SALON

Tuesday, Oct 9, 2012 7:45 AM UTC

Officials hope ‘winter-blend’ gas will drop prices

By , Associated Press

Topics: From the Wires,

Officials hope 'winter-blend' gas will drop pricesGas prices approach $5.00 a gallon at a Shell Station Monday, Oct. 8, 2012 in Encinitas, Calif. Gas prices across California have risen dramatically in the past week. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)(Credit: AP)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — State leaders — and drivers — hope to see gasoline prices drop soon, now that California officials have approved the release of “winter-blend” fuel that is expected to help bolster the state’s supplies.

State air pollution regulators say California’s air quality isn’t expected to get worse after the governor ordered the release of a dirtier blend of gasoline to help slash record-high pump prices.

The California Air Resources Board issued a regulatory advisory a day earlier after Gov. Jerry Brown ordered it to allow so-called “winter-blend” gasoline to be sold in California earlier than usual to increase supply.

AAA said the average price for a gallon of regular gasoline in California hit $4.668 Monday — the highest price in the nation and an all-time high for the Golden State. Analysts said the spike has been driven by refinery disruptions and corrosion issues in an important pipeline.

“This action is necessary to address the extreme and unusual fuel supply circumstance,” said the board’s advisory allowing the use of the more polluting fuel. “(It) is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health and safety or general welfare.”

California usually converts to the gas on Oct. 31. The fuel evaporates in heat more quickly than summer-blends, so sends more pollutants into the environment, especially in warm weather.

Gil Duran, a spokesman for Brown, said the governor looked at all the options available, particularly scientists’ prediction that such a change would not have a significant effect on the environment, and “when he learned this could increase the supply by 8 to 10 percent, it just made sense.”

Sunday’s action was the first time since 2005 — when gas supplies were affected by refinery disruptions in the wake of Hurricane Katrina — that the air board has approved early conversion to winter-gas blends.

Officials said it could take days before prices fall, depending on how quickly refineries can get the winter-blend fuel to market.

“The gasoline market moves on news, and this is clearly good news in terms of supply, because it should be able to increase supply immediately,” said Alison apRoberts, a spokeswoman with the California Energy Commission.

The third day of record-setting prices at the pump has also prompted calls for a federal investigation.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., on Monday asked the Department of Justice’s oil and gas price fraud working group to look into whether maintenance issues at refineries were being used as an excuse to drive up energy prices.

Boxer’s request came a day after Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., called on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate, saying residents need to be protected from “malicious trading schemes.”

Winter-blend gas typically isn’t sold until November, when cooler temperatures allow for its use while maintaining federal and state air quality standards. Few refineries outside the state are currently making summer-blend gas, putting the pressure on already-taxed California manufacturers.

Still, the air board said it believed that changing over a few weeks earlier than normal would not push California’s air pollution beyond normal levels for this time of year.

___

Associated Press writers Christopher Weber in Los Angeles and Juliet Williams in Sacramento, Calif., and business writer Marcy Gordon in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

___

Jason Dearen can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/JHDearen

Continue Reading Close

More Jason Dearen.

Next Article

Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

What To Read Awards: Top 10 Books of 2012 slide show

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 10
  • 10. "The Guardians" by Sarah Manguso: "Though Sarah Manguso’s 'The Guardians' is specifically about losing a dear friend to suicide, she pries open her intelligent heart to describe our strange, sad modern lives. I think about the small resonating moments of Manguso’s narrative every day." -- M. Rebekah Otto, The Rumpus

  • 9. "Beautiful Ruins" by Jess Walter: "'Beautiful Ruins' leads my list because it's set on the coast of Italy in 1962 and Richard Burton makes an entirely convincing cameo appearance. What more could you want?" -- Maureen Corrigan, NPR's "Fresh Air"

  • 8. "Arcadia" by Lauren Groff: "'Arcadia' captures our painful nostalgia for an idyllic past we never really had." -- Ron Charles, Washington Post

  • 7. "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn: "When a young wife disappears on the morning of her fifth wedding anniversary, her husband becomes the automatic suspect in this compulsively readable thriller, which is as rich with sardonic humor and social satire as it is unexpected plot twists." -- Marjorie Kehe, Christian Science Monitor

  • 6. "How Should a Person Be" by Sheila Heti: "There was a reason this book was so talked about, and it’s because Heti has tapped into something great." -- Jason Diamond, Vol. 1 Brooklyn

  • 4. TIE "NW" by Zadie Smith and "Far From the Tree" by Andrew Solomon: "Zadie Smith’s 'NW' is going to enter the canon for the sheer audacity of the book’s project." -- Roxane Gay, New York Times "'Far From the Tree' by Andrew Solomon is, to my mind, a life-changing book, one that's capable of overturning long-standing ideas of identity, family and love." -- Laura Miller, Salon

  • 3. "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk" by Ben Fountain: "'Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk' says a lot about where we are today," says Marjorie Kehe of the Christian Science Monitor. "Pretty much the whole point of that novel," adds Time's Lev Grossman.

  • 2. "Bring Up the Bodies" by Hilary Mantel: "Even more accomplished than the preceding novel in this sequence, 'Wolf Hall,' Mantel's new installment in the fictionalized life of Thomas Cromwell -- master secretary and chief fixer to Henry VIII -- is a high-wire act, a feat of novelistic derring-do." -- Laura Miller, Salon

  • 1. "Behind the Beautiful Forevers" by Katherine Boo: "Like the most remarkable literary nonfiction, it reads with the bite of a novel and opens up a corner of the world that most of us know absolutely nothing about. It stuck with me all year." -- Eric Banks, president of the National Book Critics Circle

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 10

Related Videos

More Related Stories

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username ( profile | log out )

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

From Around the Web

Recommendations