News Releases - 2000

Illinois EPA Director Skinner Testifies before Congress about Environmental Benefits of Ethanol, Concerns over MTBE

Springfield, Ill. -- Illinois Environmental Protection Agency Director Tom Skinner told a U.S. House committee today that reformulated gasoline blended with ethanol has significantly contributed to cleaner air in the Chicago metropolitan area and those benefits should be allowed to continue.

Current regulations for the Phase II Reformulated Gasoline Program threaten continued use during the summer months in the Chicago metro area of ethanol-blend fuels that have enjoyed the acceptance of millions of vehicle owners since 1995. The area could in effect be forced to start using reformulated gasoline blended instead with methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) that has caused significant groundwater and surface water contamination in some parts of the nation.

Ethanol and MTBE are used as "oxygenates" added to boost the oxygen content of the fuels so they burn cleaner and produce fewer toxic air pollutants.

Illinois Governor George H. Ryan last December sent a letter to Vice President Al Gore requesting a delay in the U.S. EPA's implementation of Phase II of the federal Reformulated Gasoline Program.

"It is essential that ethanol be allowed to continue to compete in the summertime RFG market to improve air quality, protect water supplies, preserve agriculture from further economic losses and prevent fuel price fluctuations for the consumer," Ryan said in the letter.

Skinner noted that MTBE has begun to show up in Illinois, including requiring discontinued use of some wells used by three public water supplies.

"So you can understand why we are very alarmed about the prospect of being forced to switch from ethanol to MTBE as a result of new Phase II RFG regulations and the potential for additional MTBE contamination of Illinois’ groundwater supplies," he told the U.S. House Committee on Commerce/Subcommittee on Health and Environment.

At the same time, Director Skinner also urged the committee to not overreact to the MTBE threat by removing the oxygenate requirement entirely, as some legislation has proposed.

"The oxygenate requirement has helped clean the air in our urban areas and there are environmentally beneficial oxygenate blends, in particular those using ethanol, which have been a great success in the Chicago and Milwaukee areas," he noted.

Director Skinner thanked Commerce Committee member U.S. Rep. John Shimkus of Illinois for inviting him to address the committee’s hearing on implementation of the RFG program.