The White House announced five final rules on May 10 that it said would save nearly $6 billion in the next 5 years by eliminating outdated regulations and unjustified requirements. US President Barack Obama also signed an executive order making it a continuing federal obligation for agencies and departments to review their rules to see if they still make sense.
"Smart rules can save lives and keep us safe, but there are some regulations that don't make sense and cost too much," Obama said. "We will remain vigilant when it comes to eliminating regulations that are not necessary or that impose unnecessary burdens on America's families and businesses."
The five major regulatory reforms announced by the White House included one at the US Environmental Protection Agency from the 1990s that required many states to make gasoline retailers install vapor recovery systems beginning in 1994. Eliminating it will save more than $300 million over 5 years, it said.
In an announcement, EPA said states may begin phasing these Stage 2 vapor recovery systems out at 31,000 retail outlets, mostly in urban areas, beginning later this year since about 70% of all vehicles now have on-board systems that capture those vapors.
EPA said it imposed the requirement because gasoline vapors, if allowed to escape, can contribute to ground-level ozone or smog. Automobile manufacturers, however, began installing onboard refueling vapor recovery systems in 1998. The systems have been standard equipment on all new automobiles and light trucks since 2006, making the gasoline marketers and retailers' systems increasingly redundant, EPA said.
Not meaningful
Dan Gilligan, president of the Petroleum Marketers Association of America, said EPA has acknowledged in recent years that the Stage 2 requirement no longer produces meaningful emissions cuts, and has worked to end it. "Our efforts now shift to some state agencies which stubbornly want to keep Stage 2 in place for a variety of nonenvironmental reasons," he told OGJ.
The American Petroleum Institute welcomed EPA's and the four other actions to eliminate unnecessary federal regulations, but asked the administration to remove other proposed requirements that it said would be even more burdensome.
"The administration is taking steps in the right direction by eliminating regulations that needlessly harm the economy and jobs," Howard Feldman, API's regulatory and scientific affairs director, said on May 10.
"However, there are even bigger threats to the economy such as EPA's imposition of greenhouse gas emissions standards for refineries, further reduction in gasoline sulfur levels, and tightening of the already protective fine particle air quality standards," he continued. "We urge the White House to eliminate them. Air quality continues to improve dramatically."
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