New government fuel regulations

API Downstream Group Director Bob Greco has said that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has sent new fuel regulations to the Office of Management and Budget for final review that would raise costs, provide little or no environmental benefit, and actually increase carbon emissions.

‘EPA’s new regulations would raise the cost of making gasoline by as much as 25 cents a gallon,’ Greco said. ‘Pump prices are still high, and this is clearly not the time to add burdensome and unnecessary regulations on gasoline, especially when there are no proven environmental benefits and current regulations are working.’

Costs would increase by as much as 25 cents a gallon if EPA includes a vapour pressure reduction requirement, according to a Baker and O’Brien analysis. The Agency considered such a requirement and could still implement it before a final rule is published, even if it is absent from the proposed rulemaking. If EPA’s Tier 3 regulations only reduce sulfur levels, the per gallon cost of making gasoline would increase by up to nine cents, according to another Baker and O’Brien. Greco said that API has urged EPA to do a full cost benefit analysis, with stakeholder input, before moving to a rulemaking.

‘Implementing the new requirements would actually increase greenhouse gas emissions because of the energy intensive equipment required to comply,’ Greco said. ‘We urge the administration to reconsider imposing these new regulations and burdening the already heavily regulated refiners in America. Unnecessary and overly burdensome regulations translate into high costs and lost jobs.’

Adapted from press release by Claira Lloyd.

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/gas-processing/01022013/government_fuel_regulations/