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LEGISLATIVE REPUBLICANS SPLIT OVER ETHANOL BILL
Tuesday, February 7th, 2006 -- 2:01 pm
Posted by Riley Hebert-News Director
 The amended bill would require low-octane blends of gasoline have a ten-percent ethanol blend.
It gained approval from the Senate Committee on Agriculture, but the E-10 mandate was absent from Senate Republicans’ spring agenda.
Republican Sheila Harsdorf of River Falls is the Senate sponsor of the measure that supporters say will be good for the environment and the state’s ag-based economy.
Republican Neal Kedzie of Elkhorn is the most vocal Senate opponent of the bill. "This (mandate) is the equivalent of a 350 megawatt coal fired power plant," says Kedzie.
Kedzie also says the state should not be imposing this mandate on consumers and businesses.
Three members of the state Assembly who supported AB-15 when it passed in their house in December now plan to oppose the amended bill.
Rep. Scott Suder of Abbotsford – who supports the measure – calls the changes of heart “fascinating”. He says most northern Wisconsin legislators support the measure.
“I really didn’t think the ethanol bill would have as much difficulty as it has,” Suder said on his monthly Viewpoint appearance Tuesday morning. “The problem lies in southeastern Wisconsin – which I guess can be said of a number of legislative initiatives.”
Suder says influential southeastern Wisconsin radio show hosts have been muddying the waters with “obscure and non-factual data” to give people the “false impression” that the bill isn’t good for Wisconsin.
Critics of the measure argue that, if ethanol was a good product, it could compete in the free-market without help from the state legislature.
“If we want to talk free-market principles – the oil companies already have a lock in the market,” Suder says. “We're simply trying to open (the market) to allow more use of ethanol. We’re simply trying to give consumers the option to use what is a proven product.”
Suder is still hopeful the state legislature will pass the measure this year.
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