In California, we are protected from such common sense by CARB, the
California Air Resources Board, who helps us out by mandating the
use of MTBE in gasoline, a toxic substance that accumulates in
groundwater, has unknown health effects, causes car fires by eating
away fuel lines, and causes /more/ pollution by reducing the fuel
efficiency of the cars that use it. It's also very cheap, which is
why the oil company lobbies purchased that particular regulation
(after they had earlier purchased laws mandating that older under-
ground fuel tanks be dug up and replaced whether or not they were
leaking, to drive small gas stations out of business).
Responsible environmentalists are not welcome in California poitics;
most people here actually take the Sierra Club seriously, despite
all the damage they've done.
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC