Environmental Group Asks Court To Enforce Unleaded Avgas Consent Agreement
If approved by the court, four fuel distributors in California will have to carry G100UL.
Credit: GAMI
A California Superior Court judge will hear arguments Jan. 28 that could result in 100LL becoming unavailable in California and replaced by GAMI's G100UL unleaded avgas. The court will also be asked to require the four major fuel distributors serving California airports to carry G100UL.
The Center for Environmental Health says it's bringing the action because the distributors have not accepted the fuel in contravention to a consent agreement they and 26 FBOs signed to settle a lawsuit with CEH in 2014. Nine of the FBOs have since gone out of business or been bought out. Under that agreement, the defendants agreed to distribute and sell any new fuel that used less lead than 100LL when it became commercially available.
In this latest action, the environmental group says G100UL meets all the requirements for the lower lead fuel described in the consent agreement in that it's approved (via STC) for use in "nearly all" aircraft and has a specification determined by the FAA to be as safe as 100LL for distribution and use.
CEH also notes that G100UL is being distributed to and sold at two airports in California and the producer of the fuel, Vitol Aviation, has pledged to make the fuel reliably available to any and all aviation fuel sellers in the state. In the action, CEH claims the defendants have recently come up with numerous excuses to justify not handling the fuel, none of which are valid under the consent agreement.
CEH has upped the ante by also asking the court to vary the consent agreement to compel the FBOs to sell only aviation gasoline that has the same negligible levels of lead or less than G100UL. That would effectively ban the sale of 100LL by any of the distributors or their FBOs and make G100UL the only saleable high-octane avgas available at those FBOs, at least until another one meets the consent agreement conditions.
AVweb obtained the court documents, which were filed Dec. 4, late Friday and we've sent them to various stakeholders in the unleaded fuel debate for comment. We'll report those reactions as they come in. Copied below are two of the six documents filed with the court that describe the essence of the CEH action. The complete set of documents is publicly available at the Alameda County Superior Court.
