Federal Recipe for Gasoline Helped Drive Up the Price

WASHINGTON

On Friday, the 270th day after President Bush signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the law ended the requirement that gasoline sold in areas prone to air pollution include an “oxygenate,” or a molecule including hydrogen, carbon and oxygen. A result is that refiners over most of the country’s big gasoline markets, anticipating the rule, have already dropped the chemical MTBE.

The refiners were not explicitly required to drop MTBE, but virtually all have done so because it has polluted groundwater and exposed them to liability suits. By dropping it, they can offer the defense in water pollution lawsuits that they used the component only for as long as it was required.

NY Times