US NPRA cautions Maryland about possible MTBE ban

17 November 2004 23:48  [Source: ICIS news]

WASHINGTON (CNI)--The National Petrochemical & Refiners Association (NPRA) warned Maryland legislators Wednesday that a state ban on methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) as a gasoline oxygenate could “severely limit” the state’s fuel options. 

 

The Maryland legislature is considering a ban on MTBE use in the state. California, New York and Connecticut have already banned MTBE, and other states in addition to Maryland are contemplating bans.

 

NPRA technical advocacy director Charles Drevna told a Maryland House of Delegates environmental committee today that “Failure to fully consider the overall implications of an MTBE ban could transform the Maryland gasoline market and its infrastructure into an island, with little or no access to the supply and distribution chain of regional or neighbouring states or importers.”

 

Drevna noted that under a continuing mandate from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for use of a 2% oxygenate requirement for gasolines sold in Maryland, if Maryland bans MTBE it would be forced to shift to ethanol as an oxygenate. The EPA 2% oxygenate mandate is known as the reformulated gasolines (RFG) program and is required by the Clean Air Act (CAA).

 

A Maryland ban of MTBE, said Drevna, would create “a non-fungible, single-state, ethanol-based RFG program while at the same time severely limiting options for state-wide gasoline supply and distribution.”

 

“Unfortunately,” Drevna said, “this will create a marketplace with little or no margin for production or distribution error, given the lack of readily available replacement fuels.”

 

He also pointed out that Maryland has no refineries and would be dependent on out-of-state refiners for supplies of ethanol-oxygenate gasolines. Noting that Maryland is a small gasoline market compared with the overall Northeast marketplace, he warned that an MTBE ban in the state would make Maryland critically dependent on a few refiners.

 

In a statement on Maryland's contemplated MTBE ban, NPRA renewed its call for US federal repeal of the CAA's 2% oxygenate mandate, arguing that elimination of the oxygenate requirement would ease national and regional fuel supply issues.

 

US ethanol manufacturers are opposed to repeal of the 2% oxygenate rule.

 

Washington, DC-based NPRA represents some 500 refiners and petrochemicals firms.

By: Joe Kamalick
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