MTBE Was the best oxygenate they could find. The poster child of the Air
Board, It did more to clean up exhaust with the fewest problems and the
cheapest costs.
Leaking Underground storage tank systems (LUSTS) gave our water supplies a
less-than-healthy dose of this soluble chemical. and put MTBE on the top 10
pop culture enviro boogeyman. But with the LUSTS laws, developed in the
late 80's and perfected in the late 90's have just about removed the main
problem with the chemical.
Unfortunately, the clean up of the past spills is expensive and really not
effective. Environmental problems are used as political tools because of
their effectiveness in producing powerful gut reactions from the public.
Because of it's pop culture status, MTBE will be removed from use, even
though it's been made safe by LUSTS secondary containment and monitoring
regs.
Ethanol will be replacing it. A reasonable oxygenate but hard on engine
components. Ethanol (corn mash distillate) is Archer Daniels Midlands main
product, This agro-giant knows how to spin media into political power. The
dark side of Environmental movements and actions is that there is often big
business in the background, fanning the flames.
Victor Laury
my buisness is environmental compliance of UST systems (can you tell?)
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