Senate Panel Backs Study of Gas Additive

SACRAMENTO — Conservative and environmentalist lawmakers struck an unusual alliance Monday and won committee approval of legislation that could result in a ban of a key additive in California’s cleaner-burning gasoline because of questions about its toxicity.

The vote by a state Senate panel came despite warnings by an oil industry lobbyist that a ban of the additive MTBE would result in serious gasoline shortages and price hikes. State officials warned that ending the use of the additive would reverse significant gains in air quality.

But while state officials and oil industry experts insist that the additive has brought dramatic benefits to California’s air during the one year it has been in wide use, the substance has leaked from underground gasoline storage tanks, migrated into wells in Santa Monica and elsewhere, and fouled some drinking supplies.

“If I were king . . . [the ban] would be done yesterday,” said Sen. Richard Mountjoy (R-Arcadia), the author of the measure to ban the use of MTBE.

Monday’s developments mark perhaps the most visible impact to date of a talk-radio campaign on public policy in Sacramento. One station in particular, San Francisco’s KSFO, has been touting what its hosts contend are the additive’s ill effects, often haranguing state officials who disagree with them.

Countering the talk-show hosts and their followers was a high-powered lobbying effort led by the oil industry and MTBE manufacturers. The Western States Petroleum Assn. on Monday took out a full-page ad in the Sacramento Bee touting the benefits of reformulated gasoline.

The ad was endorsed by Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, the state Chamber of Commerce and several air quality officials throughout the state.

Testifying Monday, Richard Kreutzen, a lobbyist for the Western States Petroleum Assn., bemoaned the politically charged atmosphere, saying, “We’re waiting for a reasoned dialogue.”

Taking up the talk shows’ banner, Mountjoy insisted that the additive’s success in reducing smog is being exaggerated by the state, and he cited studies showing the additive has been shown to cause cancer in laboratory animals.

Mountjoy’s measure (SB 521) would require a study of MTBE. If the substance proves to pose an undue hazard to the environment, the state would be required to ban it starting in March.

The Senate Environmental Quality Committee approved Mountjoy’s proposal 6 to 0. At the same time the committee approved by an 8-0 vote legislation by Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles) requiring a cleanup of MTBE from water. His measure (SB 1189) also requires state health officials to develop standards for what constitutes safe levels of MTBE in drinking water.

“If the water is being threatened, that’s of enormous consequence,” Hayden said.

Both bills now go to the Senate Appropriations Committee and have several more stops before they reach the governor’s desk.

As part of the state’s effort to reduce air pollution, oil companies have been adding MTBE to gasoline statewide in large amounts since last year. The additive boosts the oxygen content of gasoline, causing it to burn more completely.

In testimony Monday, Joan Denton, an air pollution expert with the California Air Resources Board, said the use of MTBE-containing reformulated gasoline has been so successful that it has been like removing 3.5 million cars from California roads.

She said the new gasoline has reduced cancer risk from auto emissions by 40%, largely because it allows the removal of much of the benzene found in gasoline. Benzene is known to cause cancer in people, while MTBE is thought to be less carcinogenic.

“A precipitous ban on MTBE will put these clean-air benefits in jeopardy,” Denton said.

At the same time, however, when gasoline spills, MTBE separates from other components, mixes easily with water, and seeps into ground water more quickly than other components of gasoline.

MTBE has been detected in ground-water wells in Santa Monica, Orange County and other locales throughout the state.

Under Mountjoy’s bill, the state would fund $500,000 worth of studies by University of California researchers, who would assess the risks and benefits of the additive, ranging from the impact on water quality to the impact of reformulated gasoline on the operation of cars.

The university reports would be critiqued by the U.S. Geological Survey, which has expertise on ground-water issues, and the federal Centers for Disease Control. Once the studies are done, the director of the state Department of Health Services could either deem MTBE beneficial, or conclude that it poses a significant health risk.

If it is determined to be a risk, the use of the additive would be phased out, starting in March.

Additionally, the measure would provide $10 million for comprehensive statewide monitoring of the additive, and requires that MTBE manufacturers, oil companies and other owners of leaking underground gasoline tanks pay for any MTBE cleanup.

Mountjoy brought with him KSFO talk-show hosts. In Mountjoy’s office, the radio was tuned to KSFO, and several fans of the station and its conservative talk-show format milled around his office, wearing anti-MTBE buttons.

“We only hope and pray that eventually, inevitably, out of this effort that some real science will be done,” Geoff Metcalf, one of the KSFO talk-show hosts, said at Mountjoy’s news conference.

Another KSFO personality, Melanie Morgan, appeared at the committee hearing where she delivered 80,000 signatures on petitions “to ban the use of MTBE in your gasoline supply.” She said the radio station gathered the names with the aid of the “grass-roots” group called Oxy-Busters.

Although Hayden said in an interview he did not want to “dignify a strange bedfellows [story],” he appeared alongside Mountjoy and the talk-show hosts at the press conference.

“I want to indicate to Sen. Mountjoy that we’re on the same page,” Hayden said at the news conference. “We may drift off here and there. But it’s very important to seek one package solution, so that we take this opportunity to deal with all of these problems at once.”