[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 63 (Tuesday, May 4, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H2555-H2556]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               MTBE USAGE

  Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, this week in the Committee on Commerce we 
are going to have a hearing Thursday, May 6, at 9:30, concerning 
amendment to the Clean Air Act. I am going to paint a little bit what 
the problem is, and it is centered at the EPA. In their efforts to 
really clean up the air what has happened is they have polluted the 
water, and it is a very interesting, but sad, commentary, and the 
Governor of California is coming here to testify, and almost all the 
Members of Congress from California are on the bill of the gentleman 
from California (Mr. Bilbray), which is H.R. 11, and we are going to be 
holding a hearing on this bill. And let me just give my colleagues, Mr. 
Speaker, a little bit of background on this because this shows the 
unintended consequences sometimes of what we do here in Washington and 
what the EPA extends further to do.
  So, if my colleagues will bear with me, imagine a city suddenly faced 
with contaminated drinking water. The elected officials desperately 
search for the responsible parties, they want retribution and justice, 
they want their tainted water supply cleaned up, the guilty must be 
found, and they must be punished.
  Now this perhaps sounds like a Hollywood plot, a Hollywood movie, but 
it is not, and for many communities across this Nation, they are facing 
this situation. The guilty party is none other than the supposed 
protector, the Environmental Protection Agency.
  Tom Randall, a managing editor of the Environmental News, recently 
brought some articles to my attention. They detail a pollutant being 
forced upon the American public by the EPA. The pollutant is methyl 
tertiary-butyl ether, MTBE. Now this may not be a common household word 
to many, but the EPA, oil companies which were mandated to produce it 
and many communities across this country are all too familiar with this 
water polluting gasoline additive.
  The problem began in 1990 with a misguided amendment to the Clean Air 
Act which led the EPA to mandate the use of oxygenates in gasoline sold 
in areas which are out of compliance with clean air standards. Many in 
this body assumed the EPA had done their homework. In California, they 
trusted the EPA enough to become the first to use MTBE statewide even 
in areas not mandated by the EPA. In doing so, they also became the 
first State to face a water pollution problem we may all face in this 
country all because the EPA did not do its homework and still has not 
to this day.
  These are the facts: There are basically two types of oxygenates: 
alcohol-based and ether-based. Alcohols are generally used in the 
Midwest where they are produced, but since they cannot be shipped 
through pipelines because they pick up water ethers, primarily MTBE, 
are the only economically feasible choices for the rest of the country.
  What the EPA apparently did not know back when their mandate went 
into effect, and they still will not admit, is that MTBE is a powerful 
and persistent water pollutant and, from leaks and spills, has made its 
way into groundwater of nearly every State in this Nation; the problem, 
of course, being worse in California, the harbinger of what will surely 
come to pass in much of the rest of this country. It takes only a small 
amount of MTBE to make water undrinkable. It spreads rapidly in both 
groundwater and reservoirs, and so far attempts to remove MTBE from 
water have proven difficult and costly.
  Has the EPA done anything to advance independent peer review research 
into this? Not at this point, Mr. Speaker. They have appointed a, 
quote, blue ribbon panel to study it, a panel composed in most parts in 
part of representatives of MTBE producers and environmental lobbyists 
which in my opinion have vested interest in protecting the use of this 
fuel additive.
  In the meantime, States, universities and the courts are scrambling 
to clean up the EPA's mess. It is time, Mr. Speaker, we move to help 
them with meaningful legislation to end the mandates for oxygenates 
which, by the way, many scientists contend do nothing to reduce air 
pollution from the majority of cars on the road today.
  Fortunately, Mr. Speaker, my friends and colleagues, the gentleman 
from California (Mr. Bilbray) and the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. 
Franks) have introduced corrective legislation. Mr. Bilbray has 
introduced H.R. 11 which the Committee on Commerce will be holding a 
hearing on this Thursday. H.R. 11 allows for California to use 
alternative methods other than only using the oxygenates in gasoline. I 
applaud their efforts and encourage State engagement rather than 
federal mandates. The bill of the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. 
Franks), H.R. 1367, would effectively end the use of MTBE.

[[Page H2556]]

  Mr. Speaker, I strongly support both of these bills, and I urge my 
colleagues to support them also.

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