http://www.boston.com/dailynews/218/nation/EPA_considers_limiting_number_:.shtml

EPA considers limiting number of special clean-air gasoline blends to help buffer prices

By Associated Press, 8/6/2001 02:46

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) The head of the Environmental Protection Agency said she is considering reducing the number of special gasoline blends used around the country to help promote cleaner air.

In an interview published Monday in USA Today, EPA administrator Christie Whitman said that limiting the number of so-called ''boutique blends'' to three or four formulas could increase fuel supplies and help prevent large spikes in the prices drivers see at the pump.

She said, however, that the approach, which is also under consideration in Congress, is not without problems.

''It is very much a states' rights issue,'' Whitman, the former governor of New Jersey, told the newspaper. ''Boutique fuels are a result of states making independent decisions about (meeting) their clean-air requirements. ... That's not to say we wouldn't eventually'' cut the number of fuels.

Currently a dozen or so gasoline blends are in use nationwide.

According to the oil industry, specialty blends designed for local needs lead to increases in gasoline prices as refiners switch to producing them each summer and fall.

Environmentalists, the newspaper reported, said they wouldn't object to fewer boutique fuels so long as the states are allowed to try new blends to make the air cleaner.

-- Anonymous, August 06, 2001