Davis May Delay Ban on Gas Additive

Concerned that California could face gasoline shortages by year’s end, Gov. Gray Davis said Thursday he is considering delaying a ban on the gasoline additive MTBE, a substance that has fouled ground water but also makes up a large amount of the state’s gasoline supply.

Davis’ announcement Thursday was aimed at pressuring the Bush administration and Congress to intervene on California’s behalf. The state wants more time to comply with what amounts to a federal requirement that it replace MTBE as a gasoline additive with ethanol, a product pushed by influential Midwestern corn growers.

Davis said he intends to make a final decision whether to delay the ban within 40 days. His comments followed a California Energy Commission report issued earlier this week warning that the MTBE ban would lead to “prolonged shortages” and a doubling of pump prices.

“I do believe we have to look at the economic consequences,” Davis said. “Do we have the infrastructure in place to ship all the ethanol from the Midwest to California?”

In one of his first acts in office, Davis in March 1999 ordered that MTBE be removed from gasoline by December 2002. The move, cheered by environmentalists, came as evidence mounted that the additive was leeching into ground water and had forced the closure of wells in Santa Monica and Santa Clara.

At the time, Davis contended that California refineries could produce gasoline without using MTBE or similar additives and still exceed federal clean-air standards. The Democratic governor asked the Bush administration for a waiver from a federal requirement that states add so-called oxygenates to gasoline to help reduce auto emissions.

Last June, the Bush administration refused to grant the exemption--leaving the state with no alternative but to replace MTBE with ethanol, a substance that serves the same function, or continue using MTBE. Given California’s dependence on cars, the state would need 580 million gallons of ethanol a year, or one-third of the U.S. production.

“There is no reason scientifically or economically that we should have to have 2% ethanol by volume in every gallon of gasoline sold in California,” Davis said Thursday. “This decision is totally driven by politics of the Midwest. While I respect that, I’m going to continue to fight for the interests of California.”

California refineries began adding MTBE in the 1990s to help clean the air. But although clean air advocates have said the additive has had dramatic effects on air quality, MTBE leeches into ground water from leaking tanks, and does not dissolve. It spills into lakes , from two-stroke engines.

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Times staff writer Jenifer Warren contributed to this report.