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Posted: April 21, 2013 - 12:25am

Whenever the federal government enacts new standards to reduce pollution, we can count on affected industries to complain loudly about the cost to them and ultimately to their customers of implementing the changes. What sometimes gets lost in the clamor are the health benefits of the new standards.

That appears to be the case with the decision last month by the environmental Protection Agency to move forward with a rule requiring cleaner gasoline and lower-pollution vehicles nationwide. The change amounts to one of the most significant air pollution initiatives of President Barack Obama’s administration.

Predictably, oil industry officials are up in arms, claiming that the new regulations hamper their ability to produce fuel and would add up to 9 cents to the cost of a gallon of gas in some places.

The gist of the new rule is that oil refiners will have to remove more of the sulfur from the gasoline they produce. While sulfur, itself, does not directly contribute to the production of smog, it hampers the operation of catalytic converters and other pollution control devices in cars, which in turn leads to greater tailpipe emissions.

The health benefits resulting from the new rule are likely to be significant. ...

California already operates under the new standard. So do Europe, Japan and South Korea.

Car manufacturers welcome the changes, saying they prefer uniform sulfur standards for fuel nationwide.

Pollution standards, whether they affect air quality, water quality or some other aspect of the environment, need to be assessed based on effectiveness vs. cost. But we can’t forget to include public health in the calculations.

The EPA estimates that because of smog produced by vehicle emissions, 158 million Americans are breathing unhealthy air. Cheap gasoline is nice but we’re paying for it in other ways.

The oil industry is the most profitable in the world. The five biggest U.S. oil companies receive taxpayer subsidies of $2 billion a year.

They should be more cooperative in efforts to require them to produce a cleaner product.

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9mmhipchick 04/21/13 - 10:40 am
When is congress

When is congress going to take off those "rose colored glasses" and see B.O for who he really is. He runs this country by executive order ignoring congress all together. He vows to executive order gun regulations, immigration reform, more taxes and lower mortgage rates so all of the unlawful aliens can purchase a home.

What I would like to see by B.O is all of his college records, birth certificate and answers to why his social security number belongs to a dead man from CI, Ohio. I would like to know why he and his wives license to practice law was revoked? I would like to know how he could run for President by not serving a whole year in the Senate? Last I would like to know why congress does not want to know the answers to these questions?

WWGD 04/22/13 - 10:24 am
Don't let any actual brain activity get in your way, gunchick!

Do you deny everything, every fact, every piece of valid evidence about anything unless say, Rand Paul/Ted Cruz/Koch brothers tell you otherwise and pull your mouth-strings? I think you may be one of the scariest people living in this town - you have plenty of company, but my God, you never make a cogent comment, only anti-inteligent denial of actual, real-world facts.

commongood 04/22/13 - 10:20 pm
Actually, I would like to

Actually, I would like to know the answers to some of 9mm's Obama questions as well.
Face it, Obama was never fully vetted by the media in this country and the American people voted for a person they knew VERY little about.

If you can't admit that WWGD, then don't bother responding.

As far as the article is concerned, this is just Obama doing what he said he would do..........raise the cost of energy that American's consume. He flat out said that he wanted to put coal companies out of business. He wants to raise the cost of our current energy products to make his "green energy" products look more appealing (even though they are still more expensive and less efficient).
This is how liberals operate. They push their agenda on the American people whether they want it or not, and if it ends up costing more........so be it.
It's their "compassion" and their "good thoughts" that counts.

WWGD 04/23/13 - 11:58 am
Arguing with history is foolish, powerless and petty

but FOX News makes millions pandering to all you kneejerk reactionaries who simply can't accept a black man beat your white men.

Common person, gun gal, Barack Obama is the President - elected twice. He served in Senate from 2005 - 2008. Let me help you count - 1, 2, 3, 4.... He's been vetted by millions of voters - he won - your side lost ....and will keep losing so long as closeminded conservatives like you keep on providing proof that the GOP is solely yesterday's intolerance.

