WASHINGTON — With oil prices in record territory, presidential candidates stumping for votes in corn-centric Iowa, and congressional Democrats anxious to pass an energy bill to cut the nation's dependence on Mideast oil, this should be the right moment for ethanol.
But a plan to dramatically increase ethanol production has become a major sticking point in congressional negotiations to complete work on the bill. And it has created a challenge for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose Democratic caucus has split over the issue.
Pro-ethanol Democrats and farm groups want the bill to require a nearly fivefold increase by 2022 in the amount of home-grown alternative fuels that must be blended into gasoline. They say the mandate would reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil and help America's farmers.
Democrats on the other side, joined by environmental and food-industry groups, think the mandate could raise the price of corn used for food; harm the environment by using more land to produce biofuels; and gouge taxpayers by expanding ethanol subsidies.
Because of the provision's popularity among farm-state lawmakers from both parties, it is seen as the glue holding together an energy bill that is expected to include the first significant increase in vehicle fuel-economy rules in decades.
And it might be enough to coax a signature from President Bush, who has made reducing reliance on foreign energy sources a priority.
"All along, energy-bill watchers have believed that the renewable-fuel standard was going to carry the entire bill," said Bill Wicker, a spokesman for Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.). "It's just very popular."
The sense of political urgency for Pelosi to work out a compromise has risen along with prices at the pump.
"How she marries these various interests is really a challenge," said Sierra Club lobbyist Melinda Pierce. "The Democratic Party pie gets sliced differently every time, but it's the leader's job to figure out how to put it all together." House Democratic leaders want to vote on the bill next week, as soon as Congress returns from its recess.
Ethanol has been hotly debated since 1978, when Congress approved a tax break for the fuel. It has long been a key topic on the presidential campaign trail through the Corn Belt -- especially in Iowa, which is first in the nation in ethanol production and in voting on presidential nominees.
