Posted on 09/30/2013 1:10:57 AM PDT by thackney
The Obama administration is at least briefly delaying a plan to require refiners to pare more sulfur from gasoline.
The Environmental Protection Agency had said it was on track to finalize the proposed sulfur emissions standards by the end of the year, after unveiling a draft in March.
But the timeline for a final rule now has slipped to February.
The agency attributed the delay to a flood of public comments.
“EPA received more than 200,000 public comments on the May proposal,” the agency said. “Due to the extensive input we received and the need for thorough analysis of available data, EPA currently intends to issue the final rule in February 2014.”
The so-called Tier 3 standards proposed by the EPA would require refiners beginning in 2017 to slash sulfur emissions from gasoline to an average of 10 parts per million, down from a current threshold of 30 parts per million. The low-sulfur standard would boost the effectiveness of emission control systems in existing and new vehicles.
Public health advocates say the low-sulfur fuel mandate would reduce smog-forming ozone pollution from vehicles and the respiratory illnesses that accompany it. The EPA estimates that the standards will help avoid as many as 2,400 premature deaths each year and 23,000 cases of respiratory ailments in children.
But oil companies say the public health benefits of the low-sulfur mandate are unproven, especially following much bigger reductions from a previous standard of 300 parts per million. The Tier 3 standards will cause gasoline prices to rise at least 9 cents per gallon according to industry-commissioned calculations and require the installation of energy-hungry hydrotreaters at refineries that could increase the plants’ carbon footprints.
With the delay until February, it is unclear whether the EPA would still require changes to begin in 2017.
The agency stressed in a statement that it would make a decision on the start date of the program in its final rule. But, the EPA noted, “the agency’s adjusted schedule does not preclude a 2017 start date for the program, as proposed.”
Frank O’Donnell, the head of Clean Air Watch, a group that supports the requirements, said it is important that the EPA stick by the proposed rule’s 2017 deadline for compliance, even with a two-month delay in finalizing the requirements.
“As long as EPA still meets the promised fuel and vehicle standards in 2017, public health won’t suffer,” O’Donnell said. “But both Administrator (Gina) McCarthy and the White House need to understand this is a top public health priority and rule promulgation can’t slip further.”
The Tier 3 rule was delayed even before the EPA unveiled its draft proposal in March. An initial proposal was at one time expected in 2011 or 2012.
The makers of emission control equipment say future investments in their industry have been on hold pending final Tier 3 standards.
Oil industry representatives who have battled the proposed Tier 3 standards say they believe the rule will still be finalized.
That’s the key to all this.
Smaller, older plants will likely close.
translation: He’s already at 43%. Hike the cost of gas fifty cents a gallon and thus begins the death spiral.
He’s going to be tip toeing around requirements until after the 2014 elections he has to get the congress to complete the master plan.
How about get rid of the catalytic convertor, café standards and this crap also...
“$.09/per gallon for this”
I call bullsh**.
The only answer for the EPA is total defunding, and fire everyone; replace it businesspeople with a budget inflation-adjusted for the 1970’s.
I was reading that sulfur as a refining byproduct is actually worth less than nothing.
This is not nine cents a gallon, more like $2.00 a gallon. You are talking a billion plus per refinery to comply and more to do it in three years.
There is already so much produced that cost of transportation to move it is the highest cost in the pricing structure.
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