to mtbe, or not to mtbe
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TO MTBE, OR NOT TO MTBE Congress debates curbing use of gasoline additive, considers ethanol mandate
Cheryl Hogue C&EN Washington
The curtain is closing on the heyday of methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) as a gasoline additive in the U.S.—
that much is practically a done deal. MTBE from leaking gasoline storage tanks and fuel spills on pavement is washing into groundwater. Drinking water supplies in wells are becoming tainted with the smelly chemical, which is widely used to meet Clean Air Act standards for cleaner burning gas.
But should MTBE's use as a fuel additive be banned or just curtailed? Should the decision be left to states? Should Congress change the section of the Clean Air Act that was at least in part intended to expand ethanol markets but wound up boosting MTBE sales? And if MTBE is out, what is in?
Opportunities for rapid growth in ethanol markets loom large, regardless of how these questions are answered. Corn Belt interests, oil refiners, and federal and state regulators agree on that point, but not much else.
A lot of the debate on MTBE centers around a provision added to the Clean Air Act in a 1990 package of amendments. Those amendments require the sale of cleaner burning fuel, known as reformulated gasoline, in urban areas with serious smog problems. The focus of political debate is on a provision in which Congress specified that reformulated gasoline contain a minimum of 2% oxygen by weight. This is called the oxygen mandate.
Ostensibly, the oxygen mandate was added to cut pollution emissions from vehicles. But it had a political mission as well—to increase ethanol sales, thus benefiting corn growers and processors because most fuel-grade ethanol is pro- Harkln duced from corn kernels. Ethanol, when mixed with gasoline, boosts the oxygen content of the fuel.
But ethanol captured only a small
It stinks I swirl the water in the bottle for the same reason an oenophile swirls a glassful of freshly poured wine—to release the liquid's fragrance, its "nose." I unscrew the cap, noting the handwritten message taped to the front of the glass bottle: "DO NOT DRINK"
After one whiff, I can't imagine that anyone would consider drinking this stuff—water drawn from a well in Santa Monica, Calif. This water contains 600 ppb methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE).
It stinks. That's why the city no longer draws
drinking water from the well where this tainted H20 came from. The Environmental Protection Agency has ordered more than a dozen oil companies to provide drinking water in Santa Monica to help replace water formerly supplied by wells now contaminated with MTBE
that originated in gasoline stored in leaky underground storage tanks.
A number of times I've written that MTBE makes drinking water smell bad at concentrations above 3 to 20 ppb, depending on the acuteness of a person's sense of smell. But I'd never actually sniffed MIBE-contaminated water. I got the chance when Sen. Thomas Harkin (D-Iowa) passed the bottle of Santa Monica water around at a hearing last month.
This water was pungent like a sniff of high-proof rum, the odor seeped into my nasal passages and burned a Ktde. But this water certainly didn't smell like rum. It didn't smell much like turpentine either, although MIBE's odor is often compared with turpentine. It just smelled kind of ouy, a definite bouquet of hydrocarbons. This water is not something I'd want to use to reconstitute frozen lemonade or freeze in my ice-cube trays.
Cheryl Hogue
portion of the gasoline oxygenate market. Currently, MTBE accounts for 85% of that market, according to the American Petroleum Institute (API). Another 7% is ethanol, and the remaining 8% includes other chemicals such as ethyl tert-butyl ether and tert-butyl alcohol.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, current ethanol production for fuels is about 1.5 billion gal per year. About 30% of this is used as a reformulated gasoline oxygenate. Another 20% is used as a gasoline oxygenate in areas where wintertime carbon monoxide levels are high. The remaining 50% is used in conventional gasoline sold across the U.S., according to EPA
Oil companies aren't wild about ethanol as a fuel oxygenate because it cannot be blended into gasoline at the refinery.
