AP: How the White House Shelved MTBE Ban
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By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration quietly shelved a
proposal to ban a gasoline additive that contaminates
drinking water in many communities, helping an
industry that has donated more than $1 million
Republicans.
AP Photo
The Environmental Protection Agency (news - web
sites)'s decision had its origin in the early days of
President Bush (news - web sites)'s tenure when his
administration decided not to move ahead with a
Clinton-era regulatory effort to ban the clean-air
additive MBTE.
It said the environmental harm of the additive
leaching into ground water overshadowed its beneficial
effects to the air.
The Bush administration decided to leave the issue to
Congress, where it has bogged down over a proposal to
shield the industry from some lawsuits. That
initiative is being led by House Majority Leader Tom
DeLay, R-Texas.
The Associated Press obtained a draft of the proposed
regulation that former President Clinton (news - web
sites)'s EPA sent to the White House on its last full
day in office in January 2001.
It said: "The use of MTBE as an additive in gasoline
presents an unreasonable risk to the environment."
The EPA document went on to say that "low levels of
MTBE can render drinking water supplies unpotable due
to its offensive taste and odor," and the additive
should be phased out over four years.
"Unlike other components of gasoline, MTBE dissolves
and spreads readily in the ground water ... resists
biodegradation and is more difficult and costly to
remove."
People say MTBE-contaminated water tastes like
turpentine.
In Santa Monica, Calif., the oil industry will pay
hundreds of millions of dollars because the additive
contaminated the city's water supply.
"We're the poster child for MTBE, and it could take
decades to clean this up," said Joseph Lawrence, the
assistant city attorney.
In 2000, the MTBE industry's lobbying group told the
Clinton administration that limiting MTBE's use by
regulation "would inflict grave economic harm on
member companies."
Three MTBE producers account for half the additive's
daily output.
The three contributed $338,000 to George W. Bush's
presidential campaign, the Republican Party and
Republican congressional candidates in 1999 and 2000,
twice what they gave Democrats, according to the
Center for Responsive Politics. Since then, the three
producers have given just over $1 million to
Republicans.
The producers are Texas-based Lyondell Chemical and
Valero Energy and the Huntsman companies of Salt Lake
City.
"This is a classic case of the Bush administration
helping its campaign contributor friends at the
expense of public health," said Frank O'Donnell,
executive director of the Clean Air Trust, a
Washington-based environmental group.
Huntsman spokesman Don Olsen, echoing comments by
other MTBE producers, said, "We were not a huge
campaign contributor and this has absolutely nothing
to do with campaign donations. It has to do with good
public policy."
The industry says it has become a victim in a
Washington power struggle.
"Because of MTBE there has been a marked improvement
in air quality and reduction in toxics in the air,"
Olsen said. "Because of leaking underground storage
tanks in some relatively few instances, MTBE found its
way into places it shouldn't be. But that has nothing
to do with the product, which has done exactly what it
was designed to do."
Said Valero Energy spokeswoman Mary Rose Brown: "It
would have been impossible to fulfill the requirements
of the Clean Air Act without MTBE."
A daily Washington newsletter disclosed the existence
of the draft rule shortly after Bush's inauguration;
outside the industry, few people noticed.
At the direction of White House chief of staff Andrew
Card and Mitch Daniels, then the White House's budget
director, all government agencies withdrew their
pre-Inauguration Day draft regulations.
The EPA withdrew agency rules, including the MTBE one,
in mid-February 2001, White House budget office
spokesman Chad Kolton said.
In subsequent months, agencies rewrote many
Clinton-era regulatory proposals and went public with
them. The proposed MTBE regulation, however, never
surfaced.
"As legislation looked more promising in 2002 and
2003, we focused our energies on supporting language
in the Senate's energy bill," Jeffrey Holmstead, the
EPA's assistant administrator for air quality, said in
a statement Friday.
"We have not ruled out the possibility of seeking a
solution" by regulation, Holmstead said.
The EPA favors a phaseout of MTBE through legislation.
But the legislation has stalled and it no longer calls
for a ban in four years.
On their own, 17 states banned the additive and dozens
of communities are suing the oil industry.
"Nobody's talking about the trial lawyers campaign
contributions to their supporters in Congress and its
the trial lawyers who are the force behind these
unjustified lawsuits," said Brown of Valero Energy.
To regulate MTBE, the EPA would have to use the Toxic
Substances Control Act, which the agency considers
cumbersome and unwieldy.
MTBE industry representative Scott Segal said, "It
took EPA a decade to develop enough data to justify
issuing a regulation for asbestos" under the law.
"Even then, the courts still blocked it."
Bob Perciasepe, an EPA official during the Clinton
administration, said a regulatory approach would have
provided "a pressure point" to pass legislation.
Georgetown University law professor Lisa Heinzerling
said regulating MTBE would be difficult, but "if we
can't use the Toxic Substances Control Act to regulate
MTBE, which has contaminated water supplies all over
the country, then what can you use it for?"
___
On the Net:
Documents excerpts available at:
http://wid.ap.org/mtbe.pdf
EPA background on MTBE: http://www.epa.gov/mtbe/
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