[sustran] FW: What's new at CSE, India

Paul Barter geobpa at nus.edu.sg
Tue Jul 17 14:57:42 JST 2001


Forwarding transport-relevant items from the latest "What's new at CSE,
India" bulletin.   Paul. 
-------------

What's new at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), New Delhi, 
India.
 
... irrelevant stuff snipped ...


POLLUTION FREE TRANSPORTATION

The Global Environmental Facility has approved grants for the use of fuel 
cell buses (FCBs) in India and China. The formidable cost gap between the 
FCB and diesel bus is a major source of worry when the pollution free 
buses are heading for Delhi. More at...

http://www.cseindia.org/html/dte/dte20010715/dte_srep.htm 

... snip ...

-------------------------------------------------
CITY'S WITHOUT CARS
 
A utopian idea of the 1960s to drive out cars from the city centers is 
snowballing into a small movement in Europe. The movement aims to restore 
the inner cities, fight pollution and improve quality of urban life. 

http://www.cseindia.org/html/dte/dte20010715/dte_analy.htm 

... snip ...
-------------------------------------------------

A message from the Chairperson, Anil Agarwal:

SPREADING MESSAGE

COSMETIC CONCERN

Petroleum minister Ram Naik typifies everything that is wrong with our 
political system today - a system which formulates public policies not 
because of public good but because of political lobbies. In the last few 
days, newspapers have carried articles by Ram Naik praising the use of 
ethanol as a blend for petrol and possibly even for diesel. This step 
will help sugar farmers, the sugar industry, foreign exchange outflows 
(by cutting down on imports) and will also be environment-friendly, Naik 
tells us as glibly as he can. Naik talks about Brazil having used ethanol 
in petrol since 1931. So why did the government not find all these 
virtues in ethanol before? Naik tells us that four committees and six 
technical studies have been at the subject since 1977. So what has 
changed so suddenly? Naik's foresight? The answer is simple: The sugar 
lobby has found a new ally in the Sangh Parivar which has been breathing 
down the necks of the petroleum ministry. And Naik and his babus have 
basically caved in to this lobby. Not that this good policy decision was 
taken on the basis of good judgement. Just convenient politics. At an 
official meeting, long before Naik decided to go public on ethanol, a 
joint secretary admitted that the use of ethanol now looked inevitable 
"because of the power of the sugar lobby".

About six months ago, we had supported the use of ethanol in petrol 
because of environmental and public health reasons but had run into a 
wall. Unleaded, low benzene petrol needs an oxygenate to help the fuel 
burn smoothly. An oxygenate that Indian public sector oil companies, 
which have nothing but disdain for public health, are using is methyl 
tertiary butyl ether (MTBE). This substance has an extraordinary capacity 
to travel through groundwater. A teaspoon of MTBE put in an Olympic size 
swimming pool will make it stink within seconds. It has also been found 
to be a carcinogen in animals. Since its use started in the us nearly ten 
years ago, thousands of wells supplying drinking water have been 
contaminated with MTBE. California is the worst affected state - it uses 
the maximum petrol - and it was the first to ban the use of MTBE and now 
the Clean Air Act is being amended to ban it across the country. At a 
time when usa is banning MTBE, Indian public sector companies, with the 
blessings of the petroleum ministry babus, are promoting its use. This is 
what you call foresight in Indian babudom.

The Centre for Science and Environment, therefore, raised this issue with 
the Ministry of Environment, especially as groundwater is a very 
important source of drinking water in India, and increasingly so even in 
cities. The then secretary of the ministry, Vishwanath Anand, asked us to 
make a presentation. The people present included the secretary himself, 
two additional secretaries, several joint secretaries and the chairperson 
of the Central Pollution Control Board. The meeting unanimously decided 
to recommend a ban on MTBE and use of ethanol, an excellent oxygenate 
which is being contemplated also for use in the us in place of MTBE. But 
the petroleum ministry dismissed the letter from the ministry of 
environment and continues to allow the use of MTBE. This further 
confirmed the belief, commonly shared by most people, that the Indian 
government does not function and public health can only be protected by 
court intervention. 

So what was the point of resistance? The price of ethanol and its 
uncertainty. At the moment, petrol prices are high so ethanol can compete 
- petrol prices need to be above Rs 20 per litre to allow ethanol 
blending at competitive prices - but what happens in the future? In 
addition, the petroleum babus argued that the price of MTBE is cheaper 
than ethanol and that the sugar industry could reduce prices further and 
was wanting to make a fast buck. Thus, for price reasons, the ministry 
was against the use of ethanol and was totally disregarding any concern 
for public health. This was less than six months ago. But now there is a 
somersault and Naik is even talking about the possibility of blending 
ethanol with the lowly-priced diesel to save foreign exchange. Won't this 
increase the price of holy diesel, which no politician wants to touch? 

It's amazing that all these wonderful arguments of saving foreign 
exchange and helping sugar farmers were as valid even then but it's just 
that the Sangh Parivar has now got into action as elections in Uttar 
Pradesh are nearing. Now the same ethanol has become so virtuous that 
minister Naik has to sing paeans about it himself in signed articles in 
newspapers. Good decision but for wrong reasons. And MTBE continues to be 
used. If this be the quality of leaders that Indian democracy is going to 
throw up, then God bless this billion people country called India.

It really galls me to read Naik writing that "The added advantage of 
ethanol is that it is a renewable source of energy and also environment-
friendly." This coming from a man whose ministry has done everything to 
sabotage the Supreme Court order to move Delhi's buses to CNG. Why can't 
Naik just be honest and say that ethanol use today is politically-
friendly rather than giving us all this junk about farmer-friendliness 
and environment-friendliness which he cares two hoots about? But then 
when were politicians known for being straightforward. 

At a time when USA is banning MTBE, Indian public sector companies, with 
the blessings of the petroleum ministry babus, are promoting its use
 
- Anil Agarwal

(This article is also available online at
http://www.cseindia.org/html/dte/dte20010715/dte_edit.htm 

*************************************************

Visit our website at www.cseindia.org and check out what's new. Our 
website carries our science and environment fortnightly Down To Earth, a 
daily environment news flash by subject categories, a catalog of books 
and publications that are available, and all of our recent press 
releases. We also give regular updates on all of our campaigns on topics 
like vehicular pollution, climate change, biodiversity, water resources, 
wildlife, forests, environment education etc. Our online library of 
books, journals, images and videos is searchable through a thesaurus of 
environmental keywords at http://data.cseindia.org 

... snip ...

Past archives of this bulletin are available at
http://www.cseindia.org/html/au/au6.htm

*************************************************

Sucheta Sharma
Website Unit
Centre for Science and Environment

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