Good news for gas prices too?
Early last month, Rhode Island enacted a law that bans the additive methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE) from being added to gasoline sold in Rhode Island, effective June 1, 2007.
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The law is good news for Ted Garille, general manager of the Pascoag Utility District, as he and the 4,000 residents of Pascoag know the adverse effects MTBE can pose to a community’s water supply – problems, he says, continue to this day.
In September 2001, water tests concluded that MTBE had contaminated Pascoag’s two wells – the newest one tested and put on-line only four months earlier at a cost of nearly $1 million. The contamination left what Garille described as a scene from World War II Europe in which people lined up to receive 7,000 to 10,000 gallons of bottled water distributed each week during the crisis.
MTBE levels tested as high as 1,800 parts per billion, much higher than the state Department of Health’s guideline of 40 parts per billion, and left the Burrillville village unable to use water for drinking, cooking or bathing small children.
“It was an absolute nightmare,” said Garille.
It took four months to get drinkable water back into Pascoag when it was connected with the Harrisville water supply. The pipes for the two wells in Pascoag were cut and still remain unusable.
Background
In 1990, an amendment to the federal Clean Air Act required that reformulated gasoline have at least 2 percent oxygen by weight. The rationale, according to Terry Gray, assistant director of air, waste and compliance at the R.I. Department of Environmental Management, was to formulate gas that would burn cleaner. Some states were required to use the reformulated gas while other states like Rhode Island opted to use MTBE in gas to reduce emissions that caused air toxins and ground-level ozone, he said.
At that time, the only product available to meet the federal requirement for an oxygenate in gas was MTBE, according to state Rep. Peter Ginaitt, D-Warwick, who sponsored a version of the bill in the House. A second alternative, ethanol, was being used in the Midwest, but the cost factor would have caused an “absolute tremendous price hike” for gasoline at the time, he said.
By 1995, MTBE was added to gasoline in Rhode Island.
MTBE did its job in terms of lowering emissions of carbon monoxide from cars, said Ginaitt, but it was determined there were “extreme pollutant consequences if leaked into the ecosystem,” he said.
The chemical characteristics of MTBE are very soluble, said Gray, allowing it to spread quickly into the water supply.
Pascoag was not the only area affected by MTBE leaks, said Ginaitt, referencing an episode 12 to 13 years ago in Warwick on Warwick Avenue and separate occurrences in Tiverton, South Kingstown, North Smithfield and Richmond.
MTBE is now being phased out in many states, said Ed Murphy, director for refining and marketing at the American Petroleum Institute (API).
Effect on gas supply
Ethanol is now a viable option as an oxygenate for gasoline because consumers will not see a price increase, said Ginaitt, noting that other states, including Connecticut and New York, have made the change with little effect on gas prices.
“The planets are in alignment … it is time for the change,” said Ginaitt.
Murphy said the time between now and 2007 should be sufficient to allow gas suppliers to make necessary changes in delivery and infrastructure at the refineries. As opposed to adding MTBE at the plant, ethanol is added at the point of delivery, he said.
“The Rhode Island ban (of MTBE) is unlikely to have a significant impact,” he said.
Gray said recent data has indicated the price of ethanol is declining while MTBE prices are on the rise.
Lenette Boisselle, Rhode Island’s legislative consultant with the API, said studies conducted on Connecticut and New York gas prices with ethanol experienced the same price fluctuations as other parts of the country.
She said it was important for Rhode Island to ban MTBE to maintain a regional fuel concept. With Connecticut and New York already banning MTBE and New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine scheduled to enact bans in January 2007, Rhode Island will join the rest of the region as MTBE-free and allow gas to be moved from state to state.
John Quinn, executive director of the Massachusetts Petroleum Council, said legislation in the Bay State was recently approved by a joint environment committee of the state House and Senate and is awaiting further action by the Senate where the bill is being sponsored.
While the passing of the federal energy bill earlier in the month eliminated the requirement for an oxygenate in gasoline, Boisselle said she still expects ethanol to be used in gas to keep states in compliance with the Clean Air Act that limits pollutants and emissions released in the air to be eligible for federal funds for transportation.
Steve Majkut, chief of air resources at the DEM, said refiners will not be required to put a specific amount of ethanol in each gallon of gas but are required to use a certain amount of ethanol over the course of the energy bill per federal legislation.
