Posted on 03/15/2002 5:22:36 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
SACRAMENTO -- A new report says banning the fuel additive MTBE this December could cause supply shortages and price spikes, and recommends delaying the ban until 2005.
Irvine-based Stillwater Associates reported Thursday that state gasoline supplies could run 55,000 to 100,000 barrels short daily, with up to 80 percent of the impact felt in southern California.
The consulting firm, in a report to the California Energy Commission, recommends delaying the ban until November 2005 to get "significant additional supplies for the state's gasoline pool."
Three years ago Gov. Gray Davis ordered a ban on MTBE, or methyl tertiary butyl ether, no later than Dec. 31, 2002. The executive order followed a University of California study that declared MTBE a threat to groundwater. The fuel additive, which makes gasoline burn cleaner in areas with significant air pollution, has already leaked into 48 wells in California's public water systems, state records showed last August.
Thirteen states use the additive to meet requirements of the federal Clean Air Act.
Davis spokesman David Chi said Thursday the governor is expected to decide next month whether to ban MTBE at year's end. If so, he would make California the first state to eliminate its use, says energy commission spokesman Claudia Chandler.
Marguerite Young, California director of Clean Water Action, a national water quality group, says Davis should stick to his guns.
"Every day we continue to put MTBE into gasoline we are putting more groundwater in peril and more drinking water in peril and adding to the what will be at the end of the day, a very staggering cleanup bill," she said.
A study commissioned last October estimated it will cost $29 billion to remove MTBE from water and soil nationwide.
"I think there may well be economic disruptions from phasing it out," Young said. "But there will be economic disruptions no matter when we phase it out."
The report to CEC noted gasoline prices could double with a January 2003 ban. Stillwater Associates noted that insufficient supplies of ethanol, the alternative to MTBE, would leave the state scrambling for gasoline that distant refiners couldn't deliver. Along with delaying the ban, it recommends that the state expand its refining capacity, add tank storage and establish a strategic fuels reserve.
But Fred Gorell, spokesman for San Francisco-based Chevron-Texaco Corp., said his company is ready for the ban.
"I haven't seen any decision to change the date, and given it's the end of the year, our situation is we're on track to meet that requirement," he said.
The Stillwater report, which says a gasoline shortfall would have its biggest impact on independent marketers and unbranded stations, is only a recommendation to the energy commission, Chandler said. She said commission staffers will write their own report within weeks, presenting options to California EPA Director Winston Hickox and Davis.
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Read the Stillwater report at www.energy.ca.gov/mtbe
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Sorry about the double post!
Good point!
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It either needs to be phased out over a period of a couple of years, or the stupid rules about California gasoline need to be dumped altogether.
The latter would be my choice, but I know it won't be Davis's.
If we had a national standard for gasoline formulation, there wouldn't be shortages in each region, something that is essentially guaranteed every year under current rules.
Isn't that in the Cheney / Bush Energy plan?
I have a problem with mandates of any kind and (as you might expect) advocate a system that incorporates the price of air treatment into the buying decision. My trees would appreciate the investment and will take plastic. :-)
Perhaps it is my inference that it would call for the elimination of the different grades!
No shortage should occur and here's why. In terms of enegy content, MTBE is close to zero. When the original tests were done, measurements were done related to pollutants per gallon of gasoline-- not pollutants per mile driven. In fact, the mileage for MTBE gas in CA is lower than federal reformulated gas, so supply would not be a problem if we switched to federal reformulatd gas.
But wait, it gets better. To comply with federal legislation (Clean air act) we must use either MTBE or ethanol, which is not produced here in CA. And their is no pipeline to get it here.
For more info on MTBE (Proven carcinogen) check link:
Mtbe was basically toxic waste, a byproduct of the oil refining process. Today, all federal reformulated gasoline contains some MTBE, but not as much as the CA version.
The whole deal is a scam. MTBE is a carcinogen, and is finding its way into ground water, and even Lake Tahoe. The oil companies have benefitted by charging more for MTBE gas, and not having expensive toxic waste disposal.
This EPA-mandated boutique recipe for each locality is asinine.
If you want to buy some exotic blend, and there are enough people like you, the market will give you what you want.
But there is no reason that we can't produce it here. - Just the cannery waste alone, which is now being dumped into the sewers, would produce more than three times as much ethyl as we need (actually we don't need any, but that's another story) for motor fuels.
It's time for the hype to stop.
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