MTBE and methanol are the same? I wasn’t sure, thus my question.
From what you posted, they are not the same.
Right. From wiki “MTBE is manufactured by the chemical reaction of methanol and isobutylene. Methanol is a derived from natural gas, and isobutylene is made from crude oil or natural gas, thus MTBE, as used in motor gasoline, is a fossil fuel.” So MTBE has nothing to do the subject of the article which is switching to a methanol economy. MTBE get created only if isobutylene is introduced to the process of making methanol and I don’t know why would want to do that or how it could happen accidentally. MTBEs are used to increase gasoline’s octane number. Methanol already has a higher octane number than gasoline.