Editorial: Toward a National Fuel Standard

There are hopeful signs that the Bush administration is listening to trucking’s arguments for a single national fuel standard.

Such a standard would help refiners boost supply and keep prices down, pare down mountains of paperwork, and would actually improve regulatory oversight by discouraging the kind of balkanized enforcement scheme that the growing use of “boutique” fuels is creating.

One of the factors that virtually all observers cite in the breathtaking rise of fuel prices in recent months is the increasing use of boutique fuels, special blends created for various cities and states in an attempt to reduce air pollution.

These efforts are misguided, because they lead to regional fuel shortages since products from one area can’t be substituted in another. They also raise prices by forcing refiners to spend more time producing the fuels.

There have been disturbing storm clouds on the horizon that the trend toward regional formulations would spread to diesel. While only California currently has a unique diesel blend, other areas are toying with them, including Texas.

Lately, however, it seems the White House may be hearing trucking’s arguments.

Last week, Vice President Cheney cited boutique-fuel production as one reason gasoline prices have skyrocketed. And the Bush administration’s new National Energy Policy cited boutique fuels for making it difficult to shift gasoline from areas that have plentiful supplies to cities and states that don’t have enough.

“The proliferation of boutique fuels across the country will lead to supply shortages, reduced competition among refineries and devastating price spikes,” said Walter B. McCormick Jr., president of American Trucking Associations. “The absence of a strong federal fuel standard will have serious negative consequences on the trucking industry’s ability to do its job of moving America’s freight.”

For those reasons, ATA has asked the Environmental Protection Agency to reject the Texas bid to mandate boutique diesel for Dallas-Forth Worth.

There are lots of other ways to improve air standards without resorting to a patchwork of customized fuel blends. EPA needs to begin by placing additional controls on stationary sources of pollution, restricting vehicle idling and mandating the use of natural-gas-powered buses.

7330