You don’t have to drive an automobile to know that Chicago has the highest gas prices in the nation. President Bush thinks he has a solution for that, but it may leave us with the same sort of smog that hangs over Houston.
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But there’s a catch: gasoline that’s treated with ethanol evaporates more quickly than gas treated with MTBE, and therefore it releases into the atmosphere more volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which in turn produce ozone–one of the main components of smog. The problem is compounded during the summer, when high temperatures accelerate the evaporation rate. To slow it down and keep the ozone in check, refineries have to produce a special blend of “summer gas” that further reduces VOC emissions. The cost of these ethanol blends and the fact that they’re produced only at a few midwestern refineries are two factors that have given us such high prices at the pump. Bush’s looser emissions standards apply only to summer gas.
The EPA has justified the new standard by pointing out that ethanol reduces the amount of carbon monoxide emitted by gasoline. “Both pollutants play a role in ozone formation,” the agency says in a press release. “While there will be an increase in VOCs they will be offset by the concurrent CO reductions. Air quality will not be compromised by this change. The region will receive credit toward their carbon monoxide reductions associated with ethanol reformulated gasoline.”
