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California is suing the US Environmental Protection Agency in a bid to
overturn a ruling that ethanol must be added to automotive fuel sold in most of
the state. In June, the EPA insisted that ethanol must replace the fuel additive
MTBE, which California is phasing out because it causes water pollution
(see “Going up in smoke”).
The state and environmental groups had argued that improved technology
meant such additives were not needed. Frank O’Donnell of the Clean Air Trust
called the EPA’s move “an astonishingly bad decision”, as ethanol can also
pollute. Democratic governor Gray Davis says the…