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One Senator saves Ethanol

One Senator saved one of the governor's top priorities for this session. Dan Frumson has more from the State capitol.

Earlier in the session, Governor Blunt said he did not fear his ethanol plan being defeated by a floor vote.

"This bill, if it's defeated, it's gonna be defeated in a back room in the Missouri Capitol."

But the fact is it was the same back room politics that brought about a compromise between the Missouri House and Senate, and thus saved the governor's ethanol plan.

Republican Senator John Cauthorn says the compromise came after the conference committee, when Cauthorn met privately with House leadership and worked out their differences.

"I think in the end we had one labor issue on the bill that we took off. We had one issue dealing with undocumented workers. I would like to have kept that issue one there, cause I think it's very important that we support the people of the State of Missouri that go to work every day and the taxpayers. The House did not agree with that position so we ended up taking that off."

If the bill makes it to the Governor's desk for signature, all gasoline sold in Missouri will be enhanced with ethanol by the end of 2007.

From the State capitol, I'm Dan Frumson.