James M. Jeffords: “The renewable fuels and MTBE provisions contained in H.R. 4, as passed by the Senate, constitute an agreement among many…”

“The renewable fuels and MTBE provisions contained in H.R. 4, as passed by the Senate, constitute an agreement among many competing interests that is designed to get rid of MTBE and increase renewable fuel use. After the reformulated gasoline program went into effect in 1995, many refiners chose to use MTBE to satisfy the minimum 2 percent oxygen requirement of the program. Oxygenates reduce tailpipe emissions of carbon monoxide and other ozone precursors and provide a clean source of high octane, thereby displacing such toxic gasoline octane enhancers as benzene, toluene, and 1,3 butadiene. After implementation of the RFG program, increasing detection of MTBE in ground water and surface water led California to establish a schedule to ban MTBE and 13 other States have followed with their own MTBE bans. It became clear that the combination of a phase out of MTBE in these states and the continued existence of the two percent oxygen content requirement for RFG could result in a potentially disruptive and abrupt transition to ethanol in states that did not have a history of using ethanol.”