The Environmental Protection Agency wants to jack up your prices at the pump by as much as 9 cents per gallon before the end of the year.

The EPA just introduced new fuel standards they claim will lower the sulfur content in fuel by up to 60 percent by 2017. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are urging the EPA to think twice about enacting these new standards because they will cause as much as a 9 cent jump at the pump.

The cost to oil companies and refineries to meet the new standards will be about $2.4 billion annually. The EPA claims the effects of the fuel will be modest and will only raise annual fuel prices $130 by 2025. The EPA and environmentalists claim the cleaner fuels will save millions in health care costs. The biggest cost will come from having to retrofit dozens of refineries to the cleaner standards.

American Petroleum Institute spokesman Bob Greco said Friday:

There is a tsunami of federal regulations coming out of the EPA that could put upward pressure on gasoline prices."

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, (R) Michigan, told Fox News:

Increases in gas prices disproportionately hurt the nation's most vulnerable individuals and families -- with $4 a gallon gas the norm in many parts of the country, we cannot afford policies that knowingly raises gas prices."

If you don't think the EPA should enact these fuel standards; feel free to let them know.  You can (respectfully) call the Policy Division of the EPA at 202-564-7839 and tell them you're not thrilled about more gas price increases.

 

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