Recent concerns regarding the presence of MTBE in groundwater in California have prompted the Governor and state legislators and air quality officials to review the state's current reformulated gasoline program.
California
Governor Pete
Wilson has signed into law several bills that address the health and environmental
concerns regarding MTBE. Senate Bill 521 includes $500,000 for a study
and assessment of MTBE, which is due by January, 1999. The study is meant
to certify whether using MTBE poses a risk to human health or the environment.
Should such a determination be made, the governor could require that MTBE
no longer be sold or used in gasoline. Senate Bill 1189 and Assembly Bill
592 require the state to adopt drinking water standards for MTBE. State Representative Debra Bowen, Chair of the California Assembly Natural Resources Committee, held a hearing to review the state's current oxygen cap in its reformulated gasoline program with the goal of opening up the program to oxygenate competition. Currently, California's program prohibits the marketing of 10 percent ethanol blends.
Witnesses included representatives of the California Air Resources Board which administers the state's gasoline program, and TOSCO, a refiner that has called for opening the oxygenate market to competition. Others that expressed support for allowing ethanol into the California market include the City of Gridley, California Rice Industry Association, Institute for Local Self-Reliance, Quincy Library Group, CALPIRG, California Renewable Fuels Council, California Farm Bureau, Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, Parallel Products, Arkenol, Californians Against Waste, National Audubon Society, California Biomass Energy Alliance, and the Renewable Fuels Association.
U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer will convene a hearing on the efficacy of the federal oxygenated fuels program later this month.
