Use of MTBE

From the mass of regulations generated by the 1990 Amendments to the Clean Air Act (CAA) the increased use of methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) as an oxygen-enhancing additive in gasoline (intended to reduce carbon monoxide emissions) has been the result that produced the most widespread public response and the greatest amount of regulatory and legislative reshuffling. From local government in Fairbanks, Alaska to the State Senate of California to the Environmental Protection Agency citizens, legislators, regulators, and various commercial interests have been involved in a struggle to determine how best to protect the public interest as regards the use of MTBE, a likely human carcinogen that produces significant reductions in carbon monoxide emissions but is sometimes claimed to be an airborne health hazard and has been definitively shown to contaminate water supplies.

The CAA Amendments of 1990 were signed into law by President George Bush in November 1990. The overall goal of the amendments was to reduce polluting emissions from all sources by a total of 57 billion pounds per annum when full implementation was achieved in 2005. The primary thrust of the legislation was completion of efforts begun under the CAA of 1970 and its 1977 amendments. The amendments directed the EPA to establish regulations to achieve the various principal goals including: reducing urban air pollution, controlling emissions from mobile sources, reducing or eliminating other air toxins, reducing

Related Essays

Methyl Tert-Butyl Ether in Gasoline .... and various commercial interests have been involved in a struggle to determine how best to protect the public interest as regards the .... of MTBE, a likely .... (4534 18 )

of Alternative Fuels in the US Cindy Ref: Browne (#1632). 17 .... Lareau, Thomas J. (1990, October). The economics of alternative fuel ....: Substituting methanol for gasoline. .... Alcohol fuels sag, but MTBE soars. .... (4277 17 )

Analysis of a Proposed Rule: .... Louis district. The negative effects of MTBE are too dangerous, and the positive effects too ambiguous, to risk the more widespread .... of RFG. .... (3717 15 )

Macroeconomic Effects of Diesel Fuel Production .... .... of hydrofluoric acid is highly controversial because it is lethal and because it is .... can produce a variety of ethers such as the oxygenates MTBE, ETBE and .... (2302 9 )

Alternative Fuels for Cars .... Lareau, Thomas J. (1990, October). The economics of alternative fuel ....: Substituting methanol for gasoline. .... Alcohol fuels sag, but MTBE soars. .... (2545 10 )

raded." The drawbacks of ethanol are relatively minor. It increases emission of the toxic pollutant acetaldehyde, but still produces overall reductions in air contamination, and, in water, it increases "the solubility of other gasoline contaminants' plumes allowing the to spread further." Ethanol's principal drawbacks are economic. It cannot be practically transported by pipeline and is only practically produced in areas where the raw materials are readily available, i.e., the Midwest. Since 74 percent of the demand for RFG and oxygenated fuels is on the East and West coasts, and ethanol is also more expensive to produce because it "requires additional processing to meet the volatility requirements" of RFG, its use would probably increase the costs of cleaner-burning fuels considerably. The Clinton administration, not unsusceptible itself to agricultural interests, proposed that the EPA require that "at least thirty percent of oxygenates in gasoline be renewable," which meant, in effect, a mandate for higher ethanol use since it is the primary fuel additive considered to be renewable, i.e., derived from organic sources. But the fate of ethanol will probably not be decided for some time as the debate over MTBE continues

Category: Science - U