Washington – States no longer will have to add corn-based ethanol or MTBE to gasoline to fight pollution – a requirement that costs as much as 8 cents a gallon – under rules announced Wednesday by the Environmental Protection Agency.
They eliminate a mandate from the 1990 Clean Air Act that gasoline used in metropolitan areas with the worst smog contain 2 percent oxygen by weight. The law did not say which oxygenate must be used, but most refiners use either ethanol or methyl tertiary butyl ether, known as MTBE.
The rules announced Wednesday put in place a part of the energy bill the president signed in August that did away with the 2 percent oxygenate requirement.
The rules will take effect nationwide on May 6 and in California 60 days after their publication in the Federal Register.
Parts of more than a dozen states fall under the 2 percent oxygenate requirement, while others use oxygenates voluntarily. Nationwide, about 30 percent of gasoline contains oxygenates.
