzene and all the benzene derived aromatics is an endangerment finding and as such directed EPA to reduce these compounds. Not just reduce, but do so to the greatest extent achievable as technologies present themselves. That has been ignored for more than thirty years. Technologies, like high octane low carbon ethanol exist, and coupled with the clear ability of automakers to adjust compression to maximize efficiency and minimize emissions, it would protect the public and save lives, which is EPA’s job. READ MORE