Exxon to Unveil Less Polluting Premium Gas

The oil company that gave the world the Exxon Valdez oil spill hopes to score some environmental points with consumers by introducing lower-emissions gasolines in California today, joining three other refiners already selling such fuel here.

Exxon Corp., the West Coast’s fifth-largest retailer of gasoline last year, is expected to unveil a reformulation of its Exxon Extra premium unleaded gasoline at about 175 stations in the Los Angeles area.

Another version of the gasoline will go on sale at the same time in Sacramento and San Francisco--the first such fuels in Northern California.

“We hope this is a small step toward convincing people that we’re not as bad as they may think we are,” Exxon marketing executive Paul White said. “We do care about the environment.”

In Los Angeles, Exxon estimates that the new gasoline will cut a vehicle’s hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions by about 7%, compared to its ordinary premium unleaded gasoline, which the new fuel will replace.

In Northern California, which will have a different version of the gasoline, the new Exxon Extra will cut hydrocarbon emissions by only 4% and will have no effect on carbon monoxide emissions.

Exxon already sells different lower-emissions formulations of gasoline in 24 other states along the Gulf Coast and in the Northeast and Pacific Northwest.

In Southern California, Exxon joins Chevron Corp., Shell Oil Co. and Atlantic Richfield Co., the West Coast’s No. 1 retailer, which last September introduced the first lower-emissions gasoline in the country. Both Chevron and Shell sell reduced-emissions premium unleaded gasoline in Los Angeles.