Jobbers, Retailers Blast EPA Plan

Retailers and jobbers are lambasting proposal by the Clinton Administration that would curb tailpipe pollution from large trucks and buses by as much as 90 percent.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a draft that would cut sulfur in diesel fuel by 97 percent over the next seven years and require petroleum fleets and other big rigs to employ new pollution-control equipment to meet the tougher emission standards.

But retailers and jobbers, who support scaling back sulfur emissions by a more modest amount, called the agency's plan draconian and costly.

"The proposed cap and time frame are in excess of what is feasible or advisable from both an energy-supply and an environmental-protection standpoint," said Gus Olympidis, CEO of Family Express Corp. of Valparaiso, Ind., and vice chairman of government relations at the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS).

"The sulfur levels proposed by the EPA would harm refiners, marketers, and consumers," he added. "Reductions of that magnitude could easily lead to future shortages of diesel fuel, disruptions in supplies of gasoline and other fuels, and highly volatile prices for all petroleum products if some refiners fail to meet the deadline for refinery modifications."

The EPA wants to cut:

Diesel exhaust particulate, or soot, from 0.1 to 0.01 grams per unit of engine energy.

Nitrogen oxide emission from the current 2.5 grams to 0.2 grams per unit of engine energy. Reductions would be phased in over a 10-year period.

Sulfur in diesel fuel from a range of 340-500 ppm to 15 ppm.

Though supportive of the EPA's objectives, refiners, marketers and truckstop operators offered their own proposal, which would reduce diesel sulfur by 90 percent, compared to the EPA's 97 percent. "The petroleum refining industry's proposed level of reduction strikes the right balance between our nation's need for cleaner air and consumers' needs for a reliable, affordable supply of energy," said Red Cavaney, president of the American Petroleum Institute.

"The extreme reduction called for by the EPA, to 15 parts per million (ppm) by 2006, has been proposed without consideration of its potential to seriously affect supplies, adversely affect U.S. consumers and harm the U.S. economy," he said.

Industry advocates also said operators lack the additional storage capacity and financial capital to install the extra underground fuel storage tanks that would be needed under the EPA's phase-in schemes. The proposal would create two grades of diesel requiring two separate storage tanks.

The draft could undergo modification during the course of public hearings this year. The new limits on emissions from diesel trucks would apply only to new models, but the cuts in sulfur content in diesel fuel would result in reduced emissions from existing trucks and buses.

While environmentalists praised the EPA plan, dissidents included the Petroleum Marketers Association of America (PMAA) and Society of Independent Gasoline Marketers of America (SIGMA)who predicted damaging consequences to the marketplace.

"Instead of improved emissions, the American public will either have escalating prices for diesel fuel ? which will increase prices for all consumer goods in America ? or the program will be a failure and the American public will not receive any benefits from the program," said John Huber, PMAA's vice president and chief counsel. Who estimated the agency's plan could cost as much as an extra 10 cents a gallon to manufacture.