New Hampshire trying to cut MTBE use in gasoline
Date: 17-Dec-01
Country: USA
Like many more heavily populated states, including California and New York, New Hampshire is trying to cut its use of methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), one of the main "oxygenates" added to make reformulated gasoline (RFG). The federal Clean Air Act requires RFG in smoggy parts of the country. It is sold in one quarter of retail pumps nationwide.
But MTBE breaks down more slowly than any other gasoline component and can seep into ground water supplies, according to studies, including a 1998 University of California report.
This week, New Hampshire filed papers to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that prescribe methods for meeting the standards of RFG, without using oxygenates.
"The federal government mandates that we use additives like MTBE in much of New Hampshire's gasoline, putting at risk the health of our citizens and our ground water supplies," said New Hampshire's Governor Jeanne Shaheen in a statement. "That does not make any sense."
In California, MTBE leaks have shut 50 public wells because even minuscule amounts of it can make water smell like turpentine, MTBE's opponents say. California and New York have issued outright bans of MTBE in their states to take effect as soon as 2003.
But New Hampshire's approach seeks to prove pollution reductions can be made without oxygenates in gasoline rather than to ban MTBE outright. It would allow the use of those alternatives in order to reduce the use of MTBE, rather than to completely disallow it.
"We're saying to oil refiners if you can make gasoline that meets the air quality standards of RFG without using oxygenates, go to it," said Ken Colburn New Hampshire's head of air quality.
Several refiners in California, including ChevronTexaco Corp. and its Equilon joint venture with Royal Dutch/Shell Group , make clean gasoline without oxygenates.