US Senate approves amendment requiring ethanol use, banning MTBE

Washington (Platts)--15Jun2005

The US Senate on Wednesday approved an amendment to comprehensive energy
language that requires the annual use of 8-bil gal of ethanol in US gasoline
supplies by 2012, bans the use of MTBE and eliminates the federal oxygenate
mandate.

The ethanol requirement was in the energy bill approved by the Energy
Committee, but the amendment approved by the Senate packaged that language
with the MTBE and oxygenate provisions approved by the Senate Environment
Committee. The amendment would ban the use of MTBE in gasoline four years
after enactment and eliminate the oxygenate mandate 270 days after enactment.

The mandate requires the use of an oxygenate in federal reformulated gasoline.
The amendment also retains the Senate Environment Committee's language and
gives the Environmental Protection Agency authority to implement the ethanol
mandate. The Senate Energy Committee bill gave that authority to the Energy
Department. The Senate earlier Wednesday rejected an amendment to eliminate
the ethanol use requirement from the energy bill.

This story was originally published in Platts Petrochemical Alert
http://petrochemcialalert.platts.com

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