A recent press release from the US Securities and Exchange Commision (SEC) announced that Innotech, the sole producer of tetraethyl lead (TEL)--a key detonation suppression component in 100LL avgas in the United States-- had agreed to a $40.2 million settlement with the SEC, the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Department of Foreign Assets Control, and the United Kingdom's Serious Fraud Office.
According to the SEC, Innospec paid approximately $9.2 million in bribes to insure that TEL would continue to be the knock suppression additive of choice in state-owned refineries in Iraq and Indonesia.
See more of the story here.
This news adds another variable to the flurry of activity--and editorial content--that has resulted from the April 2010 issuance of an advanced notice of proposed rule making (ANPRM) proposing to ban TEL by the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). But given that the EPA sent a letter to the AOPA on August 2, 21010 clarifying the ANPRM as "a means of gathering information," and that it "has not established or proposed any deadline for banning the use of lead in avgas, the pressure to come up with a lead-free replacement for leaded avgas may ease.
The EPA also acknowledged that is did not have the power to regulate aviation fuels.
According to an August 2, 2010 article in Aviation Week by Kelly Lynch and Fred George (click here) associations involved with the avgas issue have heard that 2017 is going to be the date for the final ban of TEL.
The TEL ban date is speculation at this point. What is not speculation is that the SEC just fined the one remaining producer of TEL in the world a bundle of cash because representatives of the company were caught bribing foreign officials to use their product. This can't be good news for 100LL users. Anyone out there got 2 cents to add??