Copyright 2000 Gannett Company, Inc.
USA TODAY
March 16, 2000, Thursday, FINAL EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 6A
LENGTH: 533 words
HEADLINE:
Opponents burn over sulfur plan Proposal for cleaner diesel gas
coincides with climbing costs
BYLINE: Traci Watson
BODY:
As truckers drive their rigs into the
nation's capital today to
protest high fuel prices, the White House is
considering new rules
that would clean up the exhaust from diesel trucks --
and would
raise diesel fuel prices at least a few cents a gallon.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has planned since early
last year to make diesel trucks cleaner. But in a stroke of bad
luck for
the agency, its plan landed in President Clinton's budget
office at the same
time the average price for a gallon of diesel
fuel topped $ 1.49. The price
last March was $ 1 a gallon.
"It would be really amazing if someone would be
stupid enough
to come up with that kind of proposal right now," said Jim
Johnston
of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, which
represents
independent truckers. "They would probably have a massive revolt
on their hands."
The timing might be bad luck for the EPA, but
it's good luck for
the oil industry, which opposes the proposal. Nine
organizations
representing refineries and retailers sent a letter Monday to
EPA Administrator Carol Browner asking her to withdraw it.
Industry officials admit the current anger over fuel prices works
to their advantage. "It's very difficult to get people to focus
on
supply and price impacts when a barrel goes for $ 10," said
Bob Slaughter of
the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association.
Now, "we find people
are a little more receptive to our call
for reasonable standards."
The EPA proposal would drastically lower the amount of
sulfur
in diesel fuel. Sulfur, which
occurs naturally in oil, gums up
catalytic converters. Today's diesel fuel
contains an average
of 350 parts of sulfur per million
parts of fuel. Refiners said
the EPA wants to cap sulfur at
15 ppm by 2006, and they would
have to make costly and time-consuming
changes to their equipment
to meet such standards. They warned that
refineries might have
to close to be overhauled, and said the cost of
producing diesel
fuel could rise by more than 20 cents a gallon because of
the
costs of revamping tanks and pipelines. The industry's proposal
would cap sulfur at 50 ppm.
Environmentalists
counter that the particles in diesel exhaust
are dangerous. On Wednesday, a
group of state and local environmental
officials released a study estimating
that more than 125,000 Americans
might get cancer from diesel exhaust during
a 70-year period.
The state and local officials say that the cost to
manufacturers
of meeting the EPA's proposed standard would be far lower than
the industry estimate. They point to fuel regulations that
have
cost much less than refiners' prediction.
"We think it's
going to cost a nickel a gallon or less, and history
is in our favor," said
Bill Becker, representative for the environmental
officials.
The
EPA also wants to impose stricter pollution-control equipment
on large
diesel trucks.
The proposal follows a 1999 EPA rule that lowers
sulfur in gasoline
at an estimated cost of
a few cents a gallon and requires extra
tailpipe controls for sport-utility
vehicles. Agency officials
plan to announce their proposal in late spring or
early summer.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO, B/W, Denny Johnson,
AP; Protest convoy: Truck drivers traveling to Washington to protest high fuel
prices hit Little Rock on Monday. They're arriving today.
LOAD-DATE: March 16, 2000 
