Maureen Lorenzetti
With the US summer driving season almost here, fuel suppliers are pressing to get their voice heard as policymakers retool clean-air programs that focus on highway construction.
Six oil companies—ExxonMobil Corp., ChevronTexaco Corp., BP PLC, Marathon Ashland Petroleum LLC, Royal Dutch/Shell Group, and Koch Industries Inc—belong to the American Highway Users Alliance. The alliance also includes automakers, construction companies, and highway-user associations. The group testified before a Senate Environment and Public Works subcommittee Mar. 13 on efforts by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation to better coordinate mobile-source air pollution control strategies.
Oil companies have an obvious interest in how Washington manages federal highway projects. Transportation fuels, including gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel, represent 66.7% of US oil demand. Another 2.6% goes to road materials, including asphalt and road oil, according to the American Petroleum Institute.
Conformity
When a state highway planner wants new construction, the project currently must "conform" with federal air quality cleanup plans filed by local air regulators. Clean-fuel programs have been a popular policy choice for states that want to reduce smog and soot without having to postpone or cancel highway projects in order to meet federal health-based air quality standards. Past efforts have been very successful; cars now account for only 11% of smog-forming nitrogen oxides and about 15% of smog-forming volatile organic compounds, according to the latest EPA statistics.
EPA Asst. Administrator for Air and Radiation Jeffrey Holmstead told the Clean Air, Climate Change, and Nuclear Safety Subcommittee his agency is working closely with states to prepare for new conformity rules expected to be finalized in 2004.
The alliance says it wants more flexibility in the rules. But state air officials and environmental groups do not want to change "conformity" procedures. They are especially concerned that Congress or the EPA will try to extend the grace period in which an area found to be in violation of air pollution standards must show its transportation planning is consistent with air quality goals. EPA and Congress are said to be considering changing the current 1-year grace period to 3 years.
CMAQ funds
In a related issue, DOT Asst. Sec. for Policy Emil Frankel said his agency wants to improve the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) program that will be reauthorized under a pending highway bill. CMAQ channels money to projects designed to reduce smog.
Alliance Pres. Diane Steed wants Congress to revamp CMAQ to encourage "smart growth" instead of strategies that she says "forces commuters out of their cars."
"The CMAQ program simply does not live up to its name, because it prohibits funding for the very projects that are most likely to improve highway congestion and air quality," she said. "Many experts agree that the biggest environmental bang for the buck comes from improvements in traffic flow, advances in technologies, and emphasis on vehicle inspections and maintenance."
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