Clean-Gas Plan May Hike Price Dime a Gallon

Motorists are likely to see gasoline prices jump by at least 10 cents a gallon if state air regulators adopt a proposed formula change designed to reduce pollutants that form smog and cause cancer.

In return, the gas being sold by 1996 would be 30% to 40% cleaner than today’s blends.

“It literally affects every car on the road,” said Bill Sessa, spokesman for the California Air Resources Board, which will consider the recommendation next week in Los Angeles.

Car exhaust is responsible for about 50% of the smog and nearly all of the carbon monoxide fouling the air in California, home of the nation’s dirtiest skies. About 90% of the state’s population lives in areas that violate federal and state air quality standards. Los Angeles has the most polluted air in the nation.

Powering a car with gasoline releases major components of smog, including hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides, which speed the aging of lungs. Carbon monoxide, which reduces the ability to carry oxygen, straining the heart, also is emitted. So is sulfur dioxide, which irritates the respiratory tract and also forms small particles in the air that impair visibility.

Carcinogens, such as benzene, acetaldehyde and 1,3 butadiene, also flow from tailpipes.

In the last 15 years, the state has been attacking the problem by requiring changes in vehicles and fuel.

By 1994, for example, all new cars sold in California must be at least 50% less polluting than the models sold in the state today.

The first phase of the gasoline cleanup, adopted by the ARB last year, takes effect in January. No more leaded gas will be sold in California and the product at the pumps will include additives to keep fuel injectors clean. That reformulation--modest compared to the current proposal--is expected to cost consumers an additional 2 cents a gallon, said Gina Nelhams, who monitors fuels for the Western States Petroleum Assn.

If approved as expected during an ARB board meeting Wednesday and Thursday, the second phase would make statewide standards even more stringent than those called for by the federal Clean Air Act for the most polluted regions in the country--among them, the Los Angeles and San Diego regions, and Ventura County.

The new specifications should not lead to any change in car performance, said a technical expert with a leading auto manufacturer who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Oil industry officials say that the price hikes from the state’s second phase could come soon. Even though the next generation of clean blends would not be required for four years, refiners expect that retooling their production facilities would take about that long. The state calculates that oil companies will have to spend $4 billion to $6 billion to do so.

That could translate into 10 cents to 16 cents more for each gallon at the pump, the ARB estimates.

Arco Products Co. believes its EC-X formula, tentatively scheduled for introduction in late 1995, will fit the new specifications and cost about 16 cents more per gallon than premium grades now on the market, said Annie Reutinger, a company spokeswoman. EC-X is the cleanest of the low-emission gasolines unveiled to this point by U.S. oil companies.

Environmental activists say that the cleaner gas would be clearly worth the increased cost.

“Adding (to the cost) is in fact not a bad thing to do. Maybe it’ll discourage the kind of rampant driving that exists now,” said Veronica Kun, staff scientist for the Natural Resources Defense Fund.

“Not that we’re insensitive to the burden, but it is a small investment and a potentially huge benefit,” she said.

Tim Little, executive director of the Coalition for Clean Air, added: “As much as I’d like to see alternative fuels and electric cars on the road here, I really think gasoline is going to be the dominant fuel for the next 20 years. The cleaner we can get the gas, the better.”

The ARB believes that the clean gas standards would add about half a cent to the almost 38 cents a mile that the average motorist pays to drive 12,000 miles a year, Sessa said.

Though that increase seems small, it is part of a movement to raise the price of driving through such proposals as phasing out free employee parking in the Los Angeles region to a federal recommendation for higher limits on smog check repair costs. As a result, some critics complain, the burden for cleaning the air is falling disproportionately on the poor. “If anyone thinks we’re going to get the air cleaned up for nothing, that’s not a realistic viewpoint,” said the car company official. “Changing (gasoline) is less intrusive on people’s lifestyles than keeping cars off the roads for certain days or limiting the number of registered vehicles.”

The oil industry is not happy about the latest ARB proposal, but accepts “that there’s a lot of political energy behind the idea of reformulating gasoline,” said Doug Henderson, executive director of the petroleum industry group.

Henderson said the 40 members of his organization originally agreed to support a statewide application of the federal standards for the most polluted areas. When the ARB insisted on going further, he said, “we saw that they’re right. It’s been a bitter pill for us to swallow, but we realize we need to do a lot more.”

Still, he said, he has some concerns. He said he would like to see more emphasis on stricter smog checks and getting older, high-polluting cars off the road, which he describes as less costly measures.

“We don’t have the luxury of choosing,” Sessa said. “We need to do all these things.

The proposed reformulation would cut overall emissions by 1,500 tons each day statewide, with about half the reduction in the Los Angeles region. Potential cancer cases in California would be reduced by 35 cases per year from 1996 to 2010, the ARB predicts.

Gasoline Plan

The California Air Resources Board will consider a proposal to change gasoline specifications by 1996.

THE GOAL

To reduce pollutants in gasoline by 30% to 40%, including hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides--the building blocks of smog, carbon monoxide and sulfur oxides. Also would limit toxic compounds such as benzene, 1,3 butadiene, formaldehyde and acetaldehyde.

THE PROPOSED NEW GASOLINE SPECIFICATIONS

Olefins cut by 50%. These are hydrocarbons that react readily with nitrogen oxides in sunlight to form ozone.

Aromatic hydrocarbons cut by 25%. These are also highly reactive hydrocarbons.

Sulfur cut by 80%. Crude oil from Alaska and the San Joaquin Valley, used to make much of California’s gasoline, has a high sulfur content compared to crude from other sources.

Benzene cut by 50%. This hydrocarbon was the first compound identified by the state as a toxic air contaminant.

Oxygenates added. Currently most California gasoline contains no oxygen. New blends would have to contain 1.8% to 2.2% oxygen. This helps to break down hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide.

Distillation temperatures controlled to cut hydrocarbon emissions.