Automakers Petition EPA for Sulfur Limits in Gasoline
19 March 1998
Automakers Petition EPA for Sulfur Limits in Gasoline
WASHINGTON, March 19 -- The American Automobile Manufacturers
Association (AAMA) and the Association of International Automobile
Manufacturers (AIAM) have petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) to establish national (49 state) year-round limits on the concentration
of sulfur in unleaded gasoline, AAMA President and CEO Andrew H. Card, Jr. and
AIAM President and CEO Philip A. Hutchinson, Jr. announced today.
Sulfur interferes with catalyst technology on current and future vehicles,
and has the effect of increasing air pollution from these vehicles. AAMA and
AIAM have called for sulfur limits that are as low as practicable, but in no
case are greater than 40 ppm by weight, or not greater than 30 ppm by weight
annual average, with a per gallon cap of 80 ppm. These benchmarks are
consistent with the sulfur limits currently in force in California.
In addition to low sulfur, other gasoline improvements are also critical
to further clean air benefits. Some of these issues will be the subject of
further auto industry regulatory initiatives.
"We have asked EPA to act on this petition as quickly as possible," Card
and Hutchinson said. "Some refiners are capable of reducing sulfur today, and
the petroleum refinery industry has stated that it needs only three years to
implement the process changes to reduce sulfur." The 330 ppm national average
sulfur level today, and even the expected 180 ppm summer sulfur level of the
next generation of federal reformulated fuel embodied in current regulation,
is not good enough if EPA is interested in clean air.
Card and Hutchinson noted that automakers have made tremendous strides in
reducing vehicle emissions. "Today's vehicles are 96 percent cleaner than
those of the 1960s, and Low Emission Vehicles (LEVs) will be 99 percent
clean," they said. "But fuel quality is lagging behind the state-of-the-art
vehicle technology. Cleaner vehicles will maximize their potential only when
they operate on clean fuels." The introduction of even more advanced vehicle
technology such as gasoline direct injection engines and fuel cells will
require even lower levels of sulfur in the not too distant future.
AAMA is the trade association whose members are Chrysler Corporation
, Ford Motor Company and General Motors Corporation
. Visit the AAMA on the World Wide Web at http://www.aama.com.
AIAM is the trade association representing U.S. subsidiaries of
international automobile companies doing business in the United States.
Member companies distribute passenger cars, light trucks, and multipurpose
passenger vehicles in the U.S. Nearly two-thirds of these vehicles are
manufactured in the ten New American Plants established by AIAM companies in
the past decade.
International automakers support American jobs in manufacturing, supplier
industries, ports, distribution centers, headquarters, R&D centers and
automobile dealerships. AIAM also represents manufacturers of tires and other
equipment with production facilities in the U.S. and abroad.
SOURCE American Automobile Manufacturers Association
