Rare Alliance on Gas Additive

In the beginning, the battle against the gasoline additive MTBE was waged in apocalyptic terms by a few conservatives, spurred on by conspiracy-sniffing radio talk show hosts in Sacramento. As the saga progresses, however, the issue seems headed toward a rational, common-sense settlement.

MTBE stands for methyl tertiary butyl ether, which has become a highly successful smog-fighting additive to gasoline sold throughout California. But listen to the accusations: MTBE made people ill. It gave lab rats cancer. It threatened to poison the water supply.

Radio hosts and callers hinted of dark conspiracies. After all, they said, MTBE was approved by faceless bureaucrats without any vote of the people, or even of the Legislature.

Well, that’s true. The additive was authorized by the state Air Resources Board. This is the sort of thing the board is supposed to do. Even so, Sen. Richard Mountjoy (R-Arcadia) took up the cause, offering a bill to impose an immediate ban that would last until the state could prove MTBE was free of health risk--something that realistically cannot be done.

Usually, such a bill would be allowed to die a quiet death. But environmentalists had some concerns of their own about MTBE. Sens. Byron Sher (D-Stanford) and Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) joined in an unusual alliance with Mountjoy to amend and salvage the measure.

As the bill (SB 521) awaits a vote of the full Senate, it is much toned down. It would require a yearlong study of the health effects of MTBE, then allow the state health director to take “appropriate action” regarding its use.

Hayden and Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica) are sponsoring needed companion legislation (SB 1189 and AB 592) to deal with the hazard of MTBE leaking from underground gasoline storage tanks and reaching ground-water supplies.

This could be a case in which all’s well that ends well. Watching legislation being crafted is as bad as watching sausage being made--you’d rather not know what goes into the product. In this instance, the result is likely to end up palatable.