Editorial: Examining Boutique Fuels

Click here to write a Letter to the Editor.

glimmer of a silver lining has appeared in the dark clouds that sky-high fuel costs are presenting to the trucking industry, in the form of a high-level federal review of the costs and benefits of boutique fuels.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson said his agency has created a task force composed of the nation’s governors to evaluate the special fuels. This action is in light of President Bush’s recent moves to find ways to reduce fuel costs and increase supply.

Clearing up some initial confusion, ATA President Bill Graves last week secured a commitment from the White House that the EPA task force would include diesel fuels, as well as gasoline, in its review.

Boutique fuels are those custom blends that some states and areas have mandated, which differ from normal federal standards and thus lead to higher prices and contribute to supply problems.

After Graves’ White House meeting, ATA received an invitation to participate in a task force hearing on May 18.

Up to now, EPA’s position has been that specialty fuels do not pose a major problem, saying they only raise prices between 0.3 cent and 3 cents a gallon.

But Graves, in a recent statement, warned that the specialized fuels represented a more serious set of problems. “Requiring different diesel fuel formulations for different geographic regions in the U.S. — along with producing maintenance issues for diesel-engine technicians — complicates the fuel distribution process and limits competition, adding further to retail prices.”

When EPA announced its intention to examine the special fuels, it was not initially clear that the agency intended to look at diesel at all. The later White House meeting with Graves and other ATA officials cleared up any doubt, and ensures that trucking’s position will be presented to the task force.

Since trucking is expected to move 13 billion tons of freight by 2016 — up from the 10 billion tons hauled last year — Graves said the industry “will need access to an even larger and more reliable supply of affordable diesel fuel. Whether a presidential task force, a commission, a study group — someone has to get us on the right road.”

And that right road, we strongly believe, is a single, national diesel fuel standard, which would both maximize fuel supplies and keep prices lower by providing one standard for every fuel refiner to meet.

This editorial appears in the May 15 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.