Allegheny County has completed the first step by receiving a temporary waiver from using summer blend gasoline. Now it’s waiting for final approval to drop the requirement permanently.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency sent a letter Wednesday to the county Health Department saying it had granted the temporary waiver because of an interruption in the supply of the summer gasoline. That gasoline was required here two decades ago because it caused less air pollution.
In its letter, the EPA said it approved the waiver because a failure in the Buckeye Laurel pipeline has made it difficult to obtain the special blend in this area. The waiver allows suppliers to buy regular gas in Ohio or the Altoona area and sell it in Allegheny County.
“We’re extremely happy,” John Kulik, executive vice president with the Pennsylvania Petroleum Association based in Harrisburg, said Thursday. “That waiver was granted because of concern about the supply out there. We’re hopeful the EPA is focused on approving the final rule as soon as possible.”
The county previously had been turned down for a waiver to discontinue using summer gasoline while the EPA reviews the county’s request to join six neighboring counties that have been removed from the program.
Allegheny County has its own air quality board, so it applied separately for removal from the summer gas requirement and the EPA hasn’t ruled on that request yet. The 30-day comment period on that proposed change ended Tuesday with five comments filed, and the agency has to review and respond to those comments before issuing a final ruling.
U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said he will keep pushing the agency for a final decision before the waiver expires.
“I am pleased to hear that the EPA granted a temporary waiver to grant Allegheny County commuters access to cheaper gas,” the senator said in a statement. “I will continue to fight and work with the EPA until the job is finished and prices at the pump return to normal.”
As a result of the Buckeye Pipeline problem, some suppliers in this area have run out of summer blend gas, but service stations still have some, said Don Bowers, another petroleum association vice president and an executive with Countywide Petroleum. As a result of the waiver, stations that receive regular gasoline prior to June 17 can sell that until it runs out.
The 20-day waiver is the longest the EPA can grant, said Jim Kelly, deputy director of the county’s Environmental Health Bureau. If the supply problem continues and the EPA hasn’t made a final ruling on the county’s request to be exempt from summer gasoline, it could extend the waiver.
Since it removed neighboring counties from the program for the same reason — cleaner-burning car engines in recent years have all but eliminated the difference in the amount of pollution from summer and non-summer blend gasoline — it would “just be stupid” to require Allegheny County to remain in the program, Mr. Bowers said.
“I’m hoping the EPA is going to use this 2½ weeks to review the comments and issue the final ruling,” Mr. Bowers said. “The whole thing is idiotic. I think they’re going to do what they can to be done with this.”
Ed Blazina: eblazina@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1470 or on Twitter @EdBlazina.
First Published: May 30, 2019, 6:10 p.m.
Updated: May 30, 2019, 6:15 p.m.