Panel Backs Ban on Gas Octane-Booster
From Times Wire Reports
A Senate committee approved a ban on MTBE, the gasoline octane-booster that has contaminated ground water in several states. But the need to maintain the federal clean-fuel standards that led to MTBE’s widespread use has prompted fierce lobbying by rival interests--oil firms, the ethanol industry, states and environmentalists. The Environmental Protection Agency says MTBE may be a carcinogen. California Gov. Gray Davis ordered it banned in the state by 2002, and other states have moved to do the same.
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