My refinery, BP (british petroleum) which owns ARCO and Amoco, is officially MTBE FREE. Im not sure if All the MTBE is flushed out through the stations yet, but it will be very shortly.

 

And another "winner" from the people who force us to spend more money, burn more fuel and create more exhaust. All in the name of a cleaner environment

In Long Island NY, where I live, we get all of our water from underground aquifers. The "geniuses" at the EPA (who go unchallenged for some reason) decided to force the Oil Companies to add this MTBE to our gasoline. It was supposed to burn cleaner and help clean up the air. If it worked at all it was temporary and such a small improvment it could not be measured.

But, as should have been anticipated, the MTBE seeped into the aquifer (ground-water). MTBE is a known carcinogen and is very stable. It will be in our drinking water for more then one hundred years.

So what did we get? Air that nobody can prove got any cleaner. And a higher cancer risk for the children of Long Island for the next five generations....Thanks "environmentalists"

Stop the Madness,

Bill

 

Im SO glad that, at least some, people are aware of the truth behind all this crapola.

AMEN BILL!

 

bikenut,

Do you know if the Amoco name is going to stay around? One of the Amoco stations that I frequent is in the process of changing to BP branding as are a number of other Amoco stations in the area. Just curious.

 

Eventually, the Amoco name and the Arco name will disappear and all will be BP. I dont know where you are, but here in So. Cal. the Arco name has alot of recognition as the low price leader so BP is moving very slowly in this regard.

 

Hi Bikenut

So what takes place of "MTBE" Another additive or nothing?

Tks. for update.....OT

 

Old Timer,

At 40+ years old I'm one too

I've read many of your posts and have learned to respect your opinion.

But, I think you missed the point (as 90% of the American people have). The EPA could replace MTBE in gasoline tomorrow with "Agent Orange" (they'd probably change the name to" Agent Green") or Arsenic (how does "Clean-nic" grab you). And nobody could stop them. If some politician objected, he would be trashed on the "Nightly News" as a polluter and a child killer.

No debate. No real science. Only FIAT ( as if handed down by a dictator)

Stop the Madness,

Bill

 

Ethanol is whats replacing it. The Ethanol will be added at the terminal before going to the stations.

 

Good, it's about time!

But to clear up a few things - MTBE is not considered a carcinogen by the EPA (yet), and it can be remediated out of groundwater using activated carbon filters - this method is just more expensive than some other methods used to treat petroleum contaminated aquifers.

The problem w/ MTBE is it is more soluble than the other organic compounds in gasoline; therefore, it moves quicker through groundwater. It is also less prone to natural breakdown than the other organic compounds in gasoline, making it more dificult to remediate.

 

And to add on to what 36fan said, MTBE is also very noticible when it shows up in groundwater, as a very small concentration of it will give the water a very foul taste. Goundwater is full of "impurities", some which are harmful, depending on the concentrations.

 

Talking about Amoco and BP. All of the BP stations here are converting to Amoco Gas. BP wil still be around for a while but they will eventually be converted to Amoco here. I don't know about other places, but that is the way it is happening here. Amoco is far more popular than BP around here

 

Im not surprised, BP is very sensitive to Market acceptance. You'll notice that it is very hard to ever see "British Petroleum"; all you ever see is BP ~and they even call that 'Beyond Petroleum'
But I should be nice, they sign my checks

 

Hi Bikenut

Tks....Arco. stations here will probably get ethanol? Kinda odd here..only pump stickers ive noticed are for "ogy.added Dec thru Feb" for air pollution.

Seems to me stations i used in Ca. had "mtbe"stickers and also referred to "reformulated gas"...but im not up to date on that.

Hi Bill

Tks. I use "Old Timer" cause ive have 3 new Ford trucks.77/88/99. I'll let you do the math.

I dont think i missed the point. If "MTBE" is enviromentally that bad..totally ban it...i understand there is more to this. Perhaps Ca. will update soon..ears perk up when they make the news. JMO!

I assume "ethanol" is a better alternative?

Good luck....OT

 

It's only 'that bad' when it leaks out of the underground storage tanks (USTs) and gets into the groundwater. With newer regulation conerning USTs, it's not as much of a problem, but there still are line breaks and spills.

I believe CA has banned MTBE totally. It messed up several towns drinking water supplies, I know Lake Tahow was one, and there were a couple of other towns in CA, too.

It is acutally really common for USTs to leak. The next time you pull into a gas station look to see if there are any monitoring wells around. They will be metal lids flush w/ the pavement and should say "monitoring well". If the station has been around awhile, you'll probably see them.

MTBE is an oxygenate. It used to help emmisions by helping fuel fully combust. Therefore, the EPA mandated its use in areas w/ high levels of air pollution, which it helped considerably. The only problem is they traded one problem for another.

 

Both MTBE and Ethanol are oxygenates that are added to gasoline to cut down on Carbon Monoxide pollution from vehicles, primarliy on cold starts. Thats why many areas switch to an oxy fuel in the winter.

Reformulated Gas is a little different animal that is meant to cut down on ozone formation primarily. However, because of federal law, it is also required to be oxygenated and thus has MTBE or Ethanol in it. Thus it is possible to get oxygenated gasoline that is not Reformulated, but not the opposite.

MTBE does indeed cut down emissions of its target pollutant. It also required the least amount of gasoline reformulation to handle it, reduces the energy content of gasoline the least of the oxygenates, and is formed as a byproduct of other refining processes, and thus made nice use of a cheap product. Unfortunately, all the good things were pursued and the potential for groundwater contamination was ignored until its started happening in places like Tahoe. It should be noted that MTBE started showing up earlier than the gasoline would have, because of its greater solubility in water than gasoline. The fact of the matter is that GASOLINE leaking into the groundwater anyways, regardless of the MTBE, and the same leaks would have been causing problems, just a little later.

Ethanol is only "better" in this case because it doesn't have the same potential to pollute the groundwater. It does reduce Carbon Monoxide Emissions. However, it requires more retuning of refineries to produce gasoline with ethanol, ethanol has less energy content than MTBE or Gasoline, and thus reduces fuel mileage a bit more, and requires its own refining process which consumes even more energy to produce the ethanol. Emissions from ethanol plants here in MN were recently measured to be WAY higher than was thought, and is resulting in more expensive technology being applied to clean up that refining process.

How all that balances out in air pollution is an interesting question to me!

Amoco stations in this state have been converting to BP's so long as they are outside of the Twin Cities metro area. They have not converted in the Twin Cities yet, and the word is that retailers in outstate MN are not terribly thrilled with the publics reaction to the name change. We'll see how it goes!