Oxygenate Waiver Request Spurs Reaction

February 7, 2000

Proponents of ethanol production and use in the nation’s reformulated gasoline program have reacted strongly against a proposed waiver of the oxygenate requirement. It’s not allowed by law, they say.

The Environmental Protection Agency is considering a request from the California Air Resources Board for a wavier from the minimum oxygen content specified in the Clean Air Act. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), in a letter to EPA Administrator Carol Browner, said EPA has no statutory authority to grant the waiver "unless complying the oxygen content requirement would prevent or interfere with the attainment by the area of a national primary ambient air quality standard."

Harkin added, "I am very concerned that in its review of the waiver request, EPA may be influenced by arguments that are impermissible under the law."

It also would be impermissible for EPA to consider a waiver based on "the misinformation about whether enough ethanol can be produced, transported and distributed to supply the demand and the costs of doing so, if ethanol replaces MTBE in California markets," Harkin said. USDA has determined that enough ethanol can be produced and transported, not just in California but for the entire U.S. market, he added.

The Renewable Fuels Association mirrored many of Harkin’s arguments and noted that the California Environmental Policy Council had given ethanol "a clean bill of health," approving reports that found no air quality, water quality or health problems associated with the use of ethanol as an oxygenate in California’s cleaner burning gasoline program.

Eric Vaughn, RFA president, said the problem is not the Clean Air Act, "which does not require the use of MTBE. The problem is that the oil companies chose the wrong oxygenate. The Chicago-Milwaukee ethanol reformulated gasoline program should serve as a model for the national achieving the air quality goals of the Clean Air Act while protecting water resources."

California found that MTBE was contaminating water supplies and order a phasing out of the additive.