But we need your help to make that happen. Farmers and ranchers are absorbing the rising cost of energy and they cannot pass these costs along. However, farmers and ranchers can produce grain and other feedstocks that are used to produce ethanol, biodiesel, and electricity. The State of Washington became the eleventh state to ban the use of MTBE in the state's gasoline. The action was prompted by numerous reports of MTBE water contamination, despite the fact that MTBE was never used as an oxygenate in the state.
Ethanol is the oxygenate of choice used during the state's winter oxygenated fuels program.
MTBE has been detected in groundwater adjacent to 48 percent of Washington gasoline stations. Both the Washington House and Senate approved the legislation, introduced by Rep. Pennington, unanimously. Illinois is expected to enact an MTBE ban later this year. USGS said that it will use existing information to locate areas of the state with high potential for MTBE to be in groundwater and areas where groundwater is used for public water supply. About 120 groundwater samples will be collected at vulnerable sites.