SALT LAKE CITY – Federal officials announced new rules for cars and gasoline Monday, and clean air advocates said the move will cut key pollutants emitted by tailpipes by 50 percent or more by 2030.
The “Tier 3” standards would allow smaller refineries, including those in Utah, to delay producing the cleaner-burning gasoline until 2020 or even longer.
Clean air advocates said they believe it is important for Utah refineries to embrace Tier 3 standards. Matt Pacenza, policy director for HEAL Utah, said the new rules are a good starting point.
“So we are very pleased, they’re good rules, they’ll make it so that our cars are much cleaner, but we are also a bit concerned,” he said. “The concern is that the rules have a few loop holes which might allow Utah refineries to avoid cleaning up our gas. So the next step now is to make sure we put pressure on both on our refineries and our officials to make sure that we here in Utah get this clean gas as soon as possible.”
