Houston, 2 July (Argus) — A higher ethanol blend of gasoline's inclusion in fuel sulfur limits pushed by federal regulators drew ongoing battles over biofuel policy into yet another arena.
The US Environmental Protection Agency provoked some controversy by setting a 15pc ethanol blend in gasoline (E15) as the test fuel for certification under proposed sulfur limits that go into effect in 2017. Agency representatives as recently as last week have said that compliance with federal biofuel blending mandates will be impossible without the use of higher-ethanol blends such as E15.
Most supporters and opponents of Tier 3 sulfur rules made little note of the fuel's presence in a month of public comments on Tier 3 made available today. But the inclusion muddied support from at least two state agencies, including the effective architect of the federal standard.
Mass campaigns from the League of Conservation Voters and the Sierra Club joined letters from medical leaders supporting EPA proposals to further reduce the sulfur content of gasoline to 10 parts per million (ppm), down from the current 30ppm, as well as other controlled pollutants. EPA's Tier 3 fuel proposal would become effective in 2017, though smaller refiners would be allowed to delay implementation to 2022.
Health agency chiefs down to emergency room respiratory therapists and asthmatic grandmothers wrote in to support the reductions. Continuing to reduce the sulfur, nitric oxide and other air pollutant content of fuel would improve air quality in major cities, many wrote. But citizen opponents resented the potential increased fuel costs and “micro-managing” of fuels.
Refiners, terminals and retailers continued to warn the costs of removing still more sulfur for fuel would add more to gasoline's price at the pump than the EPA-estimated 1¢/USG, and said the agency should push the regulation's effective date back to allow refiners to fit the upgrades into their normal maintenance schedules.
Capital projects at refineries may take two to three years to plan, and the facilities have a five-year maintenance cycle for units. A large refiner who waited for the final rule to be published to begin planning to bring the facility to the standard would have just three years.
The regulations move would put federal standards in line with California's current state requirements. California's Air Resources Board (CARB), in a mixed assessment of EPA's proposal, called sulfur reduction “one of the most cost-effective changes that have been made to California gasoline.”
But CARB cautioned against including E15, sold in just a handful of midcontinent stations today, in the Tier 3 regulations. E15 should not become a certification fuel until it is widely available, that agency said.
And the Philadelphia Department of Environmental Protection, in an assessment generally supporting Tier 3, said refiners should be allowed to divert the resources currently spent complying with the federal biofuel mandate known as the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS-2) to focus on sulfur and other pollution reduction instead.
Ethanol industry group Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) wrote in support of the “swift adoption” of the regulation. RFA asked for the agency to exempt from consideration the sulfur content of denaturant used to make ethanol unfit for human consumption, and for the agency to create a process to allow new denaturants in the future. The association also asked EPA to ease the spread of E15 with volatility waivers that helped a 10pc ethanol blend, E10, to become widespread.
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