Chemical company: Outlawing MTBE dangerous

[lovuian]

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=15f68759051fb470
The forced removal of a widely used gasoline additive will mean sharp increases in U.S. pump prices and supply disruptions, a chemical firm says.

Lyondell Chemical Co., which has been producing an oxygenate known as methyl tertiary butyl ether for gasoline makers, also said Friday that the Environmental Protection Agency's intention to outlaw MTBE would mean a deterioration in the nation's air quality.

The accelerated removal of MTBE, brought on by the elimination of the oxygen content requirement, will negatively impact gasoline price and supply, distribution patterns and air quality, Lyondell said in a statement.

The Houston-based company said such negative impacts could be averted if the EPA would issue a transition rule that encourages refiners to continue to blend the oxygenate MTBE through the spring and summer, as refiners have for the past 13 years.
more...

I hear whining!!!

[Demeter]

1. More Dangerous Than Polluting The Groundwater?

Tsk tsk Tsk. I thought the whole point of capitalism was risk-taking!

[Karenina]

13. A 6 year-old gem

from Tante K.'s cyber cellar:

http://www.pei.org/FRD/60_Minutes_Transcript.htm

Date January 16, 2000 ~ Time 07:00 PM - 08:00 PM
Station CBS-TV
Program 60 Minutes

President George Bush: (Clip from file video) Every city in America should have clean air. And with this legislation I firmly believe we will.

(Visual of countryside; smog; gasoline pumps with close-up of labels: Contains MTBE; gas station; gas pump; person replacing cap on fuel tank with close-up of gas spill on ground)

Steve Kroft, co-host:

The only trouble with that legislation is that what it required us to do to clean up our air is now polluting our water. And the culprit is something called MTBE, a chemical that the oil companies say they have no choice but to add to their gasoline. Even the government now says that we're facing a national crisis if something isn't done to stop MTBE from leaking into our drinking water.

Have there been studies done on the health effects of MTBE in the drinking water?

Bob Perciasepe (Assistant Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency): Not enough. Not enough. But...

Kroft: But any? I mean, have any been done?

Perciasepe: I'm not aware of any specific studies.

Dr. Bernard Goldstein (Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences Institute): The problem is, how do you expose one hundred million people to a chemical which you have not adequately tested for its toxicity?

Kroft: And that's what's happened?

Goldstein: That's what's happened.

Kroft: MTBE is shorthand for a chemical called methyl tertiary butyl ether. If you don't know about it yet, you will. It's a gasoline additive that is contaminating drinking water from Maine to California and has been called the biggest environmental crisis of the next decade. How did MTBE end up in gasoline? Well, ten years ago, Congress told the oil companies to put it there, either MTBE or some other oxygenate that would make gasoline burn cleaner. It was supposed to clean up the air. But now MTBE is turning up in lakes and underground aquifers, and in twenty percent of the nation's urban wells, forcing some cities to shut down local water supplies. It seems to be turning up wherever people look for it. And no one was even looking for it until it turned up in Santa Monica, California, a few years ago.


Santa Monica, California, is a beach community west of Los Angeles. Ninety thousand people live here, because they like the environment. You can stroll on the outdoor promenade. You can Rollerblade on the boardwalk. You can swim in the ocean. But you haven't been able to drink the water here for nearly four years. That's when the city discovered that seventy percent of its wells were contaminated with MTBE. Craig Perkins is director of public works for Santa Monica.

Craig Perkins (Director, Public Works, Santa Monica): The first that I heard about MTBE was early March of 1998, when my water managers came to me and said, We believe we have to start shutting down water wells because of this contaminant which we've recently discovered, MTBE.

[Redstone]

2. Balls. We've switched to ethanol during the winter here in CT.

I have a very high-performance car, and haven't noticed a damn bit of difference.

This is corporate bullshit at its worst.

Redstone

[stop the bleeding]

3. I hear the sound of $$$ being sucked out my pocket and into

someone's elses.

This is gonna make Katrina prices look like chump change

[lovuian]

5. Ya I agree get ready for excuses!!!

and they will make Americans suffer for their protection of their environment!!!

:argh:

[ChairmanAgnostic]

4. Hey, let's bring back lead! It is a great anti-knocking compound!

[Omaha Steve]

6. ethanol is better, er best!

Nothing like a chemical company to tell us disinfo.

[John Q. Citizen]

7. Ethonal does the same thing as MTBE without the pollution of

MTBE.

[mom cat]

14. No pollution, and cheap: no wonder the chem companies won't do it.

[MasonJar]

8. Dangerous to their mammoth profit margin!

[KT2000]

9. This is because

apparently they are not accepting liability for the damage done to ground water.

[Dogmudgeon]

10. I thought they DIDN'T want MTBE

IIRC, some years ago, the oil companies were dead-set against MTBE. This, of course, was when MTBE was thought to be a pollutant reducer.

Tell me, whose whining is the correct whining?

--p!

[WhiteTara]

11. dangerous to their bloated profits?

When do you think they will get the realization that we are killing ourselves and everyone and everything else. The religion of God/MAN is the death cult...where is the intervention patrol?

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

12. What won't increase US pump prices?

:shrug: