Presidential candidate Sen.

Tuesday, February 15, 2000

Presidential candidate Sen. John McCain’s high profile attacks against ethanol subsidies have missed an important point: Ethanol’s other apparent environmental benefit.

It is well known that ethanol compares favorably to its competitor in the struggle for cleaner-burning fuels, MTBE.

But unlike the environmentally cleaner additive ethanol, MTBE reportedly is polluting drinking water in wells and ground water in some cities. A result of the federal Clean Air Act of 1990, methyl tertiary butyl ether, MTBE, does its job well for the air, while apparently having the consequence of polluting the water when leaked from underground gas tanks.

When ethanol is leaked, it breaks down in the environment far better, experts say, hence a second benefit for the corn-based additive.

MTBE is an unknown in two key ways: Its health and cost impacts. It is not known how MTBE affects humans, although it has reportedly been shown to cause cancer in lab animals.

And as for cost, one city alone, Santa Monica, Calif., may spend $100 million to clean up wells contaminated with MTBE. The city now imports much of its water, having closed half its wells due to MTBE contamination.

Rural Glennville, Calif., has no financial means to clean up its well, which is reportedly contaminated with MTBE.

Imagine if the similarly named Glenville, Minn., site of the local EXOL ethanol plant, had suffered such a calamity. It didn’t, and state environmental experts say using ethanol instead of MTBE deserves credit.

Indeed, Minnesota banned the sale of MTBE here, opting instead to use ethanol as its fuel additive. It worked; air quality in Minnesota’s urban areas is now in line with EPA emissions standards, and vehicle emissions tests have ended.

Ethanol’s no panacea – it isn’t the Great Solution to American oil dependency, but is rather a piece of the puzzle. Farmers still must burn petroleum-based fuels and use petroleum-based chemicals to produce the corn used to make ethanol.

What ethanol does quite well is to provide a more environmentally friendly fuel additive for urban areas to reduce smog, while also adding significant value to local farmers’ crops.

Those like McCain who are critical of ethanol should stop to examine whether its alternate, MTBE, is ending up in the water they drink.