The Environmental Protection Agency, citing the coronavirus pandemic, is giving the oil industry an extra 2 1/2 weeks before it must start selling cleaner-burning summer-grade gasoline.
The EPA announced Friday it would delay the deadline by which gasoline distributors must stop selling winter-grade gasoline from May 1 to May 20, granting a critical request from the American Petroleum Institute.
In a news release, the agency said the move helps “ensure a steady supply of gasoline,” adding that it could further modify or extend the waiver. Switching grades of gasoline helps decrease emissions of greenhouse gases and smog during summer months.
The EPA’s waiver comes after the agency unveiled a broad, temporary enforcement-discretion policy Thursday, under which it said it generally won’t seek penalties if companies miss deadlines for pollution monitoring, sampling, testing, or reporting during the coronavirus pandemic. Under that guidance, which doesn’t yet have an end date, the EPA would also “consider the circumstances,” including the virus outbreak, when determining whether to bring enforcement actions against facilities that exceed federal environmental standards during the pandemic if pollution controls fail.
Oil industry groups like the American Petroleum Institute have raised concerns that companies wouldn’t be able to meet the summer-grade gasoline requirements because many are seeing an oversupply of winter-grade fuel in storage tanks, as social distancing recommendations and shelter-in-place directives keep people from traveling and using fuel.
The EPA appears to share this concern, noting that steep drops in gasoline demand due to the pandemic have caused limited storage capacity and that “more time will be needed to transition the distribution system.”
Environmentalists and former EPA officials, though, slammed the agency’s enforcement discretion policy as too broad, claiming that it allows industries to pollute freely during an already challenging public health crisis.
Waiving summer-grade gasoline requirements carries public health consequences, including increased emissions of greenhouse gases and other smog-forming pollutants, said Paul Billings, national senior vice president of public policy for the American Lung Association.
“We do not want to come back [after the pandemic] and have more air pollution as a result of a decision from the administration to grant a blanket waiver or to stop enforcing our nation’s environmental and clean air laws,” Billings told reporters Friday.
The EPA, in its news release, also said it intends to extend upcoming deadlines for small refiners under the Renewable Fuels Standard in a separate action.
