[pacpam]

It was the state of CA that brought us that MTBE and their insistance that the tanks be purged between each change for cold weather and hot weather mixtures that caused shortages. CA could have adopted ethanol instead of MTBE and didn't; and we would have avoided the contamination if they had. Blame the politicians at least at the same level as the lobbiests who pushed MTBE. Never did understand how lowering mileage, but only burning a little cleaner lowered the total polution level. New cars did that and the car buying craze certainly helped.

[Ben Hecks]

"Never did understand how lowering mileage, but only burning a little cleaner lowered the total polution level."

I hated MTBE when I lived in Denver - it screwed up the oxygen sensor and caused the fuel injection system to deliver an overly rich mixture which cut my fuel milage from a normal 24 - 26 down to 17 - 19. I suspect that my car actually created more pollution when using MTBE.