Questions remain, but most say they’d be willing to pay a little more for a less-polluting fuel.

A proposal to require gas retailers in seven Southern Maine counties to sell a cleaner-burning gasoline could reduce two types of smog-causing emissions – by about 6 percent in one case and about 1 percent in the other, according to estimates the state provided to federal regulators.

However, industry analysts and the Maine Department of Environmental Protection differ on whether the new fuel will cost more at the pumps.

The DEP is asking the U.S. Department of Environmental Protection Agency to allow the state to rejoin its reformulated gas program.

The DEP has estimated that emissions of volatile organic compounds could be reduced by 123 tons, or 6 percent, and nitrogen oxide could be cut by 28 tons, or 1 percent. Both byproducts of combustion contribute to air pollution.

Maine opted out of the program in 1998 because an additive to the reformulated fuel, methyl tertiary-butyl ether, or MTBE, was contaminating well water. Instead, Maine used an alternative fuel, a so-called boutique gasoline, and had to implement other measures such as vapor recovery systems on pumps and gas cans to meet the EPA requirements.

Now that MTBE is no longer used in reformulated gas and supply chains for the fuel have matured, Maine is looking to re-enter the program so it can better meet requirements under the Clean Air Act, according to the DEP testimony before a Legislative Committee in 2013.

Motorists gassing up at the Irving station on Commercial Street in Portland Friday mostly said they wouldn’t mind paying a little bit more for gas to protect the environment, as long as it didn’t reduce the performance of their vehicles.

“I’d pay more for better quality,” said Cathy Flint, who was driving a 1965 Rambler Classic 550. “If it’s better all the way around, of course.”

Others had limits to what they would be willing to pay.

“It depends how much we’re talking,” said Dana Carter, a Scarborough resident driving a Chevy Silverado pickup. “Fifteen cents wouldn’t bother me.”

Biddeford resident Kerry Dineen agreed.

“To a certain degree, I would like to help the environment, but not if it increases the price by 10 or 15 percent,” said Dineen, who was driving a 2001 Mercury Cougar. “I have a hard time getting by as it is.”

Amendments to the Clean Air Act in 1990 sought to reduce high ozone areas, primarily along the northeast coast – roughly from Maryland to New Hampshire – and in California.

According to the EPA, as of April 2012, counties in 13 states that had high smog levels were required to use reformulated gas. Counties in 13 other states have opted into the program. Several counties in Maine, New York and Pennsylvania opted out of the federal reformulated gas program.

Only seven southern Maine counties – York, Cumberland, Sagadahoc, Androscoggin, Kennebec, Lincoln and Knox – are subject to the Clean Air Act’s fuel standards that require a cleaner burning fuel be sold from May 1 to Sept. 15. Conventional gas, which is cheaper to produce, can be sold the rest of the year, but it doesn’t burn as cleanly because it contains higher levels of butane.

The rest of the state, which is not subject to the stricter standards, can sell the conventional gas year-round.

Jamie Py, the president and CEO of the Maine Energy Marketers Association, said the boutique gas, which is used in only five states according to the DEP, is refined in Europe, whereas the cleaner-burning reformulated gas is refined in New York and Philadelphia.

“We’re already producing up and down the East Coast,” Py said.

It makes sense for the same fuel to be sold, he said, not only regionally among the communities that are subject to the EPA rules, but also for the entire state. Such a move would level the playing field for gas retailers, especially those along the borders that are forced to pay a higher price for gas, he said.

Py stressed that the reformulated gas performs as well as, and does not contain more ethanol than, the current gas stock. Analysts say it is difficult to predict how the switch will affect prices at the pump.

Gas prices are determined by a complex set of circumstances, including the price of crude oil and the cost of additives, as well as efficiencies – or the lack thereof – in the refining process and supply chain.

The state and local gas retailers believe the reformulated gas would cost the same, if not less, than the gas currently being used, but industry analysts at GasBuddy.com said the reformulated gas has cost more this summer.

Tom Kloza, GasBuddy.com’s chief oil analyst, said that from June throughout most of August reformulated gas cost 7 to 10 cents a gallon more than the boutique gas being used in southern Maine. That difference is attributed to a lack of availability in offshore markets and the fact that it’s difficult to produce here in the summer, he said.

Patrick DeHaan, a senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy.com, said gas prices vary for a variety of reasons. “You may get slightly better fuel efficiency,” DeHaan added, estimating that drivers could get an extra mile per gallon since reformulated gas evaporates less quickly than conventional and boutique fuels.

In April 2013, Marc Cone, the director of the DEP’s Bureau of Air Quality, told the Environmental and Natural Resources Committee that the reformulated gas would less expensive than the boutique gas currently used, according to committee documents.

“The Department believes this proposal will likely decrease the costs of gasoline while meeting the federal Clean Air Act requirements, reduce the need to impose additional regulatory burdens on industry and improve the air quality for people in Maine,” Cone said. “This would result in a win for retailers and consumers in the state.”

John Babb, president of J&S Oil, told the committee in 2013 that at times the boutique gasoline costs as much 15 cents a gallon more than the gas used by competitors in counties not under the EPA mandate.

“The burden is especially sharp for county border stores . . . who consistently pay a higher cost for the product and often have to sell it below cost to maintain a competitive price with other stores that are often only a couple miles away,” Babb said.

Randy Billings can be contacted at 791-6346 or at:

rbillings@pressherald.com

Twitter: @randybillings

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