But the governor says this is unnecessary....

The Sacramento Bee -- sacbee.com -- Big gas supplier dropping MTBE

California's largest gasoline supplier announced Thursday it will phase out the gasoline additive MTBE and switch to ethanol by the year's end, a move that may trigger other major producers to follow suit.

If the ripple effect plays out, most or all of the environmentally troublesome MTBE could be eliminated from California gasoline by Dec. 31, as Gov. Gray Davis originally ordered.

...until he rescinded that order and granted an extension for the use of MTBE through 2004, he's such a friend of the environment, awk!

But the nation's largest producer of MTBE said Thursday that the early switch to grain-based ethanol could disrupt supplies and cause higher prices at the pump.

Strange, I thought the actual gasoline producers could best judge this, not an additive supplier....

BP, which sells gasoline at 1,200 Arco stations in California, said Thursday it has signed contracts with Archer Daniels Midland Co. and other ethanol suppliers to replace MTBE.

"We've got to get it out eventually, and we wanted to take an environmental leadership role," said BP spokesman Paul Langland.

...because just because Governor Davis thinks it's okay, doesn't mean it is!

MTBE has rendered about 60 public wells in California unsafe or unsuitable for use because of the solvent-like taste and odor it imparts, even in minute quantities.

The gov only drinks bottled water, I guess.