Copyright 1999 The Atlanta Constitution
The Atlanta
Journal and Constitution
July 23, 1999, Friday, Home Edition
SECTION: Local News; Pg. 5C
LENGTH: 525 words
HEADLINE:
Cleaner gas comes to state;
Get on board: Barnes, Browner urge other oil
companies to follow low-sulfur fuel lead.
BYLINE: Lucy Soto, Staff
SOURCE: Constitution
BODY:
The message Thursday was simple, Gov. Roy Barnes said: If one oil company
can distribute an ultra-clean gasoline to metro Atlanta, the
rest of them can.
Under banners lauding its new
low-sulfur fuel's environmental goodness, BP Amoco got a very
public pat on the back from Barnes and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
chief Carol Browner. The premium-grade gasoline, which meets
state standards four years ahead of schedule and federal standards five years
ahead of time, will be available by next Friday at 550 BP and Amoco stations in
25 counties. The company says it won't increase the price. "All I want to say to
everyone else in the industry is I hope you follow the way," said Browner, who
flew in from Washington to make the announcement before a room filled with
political and business power brokers. Post Properties CEO John Williams, state
Department of Transportation Commissioner Wayne Shackelford, high-profile
environmentalists and county commission chairmen from several metro counties
were among the luncheon crowd.
"It's time to quit complaining," the
governor said. "It's time to quit saying 'I wish they'd change the
regulations.' It's time to quit saying it's just a big bad wolf
from Washington. . . . It's time to fix the problem."
That problem is
the amount of pollutants that car tailpipes are spewing into the air.
Sulfur, a byproduct in the process of creating
gasoline, causes catalytic converters in cars to work less
efficiently and to produce more pollution.
Because metro Atlanta is
trying to meet clean air standards that it has failed to meet in the past,
Georgia has required oil companies to have all grades of
gasoline meet a sulfur standard of 30 parts
per million in 69 counties by 2003. The U.S. EPA is proposing that standard
nationwide for 2004. In Georgia, current summer requirements call for 150 ppm.
Gasoline typically has a sulfur content of 300
ppm.
The standards have been the source of much complaint in the oil
industry. At a public hearing earlier this month about the state's federally
mandated plan to clean up the air, petroleum representatives complained of the
new rules and Georgia's year-early implementation. The chief problem, they say,
is distributing that much new gasoline to select areas of the
state.
Barnes said he has had discussions with the governors of North
Carolina and Tennessee about expanding low-sulfur requirements
to all three states and into the Southeast. It would create a bigger market for
oil companies and solve some of their distribution complaints, while also
resolving worries about the state losing a competitive edge with its neighbors,
the governor said.
And it would be good news to environmentalists.
Although some left the news conference happy, they were cautious.
Gasoline technology alone won't save metro Atlanta or other
sprawl-plagued cities from traffic congestion and bad air, said Wesley Woolf,
director of the Southern Environmental Law Center's Georgia office.
"These technological solutions are important, and we should pat them on
the back," Woolf said. But "the underlying problem is land use and it's
behavioral."
GRAPHIC: Photo
Low
sulfur gets high profile: EPA administrator Carol Browner shows
her support at a news conference Thursday of BP Amoco's plan to sell
low-sulfur premium gasoline in Atlanta. / RICH
ADDICKS / Staff
LOAD-DATE: July 23, 1999
