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New Hampshire ban on gas additive becomes law
CONCORD, N.H. (AP)--New Hampshire has joined a handful of other states in banning the gasoline additive MTBE. Gov. Craig Benson has allowed the bill to become law without his signature.
The law would ban methyl tertiary-butyl ether by 2007. The chemical is blamed for polluting 15 percent of the state's public water supplies and thousands of private wells.
The additive is included in gasoline as a cleanser to reduce air pollution and was required under a federal program. The Environmental Protection Agency has given preliminary acceptance to the state's plan to opt out of the program.
To do so, the state had to show the EPA it had another plan to reduce air pollution.
Under the law, the state would adopt new rules that reduce ozone by requiring clean industrial and architectural coatings, solvents and portable fuel containers.
New Hampshire joins Maine, New York, California and Connecticut in banning MTBE in favor of a different additive, ethanol.
The ban has led to a lawsuit in at least one state. Methanex Corp., a Canadian company that makes one of the components in MTBE, has filed a $970 million lawsuit seeking compensation for lost profits. The company argues California's MTBE ban was meant to remove foreign competition for U.S. producers of ethanol, a potential MTBE substitute.
In an unrelated lawsuit, New Hampshire is going after 21 oil companies and an MTBE manufacturer, alleging that they sold a defective product that was polluting state waters. The state wants the companies to pay for millions of dollars spent investigating and cleaning up MTBE contamination.
Spokesmen for the oil companies say the state should be pursuing those who spill or leak gasoline; they say the additive is not defective.
Date: 6/24/04
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