The hygroscopic chemical picks up trace water in pipelines and storage tanks. So to protect the quality of their fuel, gasoline suppliers ship ethanol to distribution terminals separately from gasoline, explains Marc Meteyer, fuels team leader for API. The ethanol is blended into the gasoline during the filling of tanker trucks that deliver fuel to service stations. Generally, ethanol is found in reformulated gasoline in
the Midwest, and MTBE is used in reformulated gasoline sold in most of the rest of the U.S., Meteyer says.
Refiners began adding small amounts of MTBE to gasoline as an octane booster when tetraethyl lead additives were phased out in the 1970s and '80s. However, MTBE contamination of groundwater did not become widespread until the 1990s, when refiners began adding larger amounts of the compound to fuel to meet the oxygen mandate.
Concern about contaminated wells— especially those used for public drinking water supplies and most notably the pollution of groundwater in water-starved Southern California—is focusing congressional attention on MTBE.
Congress is debating whether to mandate—directly or indirectly—the use of ethanol as the replacement for MTBE or to allow states the freedom to choose whether to use fuels with oxygen-boosting additives within their boundaries. Mixed into the delibera-
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tions are concerns about U.S. dependence on foreign oil and the recent increase in oil prices.
'The recent sharp hike in oil and fuel prices has set the stage for a serious discussion about renewable fuels like etha-nol and how they can help put our national energy policy back on track," Sen. Thomas Harkin (D-Iowa), an ethanol supporter, says.
Midwestern Corn Belt interests simply want a national ban on MTBE use in gasoline. This plan would retain the oxygen mandate in the Clean Air Act and essentially force refiners to switch from MTBE to ethanol use in reformulated gasoline, boosting farm income and corn processors' profits.
The Clinton Administration has sided with ethanol in this policy debate, embracing farm interests and endorsing the use of ethanol as a way to address the country's growing reliance on imported oil and to curb greenhouse gas emissions. But the Administration plan would not merely ban MTBE as a gasoline additive. This proposal would repeal the oxygen mandate for reformulat
ed gasoline and would replace it with a standard for a minimum content of renewable fuel (read: ethanol) in gasoline. This standard would be based on a nationwide annual average, thus allowing differences in seasonal and regional blends of gasoline.
"Without the renewable fuels standard, some petroleum-based substitute
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Mark Mazur, director of the Energy Department's Office of Policy, says removing MTBE from the nation's fuel supply and not requiring the use of some other additive could hurt U.S. gas-
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oline supplies. Simply removing MTBE and not replacing it would have the same impact on U.S. gasoline supplies as shutting down four to five large refineries—or about 4% of the country's gasoline supply, according to Mazur. More than 280,000 barrels of MTBE are used in the U.S. every day, which is the energy equivalent to 400,000 barrels a day of gasoline production, Mazur recently told the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry.
Meanwhile, a new political coalition is advocating a policy plan that contrasts with those sought by the Administration and those who simply want to ban MTBE. Oil refiners, a number of eastern states, an environmental group, and the American Lung Association want Congress to repeal the oxygen mandate—with the proviso that new blends of cleaner burning gasoline maintain the current air quality benefits provided by oxygenates (C&EN, Feb. 7, page 36).
API's Meteyer says: "We want a performance requirement for clean-burning gasoline, not a mandate for use of oxygenates. Tell us what you want to achieve.
'We believe ethanol has a bright future," regardless of whether the Clean Air Act's oxygen mandate for reformulated gasoline is retained or chucked, Meteyer continues. API member companies already use ethanol in reformulated gasoline sold in the Midwest, he says.
Cost is a major reason why refiners have opted for MTBE over ethanol as an oxygenate in many parts of the country, according to Meteyer. For instance, shipping ethanol from the Midwest to California and then blending it with gasoline raises the cost per gallon of fuel by 1 to 2 cents compared with fuel containing MTBE, he says. This is primarily why those making reformulated gasoline for sale in California depend heavily on MTBE, he says.
Meanwhile, officials of northeastern and several Middle Atlantic states are concerned that getting rid of MTBE while retaining the oxygen mandate for reformulated gasoline will actually make urban air quality worse in the summer while forcing fuel prices higher because of ethanol transportation costs. Gasoline containing ethanol evaporates more quickly than fuel without ethanol. Volatile organic compounds, such as gasoline vapor, lead to the formation of ground-level ozone or smog.
