By Charlie Warner
Argus Editor
Last week as I was driving past one of the local gas stations, I noticed the price of gas had dropped down below $2.75 per gallon. "Not bad," I thought to myself. But wait, it wasnít all that long ago I was complaining when gas hit $2.50 a gallon.

While $2.75 a gallon is much more tolerable than $3.25, it sure hurts when you figure it wasnít all that long ago we were paying a $1.75 and were screaming when it hit two bucks a gallon.

As I scanned the sign, I saw diesel fuel was well over $3 a gallon. I also spotted the E-85 sign, which was $2.12 a gallon. "It sure must be nice for folks driving dual-fuel vehicles," I muttered, as I started figuring out how much it would cost to fill my truck with fuel priced at $2.12 per gallon compared to what I had just spent to fill up my thirsty Jimmy.

Upon returning to the Argus office, I read an email announcing 10 years ago last week, landmark legislation requiring a ten percent blend of ethanol in virtually every gallon of gasoline sold in Minnesota went into effect. The milestone was reached amongst virtually no fanfare, something renewable fuels advocates say underscores the incredible success of Minnesotaís ground breaking ethanol implementation.

"Filling up with a ten percent ethanol blend has become so much a part of the fabric of everyday life in Minnesota that hardly anyone even thinks of it. Itís become a total non-issue," said Tim Gerlach, vice president of clean fuel and vehicle technology for the American Lung Association of the Upper Midwest.

"Back in the 1990s, there were a lot of people, incited by groups whose main concern was to protect oil company interests, who said the sky would fall if we allowed a ten percent ethanol mandate to become law," said Valerie Jerich, who, as a lobbyist for ethanol supporters in the ë90s, took on the dozens of lobbyists assembled by oil interests to thwart the legislation. "They said ethanol would cause vehicles to stall, fuel prices to increase and small engines to blow up. Opponents even tried to stir up the public by saying ethanol would cause jets to fall out of the sky, when they knew perfectly well ethanol was never slated to be blended with jet fuel. Obviously, none of that happened."

Originally, ethanol, an oxygenate was blended into gasoline sold only in the winter months in the Twin Cities metropolitan area as a way to decrease carbon monoxide levels in accordance with Environmental Protection Agency air quality standards. The program was so successful it was extended to a year-round requirement in the Twin Cities and eventually to a statewide requirement.

Advocates point out that the objections raised by anti-ethanol forces in Minnesota ten years ago are the same canards used today to try to stop gasoline from losing market share in other parts of the country. "If folks in other states would come to Minnesota, they would see for themselves how none of those dire predictions came true," said Gerlach. "Instead, what has happened is that with the help of ethanol and other tools at our disposal, weíre now consistently meeting air quality standards while weíre replacing ten percent of fuel that would normally come from outside our borders with cleaner renewable fuel we grow right here in our state."

The 10 percent mandate was a good start. But thatís just the tip of the iceberg. The legislation passed two years ago propelling the use of an 85 percent blend to the forefront is a good second step. But what we really need to be doing is establishing not just state, but federal programs to become independent of foreign oil.

John F. Kennedy said America would have a man on the moon in less than 10 years. The U.S. government spent incredible amounts of money, and employed hundreds of thousands of persons to make JFKís promise a reality in 1969, less than nine years from when he made that promise.

When the original oil embargo nearly crippled the United States in the early 1970s, the government of Brazil vowed to become completely independent of foreign oil within 20 years. They did just that. Currently, all vehicles operating in Brazil are burning either ethanol or bio diesel.

If Uncle Sam would have spent just 10 percent of the money burned up waging war in the Middle East (where all the oil is) on developing wind, solar, ethanol, and bio diesel energy alternatives during the past decade, our country, and the world, would be a better place.

Hereís hoping the next person elected president of this country has the environmental foresight and political guts to tell the big oil companies to take a leap and get us on the right track....of energy independence.

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