THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, December 7, 1995 TAG: 9512070356
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Short : 48 lines
After winning a 17-year battle with the federal government, Ethyl Corp. has begun selling its HiTEC 3000 fuel additive.
The EPA failed to file an appeal by a deadline of midnight Monday at a federal appeals court in Washington, and the Richmond-based chemical company began sales Tuesday to the nation's big oil companies.
HiTEC 3000 is designed to boost gasoline's efficiency by resisting engine knock.
EPA Administrator Carol Browner had fought Ethyl's attempts to sell HiTEC 3000 because it contains manganese, a grayish-white metallic element that has been linked to damage to the brain and nervous system.
Ethyl officials have denied the charges, citing years of use in Canada without ill effects and saying the additive actually helps reduce dangerous auto emissions.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ordered the EPA to grant the company a waiver to the Clean Air Act. A waiver is required before a new fuel or additive can be sold for domestic use.
Chuck Freed, director of the EPA's fuels and energy division, confirmed that the agency had not appealed the court's ruling.
Though Ethyl is free to sell the additive, he said, it also must comply with EPA testing requirements, which may include animal tests for any health effects of the additive.
``We really don't know a lot about it,'' Freed said, ``and we won't know a lot about it until the testing is done.''
EPA officials are discussing the testing schedule with Ethyl, he said. But in the meantime, the company is free to sell its additive.
Newton A. Perry, vice president of fuel additives, said the company had been stockpiling the additive since a favorable court ruling in October. Ethyl had been in full-scale production at its Orangeburg, S.C., facility for some time, building the inventory, he said.
Perry said confidentiality agreements precluded him from saying who got the first shipments. However, industry analysts have said Exxon, Mobil and the nation's other major oil companies would buy it because it helps make a cleaner, more efficient gasoline. by CNB