A federal appeals court has upheld California´s ban on the fuel additive MTBE. Major producers of MTBE argued that the ban conflicts with the objectives of the federal Clean Air Act. They say the ban should not be allowed.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday disagreed. It upheld the September 2001 decision of a federal judge in Sacramento.

A spokesman for an MTBE trade group says he was not surprised by the ruling, given how the Ninth Circuit has ruled in the past on environmental issues.