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EPA cuts sulfur in gasoline to reduce emissions

Neela Banerjee McClatchy-Tribune

WASHINGTON – The Environmental Protection Agency issued final rules Monday to slash the amount of sulfur in gasoline, which would help cut smog-causing pollution from autos and bring the rest of the country’s fuel supply in line with California’s standards.

The new rule for “Tier 3” gasoline calls for reducing the amount of sulfur in fuel by two-thirds, to 10 parts per million from 30 parts per million. Similar low-sulfur gasoline is already in use in California, Europe, Japan and South Korea.

The new gasoline would be available at the pump by January 2017.

Cutting sulfur improves the efficiency of catalytic converters in automobiles, which help remove other pollutants that dirty the air and damage public health. The EPA said once the new rule was fully in place, it could “help avoid up to 2,000 premature deaths per year and 50,000 cases of respiratory ailments in children.”

“These standards are a win for public health, a win for our environment and a win for our pocketbooks,” EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said.

Environmentalists, regulators and public health advocates welcomed the new regulation.

“This rule is a huge deal,” said S. William Becker, executive director of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies, a group of state regulators. The organization estimated the rule would have the effect of removing 33 million cars from the road.

“Every metropolitan area in the country will benefit from it,” Becker said. “We know of no other air pollution control strategy that provides as substantial, cost-effective and immediate emission reductions as Tier 3.”

The auto industry is among the rule’s biggest supporters because the new sulfur standards allow for a consistent national approach, instead of one in which a separate sulfur standard exists in California.

The American Petroleum Institute, the industry’s primary lobbyist, contends that the new sulfur standard would add 6 to 9 cents to every gallon of gasoline. McCarthy said its findings were based on outdated studies.