Senate committee approves bill to phase out MTBE By John Heilprin, Associated PressThursday, September 27, 2001 WASHINGTON — A Senate panel voted Tuesday to phase out an antipollution fuel additive after leaks fouled some communities' drinking water. Opponents pledged to block further action because of language in the measure that would let states opt out of using corn-based ethanol, the only other fuel oxygenate available. Most opponents are from Midwestern farm states with major corn industries. The bill, approved by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee by voice vote, would require the Environmental Protection Agency to ban the use of MTBE in motor fuel within four years. "Without this step, MTBE will continue to contaminate groundwater across the country, and states and EPA will be prevented from acting to stop it," said the committee chairman, Sen. James Jeffords, I-Vt. MTBE, or methyl tertiary butyl ether, is added to gasoline as an oxygenate to make it burn cleaner. Its use has allowed states to meet a federal requirement that gasoline contain a 2 percent oxygen additive to cut down on air pollution, but MTBE also has been linked to cancer and found to pollute groundwater. As approved, the bill would give each governor power to exempt his or her state from the 2 percent federal requirement, which farm state senators saw as a threat to Midwest ethanol manufacturers. Sponsored by Sen. Bob Smith, R-N.H., the bill also would authorize $400 million for monitoring and cleanup of MTBE contamination from leaking underground storage tanks. A federal study last year found one-third of drinking water wells in 31 states were contaminated. The committee sent the legislation to the Senate over protests from several Republican senators, who said it would reduce gasoline supplies and was not ready for debate by the full Senate. Sen. Christopher Bond, R-Mo., who shouted "no" during the vote, said the bill would only increase the nation's reliance on foreign oil. The Energy Department estimated the bill might reduce U.S. gasoline supplies by more than 400,000 barrels per day. "It's a very bad piece of legislation, and I'll do everything I can to make sure it's not enacted," Bond said. Twelve states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota, New York, and Washington — have partially or totally banned the use of MTBE. In June the EPA ordered California to continue using gasoline additives to reduce air pollution, which provided a boost to the ethanol industry. In mid-1999 an EPA panel urged a phaseout of MTBE because of fears of the toxic hazards to drinking water supplies. The bill is S. 950. Copyright 2001 — Associated Press Any reprinting, rebroadcast or digital transmission of thiswork without written permission from Environmental News Network, Inc. is strictly prohibited.

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