Metro officials said they are looking into new vehicle emissions requirements proposed Friday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The rules would curtail several greenhouse gases emitted by cars, including requiring that fuels produced by American refineries have lower sulfur emissions by 2017. Under the so-called Tier 3 rules, cars and light trucks would see reduced tailpipe emissions.
Planners from the regional government have been working to address a mandate from the Oregon Legislature to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cars, pickups and SUVs. It was unclear Friday if the EPA's proposed standards, if adopted nationwide, would move Metro closer to being able to address the state's mandates.
The standards call for significant reductions in the amount of sulfur, nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds in car exhaust. Of those, only nitrogen oxide is an emission that the state has ordered curtailed, said Nuin-Tara Key, a Metro project manager who authored a 2011 report analyzing greenhouse gases.
According to a Metro report, sulfur hexafluoride, or SF6, traps heat in the atmosphere nearly 24,000 times more effectively than carbon dioxide, the most abundant greenhouse gas.
While Metro officials were still checking the proposed standards against their own data, the new emissions standards were being hailed as part of Maryland's efforts to curb emissions.
"The new motor fuel standards proposed today … will help Maryland reach its goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020," Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley said in a statement. "Today’s actions will also provide a significant benefit to the Chesapeake Bay as approximately one-third of its nitrogen issues are caused by air pollution."
In a statement, the EPA said "today’s proposal will enable the greatest pollution reductions at the lowest cost." The EPA estimates that, by 2030, the proposed cleaner fuels and cars program will account for health-related benefits of between $8 billion and $23 billion annually and will prevent more than 2,000 premature deaths and 20,000 cases of respiratory ailments in children per year.
Refineries serving California, Japan, and the European Union already meet the more stringent sulfur rule, but its public health and environmental benefits would be new to Oregon upon implementation.
Federal officials estimated the proposed standards would increase the cost of gas production by less than a penny per gallon; several media reports quoted fuel industry advocates saying prices would go up about 9 cents a gallon if the new standards are adopted. That's about 2 percent of today's average gas prices.
"There is a tsunami of federal regulations coming out of the EPA that could put upward pressure on gasoline prices," said Bob Greco, director of the American Petroleum Institute's Downstream Group. “EPA’s proposed fuel regulations are the latest example. Consumers care about the price of fuel, and our government should not be adding unnecessary regulations that raise manufacturing costs, especially when there are no proven environmental benefits. We should not pile on new regulations when existing regulations are working.”
But a trade group representing car manufacturers welcomed the proposed standards.
"For future progress, our advanced emission-control technologies that are necessary to meet the challenging 2017-2025 greenhouse gas and fuel economy standards will require cleaner, low-sulfur fuels similar to those available today in Europe and Asia," the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers said in a statement.
Climate Futures series
As Metro's planning staff looks at ways to address a state mandate to reduce tailpipe emissions in the Portland region, Metro News has been digging into some of the 144 ideas under study. Our goal is to paint a picture of what the Portland region could look like if any of those scenarios are adopted.
Please note that Metro planning staff is not responsible for this content. Comments on the content should be directed to Metro News at 503-813-7583 or [email protected].