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ing increase in evaporative emissions, the use of ethanol during the summertime ozone season may actually exacerbate our urban and regional smog problems," comments Jason S. Grumet, executive director of the Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management (NESCAUM), a coalition of eight states from New Jersey to Maine. He recently told the Senate Agriculture Committee that efforts to ban MTBE while retaining the oxygen mandate "seek short-term economic enrichment for one region of the country"—the Midwest—"at the economic and environmental expense of all others."
NESCAUM wants Congress to reduce or, if necessary, eliminate MTBE use as a fuel additive. Under the Northeast states' plan, EPA would limit the concentration of MTBE in gasoline to the amounts used before the reformulated gasoline program was instituted under the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act.
"Severe curtailment of MTBE use coupled with the tremendous improvements in underground storage tanks
that [have] occurred since 1990 will effectively mitigate the risks posed by MTBE contamination," Grumet says. However, he adds, the agency should be required to clamp down further on MTBE—or even ban the substance—if paring back use of MTBE to pre-1990 levels does not adequately protect health or the environment. In addition, Congress should allow states to regulate MTBE beyond any EPA requirements, Grumet says. He notes that the Northeast has had less of a problem with MTBE in groundwater than other regions of the nation.
According to Grumet, within four years this plan would more than double the amount of ethanol used as a gasoline additive.
Meanwhile, some believe policy choices that would expand ethanol markets during a nationwide phaseout of MTBE could attract supporters beyond the Corn Belt. Former CIA Director R. James Woolsey, now chairman of the Clean Fuels Foundation's advisory committee, says a broad coalition could form to lobby for ethanol made from all
sorts of biomass—agricultural residues such as rice straw, crops such as switch-grass, and used paper—and not just corn kernels. The Clean Fuels Foundation is a nonprofit group in Washington, D.C., that promotes cleaner burning alternative transportation fuels, such as ethanol, that are produced in the U.S.
Ethanol plants in the U.S. mainly use the starch in corn kernels to make the alcohol, which, when blended with gasoline, lowers the federal tax on the resulting fuel by 5.4 cents per gal. The tax break, initially instated in 1978, was extended in 1998 and is authorized through 2007.
'There is a certain amount of understandable 'corn envy' outside the Midwest" since the financial benefits of this ethanol tax subsidy flow almost entirely to Corn Belt states, Woolsey recently told the Senate Agriculture Committee. Starch-derived ethanol requires petroleum products for cultivation and fertilizer, he noted. These energy inputs can raise questions about the practicality of corn-derived ethanol as a substitute for gasoline, he said.
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In contrast, Woolsey told the panel, ethanol made from cellulose would enjoy wider national support because biomass—plant material and paper waste—"is essentially everywhere." He predicted that ethanol derived from biomass would garner endorsements from farmers and environmental advocates seeking cleaner air and water and curbs on greenhouse gas emissions. A political bloc he called "cheap hawks"—those interested in national security but not wanting to Inhofe fight wars in the Middle East over oil unless "absolutely necessary"— may line up behind cellulose-derived ethanol as a way of cutting U.S. dependence on imported petroleum, according to Woolsey, who is an attorney with Shea & Gardner in Washington, D.C.
Congress is considering a number of bills to address MTBE. But whether the federal legislature can hammer out and pass such legislation during an election year remains to be seen.
Sen. Robert C. Smith (R-N.H.), chair-
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man of the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee, and Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), who chairs that panel's Subcommittee on Clean Air, Wetlands, Private Property & Nuclear Safety, have introduced a measure (S. 1886) that would allow individual states to decide how to address MTBE. The bill would allow states to waive the oxygen content requirement for reformulated gasoline and would encourage development of voluntary standards to prevent
| and control releases of MTBE | from underground storage c tanks. A spokesman for the com-% mittee says members of the pan-| el have discussed concerns °- about MTBE with various inter
est groups. Smith hopes to move MTBE legislation sometime in 2000, he says.
