The Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee heard comments supporting and opposed to a ban on MTBE in gasoline at a hearing this week and, separately, service station dealers and petroleum distributors in Pennsylvania came out in support of a ban on MTBE for the first time.

Senate Bill 824 sponsored by Sen. Conti (R-Bucks) would phase out the use of MTBE in gasoline over five years and was introduced in response to concerns that MTBE has been linked to increased rates of cancer and that once in groundwater is very difficult to remove from water and soil.

The Department of Environmental Protection noted 25 states have already banned MTBE in gasoline and highlighted two recent cases of MTBE contamination in Montgomery and Luzerne counties that have so far cost over $12.5 million to cleanup.

DEP said the recent removal of the federal requirement to have an oxygenate like MTBE in gasoline and the absence of any provisions in law for product liability protection for MTBE are driving refiners to limit or eliminate the use of MTBE.

MTBE is being replaced with the use of ethanol, which DEP said has many advantages over MTBE. DEP also said, based on information from industry and the U.S. Department of Energy, Pennsylvania should have an adequate supply of ethanol to replace MTBE.

DEP concluded that a ban on MTBE would have minimal impact on the industry and would prevent any future MTBE product from coming into the state.

The Department of Agriculture and the environmental group Campaign for Clean Air and Clean Water also supported ethanol as an alternative to MTBE or the ban on MTBE.

The Associated Petroleum Industries of PA highlighted the choices given to refiners on the use of MTBE or ethanol in gasoline as a result in the change in federal law, and recommended monitoring gasoline supplies to determine if shortages would develop from discontinuing the use of MTBE.

The only witness to support the continued use of MTBE was Lyondell Chemical Company from Texas which makes MTBE. They cautioned that a premature action to ban the product could reduce gasoline supplies and raise costs for consumers.

In a letter this week to Sen. Conti, the Pennsylvania Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association, which represents 5,000 service stations and retail gasoline facilities in the state, expressed its support for the principles in Senate Bill 824 saying, “it is unprecedented that this organization has taken a position to ban an additive or particular petroleum product.”

The group noted that several refiners and pipelines have already curtailed the use or shipment of the additive.

“The Association strongly feels that a ban of the additive will level the playing field for all refiners, distributors and retailers. Ohio, New York and New Jersey have taken action to restrict or ban MTBE now or in the coming years. We do not feel that leaving Pennsylvania a safe zone for the additive is in the best interest of the Commonwealth.”

Copies of testimony presented to the Committee is available online.

4/7/2006