PITTSBURGH -- Gas stations in southwestern Pennsylvania will continue to be required to sell a summer blend of gasoline after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) withdrew its proposal to end the requirement.
For the past 20 years, the EPA has required fuel retailers in seven Pennsylvania counties—Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Washington and Westmoreland—to sell gasoline with a volatility of no more than 7.8 pounds per square inch (psi) Reid vapor pressure (RVP) from May 1 through Sept. 15 to address ozone issues in the Pittsburgh-Beaver Valley area. This comes as fuel retailers in most of the rest of the state, as well as neighboring Ohio and West Virginia, were held to less-stringent requirements, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.
The lower-RVP summer fuel blend retails between 1.6 and 9.2 cents per gallon more than the state average, according to an analysis by the state’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).
In 2014, Pennsylvania legislators passed a law requiring that the DEP examine how to repeal the summer RVP requirement for the Pittsburgh area. In April 2018, the DEP said it would not enforce the summer blend requirement until the EPA formally repealed it; however, at that time, major fuel suppliers still planned to meet the original lower RVP requirements to protect themselves from any fines from the EPA or potential lawsuits.
In May, the EPA formally proposed to end the RVP regulation for Pittsburgh-Beaver Valley, allowing area fuel retailers to sell the federally mandated summer blend 9.0-psi RVP fuel effective Aug. 14, 2018, and it published a direct final rule that June. But the EPA also noted that if it received adverse comments on its action, it would withdraw the rule. That’s because it can only enact a final rule if it is unopposed. Late in the comment period, however, the EPA received oppositional comments that were mainly focused on procedural issues, the newspaper reported. And so the agency has ended the direct repeal and plans to prepare a response to the comments. An EPA spokesperson told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that it plans to issue a final notice “sometime this fall.”
Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.
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