Arco Confirms Plans to Drop Its Regular Leaded Gasoline

Atlantic Richfield plans to dump its leaded regular gasoline in Southern California and promote a middle-octane, medium-price unleaded fuel, it was confirmed Friday.

“We’ve told our dealers that effective Sept. 1 we will no longer be delivering leaded gasoline,” spokesman Albert Greenstein said. The company will make a formal announcement of its plans on Tuesday.

Company officials said leaded fuel would ultimately be dropped at all of Arco’s stations in five Western states. At present, the company carries regular and premium unleaded gasolines as well as leaded regular.

That move would bring Arco, known for its low-price, self-serve, no-credit-card stations, into line with gas companies in other parts of the country, which have dropped or de-emphasized leaded gas in favor of three unleaded grades: regular, mid-grade and high-octane premium.

In the West, however, leaded regular remains popular because of a sizable number of pre-1975 cars on the road, whose owners believe they perform better with leaded gas.

Greenstein said the company would promote its new unleaded fuel as more ecologically sound. Southern California air-quality officials are expected to appear at Tuesday’s news conference when details about the fuel are to be released.

“It’s a fuel we hope will have some important environmental impact,” Greenstein said.