Press Release: California Wins on Oxygenate--Governor Davis Hails U.S. Appeals Court Decision

For Immediate Release (R3-2003)
July 17, 2003

Contact: William L. Rukeyser, Cal/EPA
916-324-9670 
(cell) 916-715-5852

 

California has won a major court victory over whether the US government will continue to force motorists to buy gasoline with oxygenate. The U.S. 9th Court of Appeals today ruled that the U.S. EPA was wrong when it denied the Davis Administration's request for an oxygenate waiver in 2001.

Governor Gray Davis asked for the waiver in 1999 when he ordered the phase out of the water polluting oxygenate MTBE. Today he said, "The Federal Court decision is absolutely correct and a clear win for the motorists and citizens of California. It also tells the US EPA that my administration has been right for the past four years, as we have moved to protect our air and water while minimizing the risk of gasoline price spikes.

"I hope the federal EPA will take a hard look at this court decision, realize they were wrong and give California what it needs: the ability to make gasoline with or without oxygenate as conditions warrant.

"I have said from the start, we are going to protect our air and water. We had to ban MTBE because of water pollution. We want our refiners to have maximum flexibility in what they put into gasoline as long as they produce the cleanest burning gas in the world.

"To our friends in the Midwest I want to say, California is not anti-ethanol. However, it does not make sense for Washington to dictate that it be used in every single gallon of gas.

I hope that the US EPA will now give California permission to blend clean gas without oxygenate and we can move on and work cooperatively to solve other environmental challenges."

Under current federal regulations, every single gallon of gasoline sold to most California motorists must contain oxygenate. Originally required because it fought smog, oxygenate no longer contributes to cleaner air in most cases. That is because of improvements in California vehicles and gasoline refining techniques during the last dozen years.

California Secretary for Environmental Protection Winston H. Hickox observed, "This trip to court could have been avoided. I have said from day one that California needed maximum flexibility. The state neither opposes nor supports the use of ethanol. We oppose Washington's decisions that have created unnecessary risk of supply and price volatility. That could have been avoided.

"The US EPA's own Blue Ribbon Panel on oxygenate concluded that we can fight smog as well, if not better, without oxygenate. California is committed to holding our refiners to the most stringent clean gas standards in the world. There's no point in Washington imposing requirements that do not contribute to clean air." (The Blue Ribbon report is available on the US EPA's web site at http://www.epa.gov/otaq/consumer/fuels/oxypanel/blueribb.htm

Under orders from Governor Davis and the California Air Resources Board, the oxygenate MTBE will be totally phased out of California's gas by January 1, 2004. Currently most refiners (responsible for about 70% of the state's supply) are using ethanol as their federally mandated oxygenate.

Air Resources Board (CARB) Chair Dr. Alan Lloyd said, "Today's decision by the ninth circuit court validates our efforts for the past four years to persuade the US EPA to review the entire body of evidence presented to them by the ARB."

"We hope that the US EPA works quickly and thoroughly to review all of the data that California has provided them."

During the Davis Administration, the Air Board has moved from cleaner burning Phase 2 Reformulated Gasoline (CaRFG2) to the exceptionally clean Phase 3 (CaRFG3) that will be the state standard starting next year. With cleaner vehicles and gasoline, the average new car emits only 2% as many pollutants as a similar car 20 years ago.

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The case is Gray Davis vs. U.S. EPA 01-71356

http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/ca9/newopinions.nsf/6237B1B27E6F7B7588256D65007EE477/$file/0171356.pdf?openelement

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