Young folks who vote use information and data and that's why this constant stream of old, worn-out vitriol turns them off.

all you firebrands are wasting your breath rehashing all the canards of birth, education, SSN. But you do shine among what we liberals understand is a breed of American who shames us all with such blatantly ignorant childlike babble. Move on!

Executive orders is another b.s. topic - I assume you don't care to rehash that brainiac Bush or Cheney the warmonger profiteer.

Dirty, toxic coal and oil are indeed fit for your kerosene lamps and coal-fired locomotives, but we're in an era of advancement, we won't be going back to your bygone days.

While liberals do tend to own 'compassion' , we also are quite enchanted with logic, facts, and real-world information. There's a building in this town you all might want to visit - it's called the library and it's full of magical items called reference books ... obviously your computers don't go to scientific websites, so you might give the building of books a try.

commongood 04/24/13 - 09:17 pm
Funny......after reading your

Funny......after reading your drivel, I can't imagine you ever setting foot in a library WWGD.
And as far as "arguing with history" is concerned, that's what you left-wing loons do ALL THE TIME.
Problem is, you never LEARN from history.

It wasn't Fox News that was blaming the Tea Party for the Boston bombings. That was MSNBC.
It wasn't Fox News that was hoping and praying that the bomber(s) were "white Americans" because they were afraid if they were anything but, it would make it harder for Obama to continue his radical left-wing agenda and "change America". That was A LOT of liberal news outlets.
It wasn't Bush and Cheney who re-wrote Military manuals as well as FBI training manuals to discard / eliminate any wording on the Quran, Jihad, Islamic extremist, and the word "terrorism" under pressure from Muslim groups and because of your failed, sick ideology and political correctness getting in the way of your left-wing brains.
That was the Obama administration.
It wasn't under Bush and Cheney that the Dept of Homeland Sec dropped the ball on information concerning 2 people being radicalized on the Internet and their Mosque and then decided they needed to kill people in Boston.
That happened under Obama.
Perhaps if the administration wasn't so concerned about being politically correct, they would have followed up on the intel they received from Russia and others, flagged these Muslim punks, stopped the crime and 4 people would be alive today and 180 others wouldn't have been injured.
Do you REALLY think "compassion" and political correctness is going to win over radical Islams that want to destroy this country WWGD?
You liberal "progressives" don't give a DAMN about protecting this Nation. You think there are better things to spend OUR money on, and you prove it with every budget (that is, when you libs feel like coming up with a budget).

As far as Obama being elected twice, do you even know what "vetted" means? How can the American people find out who Obama was/is when they are fed very little information regarding Obama and his past, and any information that they ARE given is BS, thanks to our lame-stream media.
And the "young people" who vote..............wow. Yes, they are filled with information all right........information that is being fed to them by their left-wing loon Professors.
THOSE are the folks we want electing our leaders......a bunch of brainwashed punks who have no clue what it's like to run a business, have a job, or live in the real world.
Good choice for picking our leaders WWGD!
How old are you? Are you one of these clueless loons brainwashed by their teachers?

Folks like you don't have a CLUE about the "real world" WWGD. And facts, truth, logic and information are a liberals enemy.
LIES and BS are your friend WWGD.
You may as well come clean about that right now.

And where is this "era of advancement" that you speak of?
Are you referring to the "advancement" of wind, solar, and electric vehicles that are so expensive and inefficient that people don't want anything to do with them, and that they would fall apart if it weren't for government support and this administration trying to ram it down America's throat?
Oh wait..............plenty of "green" companies HAVE fallen apart and gone out of business, even WITH government support.
But what's a few billion more tax dollars wasted when Obama is running TRILLION dollar deficits every year he's been in office.

I don't know who the bigger joke is WWGD..........you or Obama.

9mmhipchick 04/25/13 - 02:04 pm

WWGD, the fact is B.O got elected twice by VOTER FRAUD.
Him not being an American citizen (no proof of citizenship) is grounds for impeachment.

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