Thursday, June 22, 2006

Report: Boutique fuels do not raise gas prices

Jim Snyder wrote in The Hill A draft Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report contradicts President Bush’s suggestion that boutique fuels, designed to cut pollution from cars and trucks, have contributed to higher gasoline prices. While they could complicate gasoline distribution when a hurricane or pipeline rupture disrupts supplies, the various fuel types used by states have provided “significant, cost-effective air-quality improvements,” the report states.

The Bush Administration never said that they caused higher prices in the long run. It is in the Spring when these boutique fuels suddenly become required, and the pipeline is full of the old fuels, and the limited refining capacity in this country has to switch over to the new fuel blends, and fill the pipeline with them, that shortages can occur, just as you admit that a hurricane or pipeline rupture could disrupt supplies, causing a short term price spike.
The report was written by state and federal officials who were brought together at the direction of the president as he searched for solutions to high gasoline prices, which spiked to over $3 a gallon in the spring.

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