Low-sulfur diesel rules would jack up fuel prices

WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 22, 2000) – Proposed new rules requiring lower levels of sulfur in diesel could raise the retail price of fuel by as much as 27 cents a gallon when rules are supposed to take effect in June 2006. Last week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a plan to cut sulfur in diesel by 97% in an effort to cut sulfur emissions from the current 500 parts per million to 15 ppm. The oil and refining industry wanted a 50 ppm limit, saying that a stricter cap would require expensive upgrades to refining equipment. The EPA estimated that the new requirements would only boost retail diesel costs by 3 cents or 4 cents a gallon. “That is so low, (it is) to be bizarre, to be perfectly honest,” Ed Murphy of the American Petroleum Institute, told Reuters news agency. He said pipeline streams would have to be altered radically to allow shipment of low sulfur fuel, which they said cannot be mixed in the same pipelines as higher sulfur fuels. The EPA said the reductions would cut nitrogen oxides from diesel engines 95% and soot by 90%, the equivalent of removing from the air the pollution generated by 13 million heavy-duty trucks. The proposal is expected to be finalized before President ClintonÕs term ends in January 2001.


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