In the House, dozens of California legislators have lined up behind a bill (H.R. 11) that would release their state from federal reformulated gasoline standards if air quality benefits can be maintained through state
standards for gasoline. The bill was approved in September by a subcommittee and sent to the House Commerce Committee. The committee's chairman, Rep. Thomas Bliley Jr. (R-Va.), has asked EPA for detailed information about MTBE and oxygenates, according to a spokesman for that panel. Bliley is waiting to receive that information before deciding whether to move legislation this year, the committee spokesman said.
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Sen. Thomas Daschle (D-S.D.) is formulating a bill that closely resembles the Clinton Administration's proposal on MTBE. Daschle's plan would phase out the use of MTBE in the U.S. fuel supply and establish a renewable fuels standard. But the South Dakota senator wants to retain the oxygen mandate. However, Daschle's plan also would allow states to opt out of the oxygen mandate for reformulated gasoline as long as they retain the air quality benefits reaped from the use of oxygenated fuels.
Other ideas are floating around Capitol Hill. "One solution that has been tossed out is the concept of modifying the oxygen requirement so states that wanted to get out of it could," says Trevor T. Guthmiller, executive director of the American Coalition for Ethanol, a Sioux Falls, S.D., nonprofit advo- Daschle cacy group. "But in lieu of opting out of the oxygen requirement in their reformulated gasoline areas, they would then have to opt into a renewable fuel standard," he says.
Several bills have been introduced that would simply ban MTBE, but Congress is not expected to act on them.
While Congress wrangles over how to address MTBE on a nationwide basis, states are beginning to move on their own.
Federal legislators are closely monitoring a request by California that EPA
waive the Clean Air Act's oxygen mandate for reformulated gasoline in the Golden State because of MTBE contamination in wells. The agency is expected to rule on the California petition this summer. Many midwestern legislators, including Harkin, are pressuring EPA officials to reject the California request, thus ensuring that California will have to buy ethanol derived from corn grown in their
states. Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) says granting the California request would amount to "denying markets for $1 billion worth of corn this year."
California accounts for more than a third of the U.S. consumption of MTBE and almost a quarter of worldwide MTBE use. But officials in the state are leery of simply replacing MTBE in reformulated gasoline with ethanol for the same rea
son cited by northeastern states: Adding ethanol to gasoline increases emissions of volatile organic compounds, which are precursors to ground-level ozone. However, the California Air Resources Board says ethanol use in the state will increase significantly even if EPA agrees to waive the requirement for oxygen content in reformulated gasoline.
Last year, California Gov. Gray Davis (D) issued a directive banning the use of MTBE in gasoline sold in the state by the
end of 2002 (C&EN, April 5, 1999, page 9). The California Air Resources Board allows refiners to reduce or eliminate oxygenates in their gasoline if they can demonstrate that the resulting fuel will not increase emissions. This sort of cleaner burning gasoline is sold in Northern California. However, the federal Clean Air Act's oxygen mandate essentially prohibits the sale of this fuel in Southern California and Sacramento, which account for 70% of the state's gasoline market.
Other states are beginning to follow California's lead. Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan (D) last month asked EPA to waive the requirement for sale of reformulated gasoline in St. Louis. Carnahan, who supports the use of ethanol to replace MTBE, says he plans to ban the use of MTBE in the state. However, Carnahan said he will wait to implement this plan until Congress acts to "prevent gasoline shortages and price increases that could result from an MTBE ban" and resolves the controversy around the oxygen mandate.
The New York legislature last month passed a bill that would phase out use of MTBE in gasoline in the Empire State as of 2004. The bill is pending before Gov. George E. Pataki (R).
Whether or how these state actions on MTBE will factor into the federal debate on reformulated gasoline and the Clean Air Acf s oxygen mandate is unclear. Ethanol is waiting in the wings as MTBE takes its final bow in the reformulated gasoline market. But just how big a role ethanol will land remains to be seen.^
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