Three Southeast Missouri lawmakers are sponsoring legislation that would require ethanol to be added to gasoline sold in the St. Louis area. The bill also would allow cities and counties elsewhere in the state to mandate use of the alternative fuel.

State Rep. Peter Myers, R-Sikeston, is the chief architect of House Bill 1801. The bill also has the backing of two other Bootheel Republican lawmakers: Rep. Bill Foster of Poplar Bluff and Rep. Lanie Black of Charleston.

Myers said state Sen. Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, has introduced a similar measure in the Senate.

Myers, who farms, said farmers would benefit from the legislation. Ethanol is made from corn or grain sorghum. The bill could lead to higher prices being paid to farmers for corn and grain sorghum.

Black agreed. "It will be good for the agricultural economy," said Black, who also farms.

Lawmakers said the bill also would result in the use of environmentally safer fuel and spur development of ethanol plants in Missouri.

Two such plants are under construction in northern Missouri and a third is being considered in the Bootheel.

A group of Southeast Missouri farmers is exploring the possibility of constructing an ethanol plant. One possible site is in East Prairie, which is a federal enterprise zone.

"So there could be some good business benefits to be there," said Bernie farmer Randy Jennings.

Jennings is president of the Missouri Corn Growers Association and serves on the board of directors for the National Corn Growers Association. He raises 500 to 700 acres of corn.

Jennings is one of about a dozen Bootheel farmers who has formed a group called the Southeast Missouri Ethanol Committee. The Missouri Agriculture Department has awarded a grant of more than $30,000 to the group to conduct a feasibility study and obtain a second opinion on the findings.

Southern Illinois Farming Enterprises will conduct the study. That group includes a consultant from North Carolina who ran an ethanol plant in Minnesota for 16 years and has designed several plants.

Jennings said the study will focus on at least three different sites in the Bootheel, including a Mississippi County site.

Jennings said the Southeast Missouri Ethanol Committee hopes to know by the first of July if it would be feasible to open a $25 million ethanol plant in the Bootheel. Such a plant would produce about 15 million gallons of ethanol a year and employ 30 to 40 people.

The business would operate as a co-op. Farmers would buy stock in the enterprise. They also would be legally obligated to deliver their grain to the ethanol plant. Farmers who weren't investors also could sell their grain to the plant.

The farmers who invested in the plant would be paid for their grain and also receive dividends on their investment.

The plant would make not only ethanol but a byproduct that can be used for livestock feed.

Fifty-six pounds of corn can produce 2.7 gallons of ethanol as well as 17 pounds of grain for livestock feed.

Jennings said the plant could benefit corn growers in Southeast Missouri. About 14 million bushels of corn are grown in a six-county area, which includes parts or all of Stoddard, Scott, Mississippi, New Madrid, Butler and Cape Girardeau counties, he said.

Myers said his ethanol bill is aimed at replacing the reformulated gasoline sold in the St. Louis metropolitan area with a cleaner and cheaper alternative that also benefits the state's farmers.

Gas stations in St. Louis currently are required to sell gasoline mixed with a chemical called MTBE. Myers said recent studies show that the chemical is a possible carcinogen and is polluting the ground water when it leaks from underground tanks.

Myers' bill would phase out the use of MTBE in St. Louis and surrounding counties, beginning Jan. 1, 2002.

Jennings said the Missouri Corn Growers Association supports the legislation.

But he said the bill faces a tough battle in the Legislature. The oil companies, he said, would fight the measure because it would reduce the market for MTBE, which is a byproduct of the oil refining operation.