Ethanol/MTBE Announcement
                                           Release No.  0088.00

Remarks
          As Prepared for Delivery
                               by
             Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman
                   Ethanol/MTBE Announcement
               Washington, DC  -- March 20, 2000

     "Good Afternoon.  I am pleased to be here today with my good friend,
Carol Browner.   As Administrator Browner made clear, these legislative
principles are good news for the environment, good news for farmers, good news
for our energy security, and good news for consumers. 

     "By establishing a national renewable fuel average that maintains our
current level of use and encourages substantial new growth in the years to
come, we will increase farm income, create jobs in rural America, improve our
energy security, and help protect the environment.  We also believe that this
will result over the next decade in a dramatic increase in the amount of
ethanol used in America's transportation fuel.

     "Farm income will rise because of increased demand for corn.  Rural
income will rise as farm income increases, and new jobs will be created by new
ethanol plants.  And we will have greater energy security because we are
replacing oil imports with domestic sources of renewable energy.

     "The ethanol industry has grown from 100 million gallons in 1981 to
almost 1.5 billion gallons in 1999.   Over 5 percent of our domestic corn
production, or 550 million bushels of corn, is used every year to produce
ethanol.   We can and will do better than that, and let me tell you why.    

     "Even as the ethanol industry has grown, it has had a history of being
hampered by uncertainty.  Today, the uncertainty stems from not knowing
whether Congress will remove the oxygenate standard in the reformulated
gasoline program, as a blue ribbon panel of experts and other interests are
advocating. 

     "Our proposal offers stability and certainty to ethanol supporters   and
I count myself among the strongest   by preserving ethanol's role in the
market and providing for substantial future growth.  Ethanol will continue to
play an important role in ensuring that we maintain our air quality gains. 
And even more ethanol would be required to meet the national renewable fuel
average, which would start at the current level and encourage substantial new
production in the future.

     "In fact, as part of the Administration's Bioenergy/Bioproducts
Initiative, and to increase demand for agricultural commodities under our Farm
Safety Net proposal,  I have directed  USDA's Commodity Credit Corporation to
provide up to $100 million in fiscal year 2000 and up to $150 million in 2001
and 2002 in incentive payments to ethanol and other bioenergy producers to
expand production of biobased fuels. 

  "I want to close with 2 important points:  

  "First, there is much discussion within the ethanol community about the best
way to proceed in light of the need to reduce significantly the role of MTBE in
our fuel supply.   I think we need to look at the current challenge as an
opportunity, and these principles provide a comprehensive, pro-active solution
that will provide an even stronger framework for continued growth in ethanol and
other renewable fuels.  

  "Several groups, including the National Farmers Union and Governors' Ethanol
Coalition, a bipartisan group of 22 governors, has endorsed in concept an
approach similar to our principles, as have many of the small, farmer-owned
ethanol cooperatives.  

  "Second, these principles need to be understood as working together.  This
Administration has a strong history of promoting the use of ethanol and other
renewable fuels, and the legislative principles we've announced today are
consistent with President Clinton's goal of tripling the use of energy from
biobased products like crops and trees by 2010.  

  "This Administration, in short, is not going to take or support any action
that undermines the continued growth of ethanol and other renewable fuels as we
proceed into the 21st century. 

  "I have been a strong advocate for ethanol and renewable fuels virtually my
entire life in public service, and I look forward to its continued growth under
the renewable fuel standard we are proposing today.

  "Thank you."

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