DEP WELCOMES EPA CLEAN FUEL RULE PROPOSAL
New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner
Bob Shinn today announced that he is withdrawing a proposed low-emission
gasoline rule because a rule proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) exceeds even the stringent requirements that New Jersey would
have required.
"Our proposed rule has brought the need for cleaner gasoline to the
attention of the EPA and the international petroleum industry,'' Shinn
said. "Our rule, at the state level, is no longer necessary to accomplish
our goal.''
Shinn cited the EPA rule making, a recent decision by the Ozone Transport
Commission to consider a clean fuel for the entire Northeast and cooperation
from some major refiners as the factors that led him to conclude a state
rule is no longer needed.
"It was never our preference to act independently on regulating gasoline
but because we took the lead we have brought others into the fold,'' Shinn
said. "It is best for New Jersey and the nation that EPA is setting a
national clean gasoline standard."
The EPA is expected to announce very soon a national rule, to take effect
in 2004, that will limit the sulfur content of gasoline to 30 parts per
million. The proposed New Jersey rule would have set a 40 part per million
sulfur standard. High sulfur content in gasoline has long been recognized
as the major stumbling block to further reductions in tailpipe emissions
because of the negative impact sulfur has on catalytic converters.
At the regional level, the Ozone Transport Commission, which comprises
the 12 northeastern states from Virginia to Maine, plus the District of
Columbia, is exploring adoption of a regulation, modeled on New Jersey's
proposed gasoline fuel rule, that would bring cleaner gasoline to the
entire Northeast. A recommendation from the OTC Mobile Source Committee
is expected in June.
Shinn lauded a recent decision
by BP Amoco to voluntarily market low sulfur fuel in 40
of the world's most polluted cities this year and, within five years,
at all its service stations worldwide. The DEP has had constructive and
cooperative discussions with Sun Oil, Coastal and Tosco about incentives
and voluntary actions by them to bring clean fuel to market.
"Over the past ten years we have made steady progress in the battle against
summertime ozone air pollution,'' Shinn said. "In 1988 we exceeded the
federal standard for ground level ozone 45 times. In the summer of 1998
we exceeded the standard four times, despite dramatic increases in industrial
activity, the number of cars on New Jersey roads and the number of miles
those cars are driven each day. The movement toward marketing cleaner
fuel is essential for bringing to market the cleaner cars we need to continue
this positive trend over the next ten years.":
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