U.S. eases air pollution rule to boost fuel supply

[Mass]

Just in case you thought they would see some light from Katrina catastrophy.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050831/pl_nm/weather_katrina_gasoline_dc_2;_ylt=Aqdt7NSGPdO5kx_s17x8uxEbLisB;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

U.S. eases air pollution rule to boost fuel supply

35 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - To make more fuel available in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the Bush administration said on Wednesday it will waive certain air pollution regulations for gasoline and diesel in all 50 states.

The temporary easing of regulations will end on September 15, said Stephen Johnson, head of the
Environmental Protection Agency

...

However, Rep. Joe Barton (news, bio, voting record) of Texas, the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said on Wednesday he believed some service stations were gouging consumers at the pump.

The Bush administration is planning to loan crude oil to refineries from the nation's emergency crude stockpile to help boost available gasoline and other petroleum product supplies.

The government does not have a stockpile of gasoline.

[FloridaPat]

1. Someone from Illinois was saying that would be a good idea

last night on CNN. Seems their gas goes through some more processing making it harder to get and more expensive.

[Mass]

2. Sure, it will be less expensive, but more dangerous for our environment

But who cares about that, of course? This has clearly nothing to do with what happened this week.

[losdiablosgato]

6. "If you like $3 a gallon gas, thank an enviromentalist."

I saw that on a bumper sticker on a honda this morning riding into work.

[welshTerrier2]

3. solely to benefit the American people, i'm sure ...

i expect bush has a plan to ensure that "Big Oil" does not make "extra profits" at the expense of our air quality ... i'm sure we can all feel confident that this is being done solely in the national interest and not to benefit bush's corporate friends ...

i wonder if there's just the slightest itsy-bitsy-teensiest possibility that the "temporary easing of regulations" will get an extension ...

[Mass]

4. What do you think>

Bush has often taken decisions that are totally against common sense, but this one tops it , as far as I am concerned.

Using these events to help his friends? Who would have thought that of Bush? :sarcasm:

[welshTerrier2]

5. i think ...

the polar ice cap at the North Pole will be gone in less than 100 years ... polar bears will be extinct in less than 50 years ... the snow cap on Kilamanjaro is gone ... global warming will cause the seas to rise and destroy all civilization within miles of ALL coastlines ... New Orleans is a very good practice drill ...

oh, and global warming will destroy all life on the planet if bush doesn't do the job first by starting a global war ...

other than what really is a fairly short list of "drawbacks", i think bush has an excellent plan there ...

what i really think, oil price shocks or not, is that we need to do exactly the opposite ... we need much stricter pollution controls ... we need a real energy policy ... we need to take power away from the oil industry and reclaim our government so that it acts in the best interests of the country rather than the greedy interests of corporate stockholders ...

[montana500]

7. freaking idiots

yea, we DONT need to force mpg CAFE increases in congress, or build new refineries. What we NEED to do is weaken protections on our air and water to lower gas prices.

ggrrrrrr....