A SHOW of muscle by the us oil industry has sent the country's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the powerful agricultural lobby into a tailspin. In late April, a federal appeals court threw out an EPA rule requiring oil refineries to include maize-based ethanol in the new cleaner-burning fuel. The rule had also ordered the country's 9 smoggiest cities to clean up their act by ensuring that 30 per cent of the oxygenates in reformulated petrol are derived from ethanol. (Down to Earth, Vol 3, No 7).

Three appeals court judges in Washington who heard the case - filed by the American Petroleum Institute and the National Petroleum Refiners Association - took a dim view of the regulation. They pointed out that the EPA had overstepped its authority when They said that the agency could set standards for the pollution performance of reformulated petrol, but not dictate how those standards were to be met.

The court ruling brings the curtains down - temporarily - on a bitterly fought war, which began on June 30 last year, between the oil industry and farmers and agribusiness interests. "One ounce of methanol," said ethanol pro- ducers, 11 will make you permanently blind." The oil industry countered with equal malice, saying that ethanol might encourage pump attendants to separate the spirit and sell it to thirsty motorists.

The oil industry would prefer to use a petroleum-derived oxygenate called methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE). Its lawyers described the EPA rule as "a massive promotion of the ethanol industry". The allegations were sparked off by the fact that Archer Daniels Midland, the agricultural conglomerate which produces more than 2/3rd of all us ethanol, is a big political player in Washington and contributes large sums to both Democratic and Republican party funds.

The EPA stuck to its stand that its pro-ethanol ruling was a means of shifting us consumption away from fossil fuels and towards a renewable energy source. But its case faltered: numerous ,scientific reports said that although ethanol did improve the combustion of petrol and thus reduced carbon monoxide emissions, it also made petrol evaporate faster. The oil industry couldn't have hoped for better news.