Wyden calls for curbs on benzene in gasoline

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Sen. Ron Wyden said Thursday he would block confirmation of a top federal environmental official until the Bush administration sets a national minimum standard for the cancer-causing substance benzene in gasoline.

Because the Pacific Northwest has cleaner air than in other parts of the country, the Oregon Democrat said, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency allows refiners to distribute gasoline with higher benzene content than elsewhere.

"The EPA must set a standard that protects the health of Northwest residents, and not oil company profits," Wyden said at a press conference beneath an elevated freeway along the Willamette River in Portland.

A story Sunday in The Oregonian newspaper said the EPA is planning new regulations to reduce benzene, which accumulates in heavier concentrations around expressways.

The newspaper said much of the Northwest's gasoline comes from benzene-rich oil from Alaska, and the gasoline in the region has nearly twice as much benzene as the national average, and three times that of California gasoline.

Wyden said the new regulations would still leave Oregon and Washington residents breathing air with more benzene than in other parts of the country.

The EPA proposes a rule setting a national average for benzene and allowing oil refiners to buy and sell credits to meet the standards. Wyden argued for a national minimum, so that some parts of the country don't wind up with gasoline higher in benzene content.

He said he'd put a hold on the nomination of Roger Martella to be general counsel of the EPA until the agency sets a minimum standard as proposed by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. Martella was nominated July 31.

The DEQ's director, Stephanie Hallock, accompanied Wyden at the press conference and pointed to benzene's health effects as a cause of leukemia and blood disorders.

A "hold" allows senators to block business from coming to a floor vote, sometimes without public disclosure of the senator. It amounts to a filibuster threat.

Wyden, who makes a point of publicizing holds, said Thursday he has had success using them to block a bill against Oregon's physician-assisted suicide law and gaining relief for Oregon and California fishermen hurt by a curtailed salmon season.

Calls to the EPA's headquarters in Washington, D.C., were not immediately returned, nor was comment immediately available from the American Petroleum Institute, which speaks for the oil industry.

(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)