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Food and fuel prices have been on the rise this summer. The truth is the high costs of food and fuel are directly related. Instead of food for our tables farmers are diverting more and more of our nation's fields to grow corn and soybeans for fuel for our automobiles. While some biodiesels hold promise;Ethanol is neither cost nor energy efficient. It increases ground level smog and ozone, and promotes deforestation.

The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 directs refiners to blend 15 billion gallons of corn ethanol and 1 billion gallons of bio-diesel into the nation's fuel supplies by 2015. However, it does provide states an opportunity to opt out.

New Jersey should join California in seeking the oxygenate waiver for fuels so that we do not have to replace MTBE with ethanol. This waiver would allow us to reformulate gasoline to meet the same standards without the use of ethanol, saving us money at the grocery store, improving air quality and reducing the pressure to farm critical habitats.